Poet Ponders the Digital

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley February 3, 2014 Deadline March 2014 Issue Social Media Getting Older, Losing Its Cool Social media are losing their “cool” factor, becoming a part of the largely ignored information static in our daily lives. Automated “bots” dominate Twitter, sending out so many tweets that it takes an effort to find any value. A small group of real, human users remain entertaining and informative, but searching and sorting tweets requires too much effort to be fun anymore. If you follow sports scores, news alerts or special events then Twitter is a wonderful tool. My friends who participate in fantasy sports leagues rely on Twitter for breaking news, at least on game days. They seldom send tweets, except to trade barbs with other “team owners” in the leagues. Twitter was supposed to make “texting” more social and more engaging, but the sheer volume of traffic renders Twitter useless. For most of us, hashtags, those “#WordsToFollow” that need a secret decode...

Responding to the following: Select one vlog that you like and describe what you like about this vlog, possibly including a link to or screen shot of this vlog in your post.  Whom do you think is the audience for this vlog and what aspects of the vlog are designed to appeal to this audience?  What video/editing techniques are employed in this vlog and how effective are they? The video I selected, after watching too many others, was a 2004 profile of artist Lillian Colton. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPRYe9xs0x0 The secret to having a good time at the Minnesota State Fair is finding those lingering connections to its rural roots. That means clog dancing, baby farm animals, and of course crop art. Rumor has it, you can see Bjork and Al Franken rendered in seeds this year. But it's not quite the same without legendary crop artist Lillian Colton, who passed away earlier this year.  This video is one of a series produced by Mike Dust for Colton's 2004 exhibition at t...