Recycle Word of the Day - Dither

I've been doing the Facebook thing and the Twitter thing and when combined - as they can be; your tweets end up on your Profile page, which is a pretty good medium for the message and might have been approved by Marshall McLuhan himself if he were still above ground level. Of course Mr. McLuhan should now be seen as a validated prophet and a darn good one at that. Did you know he's the 'Patron Saint' of Wired magazine?

But - I'm dithering, so back to Facebook; I still think that it's an untapped source of great benefit for just about any group you can think of. Or that I can think of. I've searched some of the groups and the early adopters are already out there. Just throw some obscure word/subject into the Facebook search engine and you will probably find a group that has an interest in the subject of your search; usually small groups. So maybe we're all waiting for that perfect communication device; the one we can carry easily and one that never runs out of power and/or signal strength. And maybe we're all waiting for the many social networking groups to come up a common platform so that the whole
world can communicate, seamlessly. That's what I want to see!

Almost all members of our family are on Facebook and we could easily form a 'family only' group if we wanted, but with filters, etc, we already have a family group of sorts that also includes common friends. Some of us communicate with Facebook via Twitter from anywhere and others via cell phone and direct to Facebook. I use the old fashioned desktop computer, but only because I can't go anywhere anyway. If I were mobile again, I would probably like to use a netbook. Or something like an iPhone, if they made one for larger fingers and failing eyesight.

Last, I do volunteer work with an elder group and I'm frustrated by the fact that none, that's zero, are interested in this technology. And I know that it has the power to reduce loneliness for those that are stuck in their homes for reasons of physical decline. With Facebook used in the elder community, they could share so much! Just imagine the groups that they could form and join! And wouldn't that help to fight off depression that is so common in the aging population? It's just a thought…perhaps I'm simply dithering? Again.

Link to Marshall McLuhan