by Theresa Stevens on January 5th, 2009
I have a friend who moved to California about five years ago. She was a very good friend, but with the huge distance separating us we’ve kind of lost touch. A few weeks ago, she sent me an email to wish us a Merry Christmas, and I sent one back. Last night, I was playing around on my Blackberry and I noticed she was online with Google Talk. I sent her a message and proceeded to have a 30-minute electronic conversation with her. We got caught up on what’s been going on in our lives in the last year (that was the last time I communicated with her…electronically).
It was great to “talk” with her, but it got me thinking. Do we rely on electronic communication too much these days? What ever happened to calling someone up on the actual (gasp) phone and yakking for an hour? I have friends in their 20s who laugh about how their mom called them to dinner via chat when they were kids. And they were in the same house!!! We got three actual Christmas cards in the mail this year, but I got about 8 electronic cards.
While writing this article, I paused a few times to check posts on Plurk and Facebook. I’m also logged into Yahoo, Google Talk and MSN Live Messenger via a multi-protocol chat client. I have my work email open and it notifies me when a new message comes in. I also have Gmail open in a separate tab in my browser. I have a phone on my desk, a Blackberry on my hip and my personal cell phone in my purse. Is this too much?
Ironically, I’m writing this article to be posted on a blog where people can leave electronic comments to discuss the article. My article is preventing people from having an actual conversation.
This morning when I dropped my daughter off at day care, I watched her playing with her friends and wondered… How many more years will she actually play before her friendships become electronic?
by Andy Laub on February 5th, 2008
Ah, Charter. Oft-maligned, and for good reason: they pretty much suck at life. And yet, we still rely on them to provide our teevee and interwebs, a decision that I rarely question unless there’s a problem. And boy, is there a problem.
It’s expensive! (more…)
by Citizen Wausau on January 4th, 2008
What an amazing year 2007 was. It’s brought about a a lot of change in our community, and in some ways, I myself will never be the same.
A few months ago, I was walking into my friend Forest Young’s drugstore to pick up a prescription. As I entered, I was quickly asked to leave and not touch anything. Why? Was I a loitering miscreant? No, not this time. It was because the ladies behind the counter had just been accosted by a gun-wielding burglar. (more…)
by Dino Corvino on January 1st, 2008
As I sit here on this New Year’s morning, lost in the love of my keyboard, I am faced with questions, and answers, and predictions, and more questions. So I thought I would jump in the pool first, and be the first idiot to take on our virtual Polar Bear Plunge of 2008. A veritable cacophony of randomness brought on by long hours of no work, loss of mental stimulation, and overall sitting still for way too long. (more…)
by Andy Laub on December 21st, 2007
I suppose it’s time for me to chime in on this meme that’s going on. This list represents the hardware/software that brings me to my optimal productivity. (more…)
by Marcus Nelson on December 18th, 2007
In the spirit of the Season – we are continuing to share our favorite online tools and all around geek-ness. As previously mentioned, yes – we are all fans of the little ol’ fruit company from Cupertino. You don’t need to be a hater about it, just appreciate Apple for its innovations if nothing else. In addition to Dino’s list (exception being the Blackberry mention), here’s my quick list: (more…)
by Dino Corvino on December 16th, 2007
The founders of Citizen Wausau (Marcus, Andy and me) are all what you could safely call “technology guys”. We’re Apple guys, brand evangelists, proud watchers of keynotes, and enthralled with gadgetry in general. And because Citizen Wausau was born partly because of this obsession, we thought the three of us would put together a list of gadgetry that we couldn’t live without. We know that the world is turning to this sort of thing, so off and running we go. We would love to hear from you about the things that you guys use on a daily basis, and what they do for you. I’ll kick this off, and I’m sure the other two are already hard at work on their lists.
Everything for me revolves around the calendar. I have an insane desire to manage my time, and make sure I can get to the things and places I want to get to. I somehow think this control leads to freedom, but I do not honestly know. So lets take a look. (more…)
by Andy Laub on November 5th, 2007
A little over a month ago, Citizen Wausau was introduced to the community. We weren’t sure what kind of reception there’d be, or what kind of trials we might face. All we knew was that we wanted to reinvent what community in Wausau could be. There have been some definite ups and downs so far, but CW came out swinging and has been surprising all of us. When the curtain closed on October, we were left with over 4,000 visits and 15,000 pageviews from 13 countries. We’ve been immensely pleased and we owe all of our contributors a heartfelt thanks for sticking with us and helping us grow.
Now it’s time for the next step. (more…)
by Marcus Nelson on October 11th, 2007
I know we’re just getting started here, but I thought it might be nice to introduce some ideas about this new little community of ours. Perhaps it would be important to lead off with this:
The World Is Changing.
That’s what I find so compelling about this medium of social media. As an example, check out the City Pages from last week — there’s a feature announcing this website. Yeah for us! (more…)
