I Have an Urgent Blog Post, But You Can’t See It

Sometimes we forget the power of the headline, the grabber, the opener, the hook. Our message is important enough to be passionately shared with passerby’s. Somehow we have to get the attention, today’s scarcest resource, of our prospect before they go on with their busy day. And if you are lucky enough to receive attention-offering-bystanders, will it be worth their time to read your message? Is it for a decent cause? Can it change their life? Do you call people to action? Will they feel better after they’ve acted? Will you still have your self respect?

Watch this and reflect…

Swimming the Channel: Podcast Underwater

Yes the AquaCast is here. Soon swimmers everywhere can tune into your podcast. Freestyle French! Bach to the back stroke. Madame Butterfly during the…well…butterfly. The Social Media Swim is here!!

Popsci gives us 20,000 Channels Under the Sea!

From Gin to Linkedin: The Zoned out are Tuning in

I’ve just been pointed to this fascinating post on social/cognitive surplus. (thanks Seth)

Turns out the industrial revolution produced the “gin cart” as a coping technology for the slaving factory masses. Gin carts filled the street of London, numbing the dehumanizing pain of mindless factory work into submission. The 1800’s lacquered workforce lubricated the march of industry. But it also created what we call the institutions of industrialized society; public education, museums, libraries, etc. When you have all those people urbanized, the social surplus had to eventually extend beyond inebriation into other outlets.

As the efficiency of industrialized society produced more free time, the gin cart became television. This new lubricant oiled things into the late 20th century. Television, and I would argue, commutes are now less and less cognitive heat-sinks as we make our way into the 21 Century. Cognitive surplus is finding a new outlet. Wikipedia, for instance, has taken 100 million hours to produce. Where did that time and attention come from? Former TV viewer’s cognitive kinesthetics.

We are at the beginning of a new age of sorting through the complex issues surrounding this new cognitive surplus. Yes, surfing the net can be a time sucker like TV, yet it is not passive. It is interactive. It is social. All these blogs! All these viral videos! All these podcasts! All these conversations. The microeconomics and the peer to peer bartering. It all adds up to a confluence of incredible cognition. The exodus from TV generates the time to create a wikipedia, the social media explosion, and hopefully a more involved citizenry.

The link above points out that 1 Trillion hours of TV is still paralyzing the world population yearly. So we are at the beginning of something big. Think about shutting off your TV and using your own mental superfluity to do something remarkable. Something engaging! Your media channel may be one of the first gathering places as the masses start passing up the gin cart.