"Human interaction, of course, is pretty damn predictable. We’ve got elaborate rituals for dealing with strangers, thus minimizing the chance of a surprising interaction. (“How are you?” “Good, thanks. How are you?” “Great. Thanks for asking. Have a nice day.”) And then there’s the fact that the vast majority of our interactions are with people we already know, whether it’s family, friends or co-workers. So they probably won’t surprise us, either. The end result is that our social exchanges become tedious and rote. They might be rewarding, but they’re rarely exciting. And this is where ChatRoulette comes in. I’ve only played around on the site for a few minutes, but it seems to me that its allure is inseparable from its unpredictability. Will this new person be a masturbator or a friendly stranger? Will we be rejected or will we do the rejecting? It all reminds me of Vegas, where people are willing to endure big losses for the occasional thrill of a surprising gain."
— Jonah Lehrer on ChatRoulette The Frontal Cortex
1:20 pm • 9 February 2010
"Poke” is the dumbest and worst feature ever invented for a social network. Even worse than that “suggest a match” thing on Friendster back in the dark ages (I still turn bright red and wince thinking of the time a less than socially savvy pal suggested a match for me with the person I had a crush on at the time.) I don’t really like when people lay out “best practices” for social networking like, “oh, she doesn’t @ reply enough people on Twitter.” And “netiquette” very often neglects the fact that introvert/extrovert classifications also exists in the digital world. But no, there’s never a good time for a poke. (Why stop with the poke? Why not call me and hang up before answering? Why not send me a blank email with no subject? Why not blank @ me?)"
— Joanne McNeil, “Facebook is Worse than AOL.” Tomorrow Museum
1:12 pm • 9 February 2010
"…look carefully at a webcam. That’s there. That’s somewhere else. That’s everybody. On the other side of that little glass lens is almost everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you have ever heard of, and even those you have never heard of. In more specific terms, it is everyone who has or will have access to the internet - billions of potential viewers, and your future self among them. Some have called it at once the biggest and the smallest stage – the most public space in the world, entered from the privacy of our own homes. Through it we can reach out to a next door neighbor or across the world … to people we love, people we want to love, or people we don’t even know … to share something deep or something trivial, something serious or something funny, to strive for fame or to simply connect. That seemingly innocuous and insignificant glass dot is the eyes of the world and the future."
— Context Collapse
1:11 pm • 9 February 2010
"Human nature hasn’t changed for a billion years. It won’t even vary in the next billion years. Only the superficial things have changed. It is fashionable to talk about changing man. A communicator must be concerned with unchanging man – what compulsions drive him, what instincts dominate his every action, even though his language too often camouflages what really motivates him. For if you know these things about a man, you can touch him at the core of his being. One thing is unchangingly sure. The creative man with an insight into human nature, with the artistry to touch and move people, will succeed. Without them he will fail."
— Bill Bernbach on advertising in the 80s
10:49 am • 9 February 2010
"When brands turn over the interaction and engagement of their customers to brands, they’re more often than not, losing an opportunity to collect data and insights. There’s a goldmine waiting to be had for the agency that begins to record everything, measure everything, act objectively, and glean insights from interactions and become the data-hub and consumer insights engine for the brand. Unfortunately, no one is moving in this direction because it’s easier to continue flogging a dead horse, for the time being."
— Agencies shouldn’t be trusted to occupy the interaction between brand and customer via bud caddell
10:47 am • 9 February 2010
THIS CHATROULETTE WAS JUST CREEPY GLOWING EYES FOR 30SECONDS (by jshdivision)
4:59 pm • 8 February 2010
