2009/7/16 john lewis <johnlewis@???>:
> On Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:50:27 +0100
> "Dr A. J. Trickett" <adam.trickett@???> wrote:
>
>> See: http://xrl.us/be3hnt for details.
>
> I looked at that item and ended up feeling like I'm a second class
> citizen of the web.
>
> I don't twitter or blog, I don't know anything about facebook and have
> only occasionally been pointed at something of interest on utube. I
> don't have a webmail account and find google less than useful lots of
> the time.
>
> Yet I am online 24x7 and use the 'internet' for genealogy research all
> day long. My 'Kingsclere Families' website gets lots of visitors and I
> regularly get emails from people telling me how useful they have found
> it.
... in which case you are /not/ a "second class citizen of the web".
Probably a net (no pun intended) contributor rather than consumer.
I have had exactly the same reservations. There was a [BarCamp] event
earlier this year at Bournemouth Uni that I had considered going to
and then declined because the impression I got was that it would be
all about how to do clever integration of technologies that I'm really
not involved with.
Like you I don't do Twitter, Facebook, Bebo etc. (Although I do get an
increasing number of mails saying "XX wants you to be their Friend on
SomeSocialSite". The most recent one was even from somebody I knew!
But I kind of object to being a statistic in somebody's buddy-count
just because of having once worked with them!)
I've just upgraded my phone after several years and the new one
assumes my 'Favourites' include Skype, Messenger, Facebook, Bebo,
YouTube, MySpace - and it is a non-editable list.
I find it rather depressing that having a LinkedIn account/ blog/
"net presence" are now considered almost 'de rigeur' for professional
credibility in some circles.
I wouldn't say that I feel like a second class citizen of the web but
I think you have raised an interesting point about the way that some
trends in the 'new' internet can appear alienating to some of its
citizens.
'twas ever thus.
