On July 25th, 2007, I created my first blog post. It’s hard to believe it’s been five years and a lot has changed in that time. The focus of CRUCES has shifted with digital culture and I’ve been very lucky in that my passion for mobile/social & location is now at the forefront of marketing’s collective consciousness. This of course is not the only thing that has changed in that time. Below are some of the other things that have changed.
The computer got personal – The PC was basically a very powerful typewriter until it got connected to the Internet. The Internet then transitioned from being information-based to being social-focused. Sites like Facebook had us all sharing with our friends online and quickly became the number one on-line behavior.
Smartphones & Tablets made it more personal – These devices are with us throughout the day. More so than a PC has ever been. I’m never more than three feet way from my iPhone and my iPad has replaced my laptop as my personal computing device.
We’re all a 24/7 employees – This used to be true, only if your salary was over a certain dollar amount, but it’s now everyone. This is a condition of the economy as much as the computing anywhere behavior. I’ve posted about the Over Extended Class and the devices that we all carry make this a reality.
We no longer suffer from multiple persona disorder – As work goes from 9-5 to 24/7, the lines between professional self and personal self are blurred. We are becoming our jobs and our jobs are becoming our passions. (This makes personal branding much simpler and yet more complex. This also makes it much easier to get up in the morning.) Think Robert Scoble . . .
The Internet is no longer about reading – When the Internet came to be it was about information and the book metaphor was in full effect. Hence the web “pageâ€. The web is now about rich content with images and video leading the way. (This was pointed out with Chris Anderson’s article in Wired, 2009, The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet.) This makes sense given the fact that the PC/smartphones and tablets are much more like a TV than a book. (Although the iPad can be very book-like.)
Perspectives are now digitized/shared – As we go through our daily lives we share images on Pinterest. We talk about the movies we’re watching on GetGlue. We take artful shots on Instagram and maybe shoot some video on Viddy. If you look at the content that’s created/shared by an individual, you get a pretty good feeling for who they are as a person. You start to understand their perspective.
Mobile/Social/Real-time is becoming the default state of the Internet – I could rattle off a bunch of stats but won’t!
This would be an enormous amount of change for 10 years, let alone five. All this since 2007!
This evolution has obviously impacted blogging. Blogging has become more focused. People don’t have time to read long posts. (Yep. This is really funny if you made it this far down!) It’s more expressive and maybe a little less informative. It’s more about pictures (images/infographics), videos and less text. I’m not sure I can get it down to Seth Godin’s word count but will work on it.
- With this in mind, you’ll be seeing some changes to CRUCES in the coming months. You’ll see:
- Images from my Instagram account
- Tweets more prominently placed
- Video from Viddy
- Digital collages from the Ptch
- Quotes
- Food from Forkly? Could be . . . unless its Taco Bell . . .again
- Check-ins on Foursquare
You will continue to see
- Original content
- Analysis of the mobile/social/location industry
- News
- Infographics
As I reviewed these features, I feel compelled to move to Tumblr. Tumblr has allowed many people to express themselves across multiple mediums. True. You can do the same thing with WordPress, but it’s simply not in WP’s DNA. The goal is to get all of the content that I create into one silo. To create a robust representation of me.
Viva le Evolution!
