Thing 12: Do You Digg?

Digg, Mixx, Reddit, whatever. I've never felt more annoyed than when this crazy thing called "the internet" was introduced in my office (during my previous career) in about 1995 and I said, "what do we need that for when I can just cross the street and go to the library?" To me the sites look like productivity detractors, not enhancers. I see the little Digg icon often as I'm trolling around and not once have I ever clicked on it or the articles it's attached to.

I posted my necessary article for the sake of the exercise and it took time, precious time, to do it. First the link, then the title, then the description, etc.. And for what? To get a little attention, if any, online? To create a conversation? Please. Pick up the phone and talk to someone about something interesting you've read.

Then there's the whole other, more cynical angle of it all. If librarians are looking at these sites to see what's coming up for reference questions, or what's popular, or whatever, they have to remember that there are people, lots of people, working at PR firms and ad agencies and marketing communication firms all over the world getting their clients and their agendas to the front of these pages in any way they can. It's not necessarily the true zeitgeist.

Perhaps one day I will be proven wrong about these tools as I so quickly was about the internet in general (wow, was I way off on that one!). I do have to say that without the exploration today I probably wouldn't have caught the Tom Cruise birthday video and that made it worth it.

Now more than halfway through the Things. Yay, progress!