I’ve been building this app that I’ve codenamed Stalker. (unfortunately stalkr.com is taken) It should be fairly obvious what it does from the name, but was related to an old idea I had when I wanted to pay people (mechanical turk-style) to contribute one-line facts about a person. Sure, “Tyler grew up on Long Island” is rather meaningless, but joined together with 499 other facts that someone paid a nickel each for is $25 worth of “Every move you make, every step you take, I’ll be watching you…”

No big shock here, but there is a FUCKTON of information out there about people. And so what if nobody has yet figured out a meaningful way to categorize it, its out there and creepy.

I hold a firm belief that nearly all internet communication is passive aggressive. (I’ve been talking about this topic in person non-stop for the past several weeks, therefore disproving irony) Imagine a conversation with a wide-eyed, innocent child and his father (around 1990) (see: Lucky Louie, ep 1)

Son: “Dad, why do people do things?”
Dad: “Because they enjoy doing them, like you enjoy playing baseball.”
Son: “But some people just do things to tell other people about them.”
Dad: “What do you mean?”
Son: “Like, you know how some people come home from work and like complaining about how annoying everybody is?”
Dad: “Yeah…”
Son: “Well don’t people do things for the same reason?. Like my friends went to the Mets game this weekend, and I think he enjoys telling everybody that his dad took him to the game more than he actually enjoyed watching it”
Dad: “That’s probably right.”
Son: Well I think that in about 18 years there will be a whole slew of websites on the not-yet-invented-internet for people to share the things they read about, or discovered, or listened to, or are planning on going to.”
Dad: “That’s crazy talk son, but why would they want to share these things with no end, wouldn’t it be better if they formed an opinion instead, rather than just clicking checkboxes to show off whatever new book (or blog) they read or band they heard about?”
Son: “How am I supposed to know, I’m only a kid.”

What this completely pointless and anachronistic conversation is supposed to illustrate is that while people are more interconnected and have more tidbits of information about each other, they don’t actually know each other better. And in fact are doing a lot of things to show how savvy they are.

I seem to be in a bad mood a lot when I come to blog. I get very frustrated constantly hearing about “Hey, this is so cool, the new trailer for so and so is out, or hey, please vote for my video (aware of irony, see earlier post) or check out this great new book I’m reading… It’s like the annoying marketing douchebag who is always talking about how great he is versus the person with genuine interests who doesn’t always feel the need to talk about them.

I went to New York last week and caught up with a lot of friends, which reminded me that face to face communication cannot be replicated no matter how much people interact via other communication mediums.
I’m diverging from any coherent point, so I suppose I’ll finish with the statement that I love the medium (The Internet) but I think it has changed my perception about people. I’m going to go re-read Marshall McLuhan and delete my Twitter account.

It’s been fun. If you want to get in touch, post a comment, or send a message via facebook or linkedin or instant messenger, or sms or email or USPS before the postage rate goes up.

Related posts:

1. Do I miss the internet?
2. Perfectionism
3. Epilepsy Website Hacked – Forward to Flashing Lights
4. State of the Tyler Address.
5. Lucas Kavner has the only muxtape worth sharing

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