I use to think I lived on the technological edge and for a while I probably did.

Latley though, I realized I’m actually out in the suburbs. And that’s ok. Reading through all the many ways that people use the web (we won’t even get into phone tech) to try to relay or collect info is like going through quicksand, there’s so much and you get bogged down with it all. There’s RSS and newsreaders, flickr, bloglines, icerocket, comments, tracks, im, my space, livejournal, feedburner, technorati. If you recognize most of those names, you’ll realize that there’s a lot of crossover, but I have to wonder, is it really necessary. Sure it’s great to see so much neat stuff being done, but it’s overkill, really. Email still works if you need to reach someone, you know?


But all of it is a whole new way of interacting with people you never could have met before, so whole ways of communicating are being invented and not all of them will be around forever , let alone 2 years from now. As others have noted, a lot of it is based on networking, ie meeting people with similar likes and/or goals. Wouldn’t you like to meet all the other people who like that wierd little movie you love that no one else you know has heard of it? or least know where they are and what they’re into, so you can find more media?

Heh, this thing started off as bitching session, but it’s turning into a two minute love. Mostly because as overwhelming as it can seem sometimes, it can all be turned off, you know. Nobody said you HAD to leave on the edge, just visit when you feel like it. ‘Cause a lot of it is great.

What fascinates me about it is the speed of it all how it keeps getting faster. It’s never too much for the edge, things STILL seem slow. Reminds me of a regular test I do with any new, superfast computer that I can get my hands. I immediately open up Photoshop, set the dpi to something insane and try to do something simple, like draw a brush stroke. If that goes quickly enough ie as fast as I’m thinking, then I try something more complex and see how quickly I do that. and so and so until Photoshop begins to bog dow and I see that little progress bar, meaning I have to wait, meaning my mind is having to slow down for the world.

That’s where we’re moving with all this, even if we don’t realize it, even if there’s no set goal in mind. We want everything to go as fast as we can think it, from email, to voice, to searching for info, to creating new things, we want the outer world to go as fast as the inner world. Yeah, we may have been prey for lions and huddling in caves waiting for winter to pass, but screw all that, we’re going to make the world act on our terms.