There’s a scene from Sam Shepard’s 1978 play Curse of the Starving Class that has stuck with me for many years. Characters randomly open the refrigerator door and blankly stare at the contents, only to close the door after a moment without removing anything. We’re not really hungry—we just look to see if there’s anything in the fridge that might interest us, even if we looked just ten minutes before. I believe there’s a entirely new digital form of this now, something which I refer to as empty pixel grazing.
November 30th, 2011
Written by Mark Fairbanks
@markfairbanks
The habit of empty pixel grazing
Tagged with: absent presence, attention deficit disorder, content obesity, Curse of the Starving Class, Digital, facebook, IKEA, klout, Posterous, social media, Tumbler, Tweetdeck
November 24th, 2011
Written by Cynthia Thomas
@deziner
I Am Thankful
I am thankful for… knowing the importance of looking around, and being thankful for what you have. I am thankful for… the opportunity to live a life full of creativity and thought, and the freedom and acceptance to express them fully. I am thankful for… the ability to build off my passion and talents and make it my work. I am thankful for… taking risks, and having the courage to not shy aways from or avoid them. I am thankful…>>
November 10th, 2011
Written by Mark Fairbanks
@markfairbanks
I tweet therefore I am
The lifeblood of social media is human interaction, thoughts and emotions. Forever trying to understand the importance of it on a need level, I like thinking in terms of how all of it fits into the realm of philosophy and human understanding. Doesn’t every tweet come down to this: I matter. With each post, we leave behind digital proof of our existence. Digital has made posting as instantaneous as thinking. How many of us feel that if we stop tweeting, posting,…>>
November 3rd, 2011
Written by Mark Fairbanks
@markfairbanks
Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable
Whether it’s growth, progress, innovation, change, none of it comes without a price. The last three years have been the most uncomfortable period of my professional career. Not that long ago, I seriously thought my best days were behind me. This weekend, I will turn 50 years old and I am here to say I survived being uncomfortable. I got through it, and I love what I do again. This is a short auto-biography of the last few years.
Tagged with: Advertising, change, Charley Harper, creativity, Diageo, Digital, experience design, Fullhouse, idea architecture, innovation, Invisible Creature, kripalu, marathon, Meet-Meme, R/GA, Saul Bass, Shindig, social, technology, Translator
October 27th, 2011
Written by Mark Fairbanks
@markfairbanks
Keeping up with The @Joneses
Wikipedia tells us that “Keeping up with the Joneses” is an idiom referring to the comparison to one’s neighbor as a benchmark for social caste or the accumulation of material goods. As with everything digital, it’s always fascinating to see established human behavior begin to show up (or morph itself) in a new online incarnation. With that, I present Exhibit A: Klout, the ultimate letter jacket for geeks.
Tagged with: blogging, Digital, Google, human behavior, iPhone 4S, klout, klout score, social media, Spotify, twitter
