Posts Tagged ‘online experience’

  • Hello World: I am so alone here on the internet.

    Lately, there has been lot of bizarre writing on how the hotspots of the internet, be that Facebook or Twitter or anything else, is bad for you.  The Guardian covers some of the fluff here.

    I must admit I am beginning to tire of the headlines, formulaic as they are. Apparently, Facebook can kill, divorce you,  deprive you of good old fashioned hugs, eat your pet and so on. (OK, so I made up the last one – slap me!)

    Twitter is even more disastrous – it can give you cancer as social isolation (read interacting in online environments) alter our genes.  (PDF link to piece of sensationalist research)
     I quote:

    One of the most pronounced changes in the daily habits of British citizens is a reduction
    in the number of minutes per day that they interact with another human being. Recent his-
    tory has seen people in marked retreat from one another as Britain moves from a culture of
    greater common experience to a society of more isolated experience. She is in good com-
    pany, as Americans too step back from one another in unprecedented magnitude.

    I feel like crying. For what exactly does it mean to interact with another human being?

    Every day I take the tube to work. Every day, there a millions on that tube. Every day, I stare at people while I hardly interact with anyone. Unless I bump into them, in which case they’ll let out some mean hisses before they turn their backs at me.

    Every day, I go on Twitter. Every day, I post replies to people who talk directly to me – people I know, people I don’t know. Every day, I respond to someone’s tweet with my own thoughts on a subject. I ask for favours. I return favours. We make jokes, we laugh, we share, and sometimes, we even meet up.

    I confess – I can’t hear their voices. I recognize them only by the way the present themselves (yes, those weirdly creative avatars or close up photos). And I can’t touch them (mouse clicks don’t count, do they?). So I guess, the moral of the story is this:

    All this time, I’ve been fooling myself. I’m retreating from the world rather then getting closer to it. In unprecedented magnitude.

    11 Comments

    11
    Elin Sjursen By Elin

    19th February 09

    11 comments

     Made by Many

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  • Fashion Swap – we should all be stylish as we (credit) crunch

    Want to look great during the credit crunch? Tired of too much clutter in your wardrobe?

    This weekend, I’m taking some of my closet treasures to The Look’s Fashion Swap. Really love this idea – bring up to 10 pieces and get points to shop other people’s stuff next weekend when the swap begins. They’ll be selling bags to support Jo’s Trust as well – for only £2.

    But I’m bummed that you can only bring 10 pieces this weekend, although I guess this makes it easier for the organizers and also ensures that the standard is high (better stuff get more points). So since I’m first clearing my closet, I’ve been looking online for a swap site based on a similar model.

    I think there is a gap in the market here.

    Most sites connect users and let them swap items directly with each other  – but this makes it really difficult to swap! You’ve got to be the same size, you’ve got to like what the other person offers in return… and that’s not likely to happen in a snap. Which is what you’d expect from an online experience. Other swap sites copy ebay – swop or buy – but to me, it’s not swapping when money is involved.

    A few sites I came across:

    What’s Mine Is Yours is a beautiful, fun site for swappers, but with all the above restrictions.

    Swishing is a service which will let you create a swap event and invite friend via email – but you swap offline.

    Swapit’s model comes close, but it’s not a fashion site, the content is dreaful, the site is busy and complicated to use. You also need to buy “swapit” points to “swap” items – which isn’t really swapping, is it.

    I’m convinced there is a market for someone to create an amazing swap system.  We’d send our stuff off to them – they’d evaluate it and decribe the item’s condition before posting them online. When swapped, they’d send it off to a new home and credit our accounts. I’m paying for Flickr to store my photos, so why would I not pay for an account on a fashion site to store my clothes?

    If you know of anything like this online, please leave a comment!

    9 Comments

    9
    Elin Sjursen By Elin

    23rd January 09

    9 comments

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