I learned a long time ago that I am NEVER the target audience. As early adopters (if you’re a regular reader of this blog you’re probably an early adopter) it becomes easy to lose touch with reality. If you’re a fellow blogger then you live in a world filled with other bloggers and after a while it becomes a bit of an echo chamber.
Seriously who really cares if Twitter is down?
99.9% of the people on the internet don’t know what Twitter is. But to listen to some bloggers (myself included sometimes) you would think it was the end of the civilized world when “Something is technically wrong.”
I had an old classmate from high school find me on Facebook. After reading my profile she asked me, through Facebook, “What’s Web 2.0?” She really didn’t know. And really why should she care?
Some people like to “unplug” from the internet. While some people may need that I hate it. I like being connected. I do however have a strange little ritual I do a few times a week.
I go to Target or Costco.
Not to shop, but to look at stuff. I’m not people watching either. I do love people watching though. Target and Costco represent the middle of the adoption curve. This is main stream America, love it or hate it. Wal-Mart doesn’t work either because that’s the back slope of the adoption curve. Wal-Mart was the last place I saw VHS being sold.
I like to walk the technology section and think about what those devices were like 5 or 10 years ago, and what’s not there that was 5 to 10 years ago. I like to walk through their video and book sections to see what’s poplar right now. I walk through their clothing section to see how trends from the fringe 5 years ago have translated into main stream fashion.
This is my way of staying grounded. I know what’s happening on the fringe. I know what early adopters are thinking. I don’t know how all this cool stuff will be “watered down” and taken main stream. And it will.
What about you? Do you have any tips for staying grounded? I could really use some more.
I would especially appreciate thoughts from Jeremiah Owyang, Chris Garrett and Chris Brogan. These guys are even more plugged in than I am but still seem to have a good sense of what’s really important.
Technorati Tags: Jeremiah Owyang,Chris Garrett,Chris Brogan,trend spotting,Twitter,reality check,Web 2.0,Target,Costco,Wal-Mart,technology,adoption curve
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I talk with my husband. As soon as I find something new and exciting to me, I ask him if he knows what it is, how it works or why it’s important. As a one man WAH business owner, he’s on the other side of the spectrum from me. The same goes with my group of friends. I align myself with people completely different from me and take a pulse. It’s like building a business team - different pieces (perspectives) make up a solid whole in my circle of friends.
Trisha, that’s a great point. Having friends further down the adoption curve can be very grounding. The problem I’ve run into is that I’ve dragged most of my friends into my world. Maybe I need new friends
Tac, actually, I’ve made it a point to do that! I have several discussion boards I’m on and always accept an invitation to local get togethers to stay in touch. While it can be time consuming, it’s paying off in the relationships I’m building.
My husband keeps saying “do you really need a new friend? Now we have to *do* things with them” - hee hee.
Hey Tac - I’m not one of the guys you mentioned above but I’ll chime in anyway. : )
Seriously, WHO CARES IF/WHEN TWITTER IS DOWN? They are a start up and probably didn’t anticipate this growth curve. I’m sure they will get it together soon. And, if they don’t, we will move on to the next communication vehicle, whatever that may be.
Here’s what I do to stay grounded.
- Turn off the computer, blackberry and play scrabble with my 6yr old.
- work out
- go on a date night with the wifey
- go see a movie by myself (the ones the wife don’t like where people are dying, cars are blowing up, etc.)
I leave my devices at home and attend a local arts event. It might be theatre, performance art, live music, puppet show, an art opening…it doesn’t really matter. It just takes me offline and back in line with other people.
Talk about a dose of non-techie.
Family keeps me grounded, if I want to be or not
My disconnect is running. Even that has different levels of disconnecting. I usually have my ipod and a Garmin Forerunner GPS when I run, so I’m still having sound pumped into my ear and digits flashing information to me from atop my wrist. Some of my most favorite runs though have been when i ran with neither. No drowning out sound, no distance and speed calculations. I don’t know why I don’t do it more often, but I think that is the challenge most of us that are almost always connected face: Pushing away from the buzz.
Family is important. Of course my wife blogs (www.jenxmusic.com, it was my birthday present to her last year) and my 9 year old has a smart phone (Palm Centro, I got my wife one and they were buy one get one free) so I wonder how grounded my family is
David great point about different levels of connectedness. Music itself is a good escape/way to stay grounded.
Funny you should be talking about “grounding” because I just looked at one my favorite quotes last night as I was “grounded” to my computer all weekend working.
“If we truly want to create a life that is grounded in basic well-being, we must decide to commit ourselves to learning what it takes to thrive instead of merely survive.” - Susan Velasquez
Well-being is what I strive for - this means mind, body and soul. I struggle with the body (always feel selfish about taking time for me), but know that it is important to take care of the body or you will literally become a soul.
For me, I think back to my many days as a member of successful sports teams in high school and college. It’s all about basic fundamentals. If you don’t keep those up, you can’t hit, run, shoot, score - it’s all about fundimentals. Today, it’s feeling mentally good about me first - then, I’m able to feed that good mentality to the other core areas of my life. . .husband, kids, friends, family,, work. So, when I’m way out there running around trying to do a million things - usually not one thing well - I know it it time to return to those core fundamentals. It works everytime.
And, if I still can’t get there. . .I take look into the eyes my two little kids and it never fails. . .I say to myself, “what the heck am I thinking.” Get ground, woman - remember what is really important.
.
PS - sorry, didn’t spell well today.
I’m not grounded. I don’t intend to be. I have the future to suss out, and then I’ve gotta package it back into things people can use today. I’ll let others stay grounded. : )
I hear ya Chris. I don’t want to unplug for that very reason. I do want to make sure that I stay focused on what’s truly relevant. What’s going to stick around and what’s just a fad, but I still find it helpful to focus the noise or change frequencies from time to time. I think the echo chamber can get a little stuffy.
Tac: This is a great topic and I wouldn’t have stumbled upon it unless you’d tagged one of my stories - I really have to do better at RSS feeds. Anyway, having a family & a life apart from work is what grounds me. My husband is an intellectual property attorney, former mechanical engineer and my own personal tech support guy, so he’s the early adopter of the family. My teenagers, ages 19 and 15, are both pretty hip when it comes to social networks, etc. - my oldest had a blog before I did and the 15 year old has a high-level “job” in an Xbox clan and claims he could compete on the professional gamers league level, which is kind of scary - so I can’t pretend to be cooler or more in the know that I am because they’ll totally call me on it. And my 7 year old is little enough that we still read books together; this spring we read “Stuart Little” and “Little House in the Big Woods,” and that that definitely grounds me. Besides family, having outside interests like reading, yoga and hiking with my dog, plus having friends who have nothing to do with my online pursuits grounds me.
For more on unplugging, check out Mark Glaser’s article on taking a weekly technology sabbath in his PBS’ MediaShift column:
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/06/digging_deepertechnology_sabba.html
Michelle Rafter
Michelle, You mean you don’t check my site/feed daily for updates? lol
Again, family and especially little kids sure help keep you focused on what really matters, no matter how much you’re connected.
Great comment, thanks for sharing.