An Introduction to the Wasteland

– Identity, Memory and Urgency in the Cloud Age

Confession #44: My Head is in the Cloud
How could she possibly not know her own boyfriend’s telephone number? It must have been the trauma of being hit by a car. But then I thought about it for a few seconds, and I realized that – without pulling out my iPhone – I don’t know her telephone number either.

Confession #67: Say Hello to My Little Friend
As the realtime, social web has erupted, so too has my transition from being a dealer to being a dealer and a hardcore user. I’ve been denying this reality for years. I easily convinced myself that I wasn’t the Nurse Jackie of the internet. I told myself I was just taking a little taste to make sure I understood the product I was serving out to others — the civilians, the suckers. But it was a lie.

Confession #55: I Walked the Brooklyn Bridge Without Facebook
This was an era before the internet became an umbilical cord.

Confession #48: We All Have Photographic Memories Now
McEnroe has never watched the video of his dramatic 1980 Wimbledon final against Bjorn Borg … He doesn’t want to take the chance that his memory of the experience will be altered or even replaced by a new memory of the video version of the event.

Confession #50: The Cell Phone Time Machine
My dad shook his head … “Can you imagine having a job so terrible that you can’t even get away from your boss long enough to eat your lunch. They make him carry around that contraption.”

Confession #72: I’m Being Followed By My Life
The web won’t let the present become past. Welcome to an era when junior high lasts forever.

– Privacy

Confession #46: Is the End of Privacy the End of Shame?
I was eleven and sitting in my child psychiatrist’s waiting room. The door opened. And there was my worst nightmare – a kid from my school walking out of the same office where I was about to walk in.

Confession #63: Are We Really Dumb Zucks?
The only privacy policy that really matters is your own.

– Generation TMI

Confession #71: Happy Birthday From Me and My Son’s Dentist
Facebook has destroyed birthdays – and my one and only social skill.

Confession #35: You’re Boring Your Grandmother
There’s an old Yiddish saying: Words should be weighed, not counted.

Confession #60: Like, Whatever
What does it mean to “like” something?

Confession #28: I Don’t Really Care Where You Are
There are an increasing number of you who suffer from a major case of Waldo Envy (you’re convinced people care where you are).

Confession #52: I Broke Up with Jenny McCarthy. Please RT
There’s no such thing as TMI, only TMC (Too Many Characters).

Confession #20: The Thiry Year Swim
The photo and the words would be equally meaningful whether I shared then at that second or if I at least waited until my feet were dry.

Confession #58: It Was the OKest of Times
First lines of novels in the age of Facebook

– Media in Age of Twitter

Confession #32: Kevin Smith is Too Fat For One Twitter Account
Are we looking at a new ballgame where a single man (or double man, if you believe Southwest’s side of the story) can use the power of social media to bring a mega-corporation to its knees?

Confession #29: I Can’t Read Anything Longer Than This Headline
After a decade of browsing, blogging, linking, clicking and Tweeting, I find it nearly impossible to focus on a book even when I try to recreate a reading environment that mirrors a more technologically simple time.

Confession #62: The Bad Man Lurking in Mountain Lake Park
Social media makes the sharing of information so effortless that — in the moment — it’s often easier to share than to deliberate.

— Addictions (My Street Cred)

Confession #47: I’m a Web Analytics Junkie
There’s Springsteen on stage in Jersey belting out Born to Run. There’s Obama on election night in Hyde Park … And there’s you in your undershorts, fists pumping in the air, awash in the glory of the coming of the traffic.

Confession #51: I Kissed an iPad and I Liked It
Then my wife said: “I hate to say it, but I wish they came out with this before we had kids.”