Social Media IS Real Life
By Molly FlattMore evidence that social media is not some way of avoiding real life by poking people in a virtual world. Michael Calore’s post about how users are manipulating Twitter’s API reminds us that mashups go well beyond public tools such as Twitpic and Tweetcube to serve practical purposes rooted in our daily lives:
“Programmer Ryan Rose rigged up his washing machine to send him a tweet when his clothes are done. He just follows his machine’s twitter account and he knows when to go downstairs and move his undies to the dryer”
See Rose’s feed here and read about more idiosyncratic Twitter apps in the full article.
We no longer see social media platforms as places to talk and share; we see them as real tools which we can hijack and personalise to impact on our offline lives. The online/offline split is a fallacy dreamt up to simplify marketing budgets.
12/02 Postscript: another nice summary of Twitter mashups here:
Top Twitter Tools 2009
