Week 6 - Thing 14

Technorati and Tagging

Thoughts and reflections.

I've already brushed on this subject in previous posts but will be more specific in this one.

Technology is an excellent tool to be used in education and everyday life. However, it is a tool and should remain so imo. While I love being exposed to new technology and methods at the moment I feel that we're being exposed to too much of it. Ergo, we have to pick and choose what works for us and what doesn't.

And that is what I think this program so far does for us. It exposes us to a small percentage of what is available and allows us the option to embrace what we need and/or want. I don't think it is the intention of SLL to tell us we should use all these tools.

I've used the internet and computers for a long time and know how addictive forums, blogs, RSS feeds etc can be. One thing we all need to avoid is computer time burnout. While it's all fun and games and very interesting initially, if we're not careful, it can be detrimental as we spend too much time on the computer. We have to limit our time and balance it between what is important and what is fun. Once we can do that within the limit we set for ourselves, all these tools will be an excellent addition to our toolkits.

One of the coolest things is to get notified that someone has responded to one of your posts made on your own blog or forum or someone else's. After all, we post stuff not for ourselves but for others to read. We then want to see what they wrote and perhaps respond to it. Herein lies a problem though. I used to read many forums about all sorts of different topics. Games, politics, business, religion and other topics that peaked my interest and sometimes I replied to someone's post. Of course in the olden days before RSS feeds, I had to check back regularly and see if someone replied and if they did, I would read it, and perhaps respond to that reply. It got out of hand and soon I was spending more time replying to posts than I was reading new ones. Since blogs and forums are seldom moderated for content other than vulgar language, some people would just post stuff to cause trouble. People like this are called trolls and all they do is hang around forums to cause grief by posting inflammatory replies to your comments just to get a rise out of you. This is called flaming. I soon learned from this and limited my posting to only a few small forums with excellent moderators who actively limit trolls and flames.

This can be avoided in two ways. First you can post your comments and don't read the reply. But if you do that, why post in the first place? Or second, just resist the temptation and don't reply at all. I've learned to do the latter. It saves a lot of time and grief.

Wow, long story. But this is the reason I don't tag and I don't have a watch list. For me, RSS feeds and regular bookmarks are quite sufficient.