Social Media Breakfast: Singapore (through the eyes of a bimbo-geek)

Tue, 8 April 2008Wed, 9 December 2009 - Sheylara 14 Comments

If you missed the first ever Social Media Breakfast: Singapore, you’ll really want to come to the next (and subsequent) ones.

It was horrifyingly early (for a Saturday), to be sure. We told everyone to come at 9 am. We were there at 8:30 am to set things up. The bulk of attendees drifted in around 9:30 am. About 10 people from the confirmed attendees list didn’t turn up.

But it was still a good show. Over 40 people came, ate and tagged.

(Hisham managed to collect an impressive number of tags very early on.)

I noticed something very interesting.

During the entire event, people stood around the pool tables chatting…

…instead of choosing the more comfortable alternative.

The couches were largely unused all morning. Only Daryl and Jean seemed to appreciate the seating comfort.

Maybe Jean needed to sit down in order to write on her notepad. You might remember me mentioning in an earlier post that Jean has laryngitis and can’t talk for the next two months.

Rinaz, being the smartest of them all, hogged the bed.

Anyway, people are strange.

But strange people make the world fun. In the first place, the concept of social media breakfasts is pretty strange in itself, especially when you incorporate Jeff Pulver’s personal social networking toolkit.

But I think it was a huge success and people generally enjoyed themselves. I did. I actually brought two camcorders, planning to videotape the event, but I was so busy having fun, getting to know people, chatting, tagging, eating, and everything else, that I just didn’t have time to do any filming.

Michael saved the day, though. He brought his new HDV camera and put together a very nice video.

Here’s Mic with his vidcam:

And here’s Mic shooting my tags:

(Photo courtesy of Aaron Koh.)

And here’s the arm of the OCD, gender-confused ladyironchef, who took pains to arrange all his tags in a neat row.

Of course, the event wasn’t just about tagging. Many good discussions revolving social media and Web 2.0 were generated in just one short morning. Useful connections were made for future collaborations. And a new community was formed, paving the way for more exciting developments in the area of social media in Singapore.

Daryl has a good roundup of the event on his blog.

And here are the people who made this breakfast possible.

From left to right:

Daryl, who pulled the event together.

Derrick, whose idea it was to start this event.

Nabilah, who co-owns Frujch and graciously allowed us to mess up her place.

Sheylara, who prepared the tagging kits and helped in the video.

Ken, who is Caleb’s friend.

Caleb, who was the last-minute mystery sponsor of the event, offering to pick up the tab for everything.

Way to go!!

But I think the most important people in an event are the guests, without whom an event would not be possible.

Thanks to every last one of you who took the plunge and gave this inaugural event a chance. I can’t wait to see you guys again at the next breakfast!

Bring a friend the next time and keep the community growing!

(The tags I collected.)

The Social Media Breakfast was founded by Bryan Person in August 2007 and now operates in many cities in the USA. SMB Singapore is supported and endorsed by www.socialmediabreakfast.com.

I hate Facebook’s Super Wall and FunWall

Sun, 16 December 2007Wed, 9 December 2009 - Sheylara 42 Comments

If you’re not a Facebook user, God bless your merry little soul (pretending that God exists) and please be off on your merry way before you get sucked into the muddy whirpool of senselessness.

Because, today, I am on a crusade to knock some sense into Facebook users who have Super Wall or FunWall or both (duh, people!) installed in their Facebook accounts.

Because — brace yourself now for the revelation of the century — neither of the walls are even remotely super or fun.

Oooooh… noooo! You don’t say!

Honestly, they’re horrendous misuses of Internet real estate. I cannot understand why people don’t see it.

There is nothing super or fun about:

Junk mail, chain letters and forwarded rubbish.
Having multiple copies of the same rubbish on your profile.
Allowing people to advertise their services for free on your profile.

Do you see it?

Ok, see this.

Here’s a screenshot of a random Super Wall on a random person’s Facebook profile.

Do you see now how asinine it is?

Why should anyone give a shit about the travels of Mortimer the travelling bear? Let him buy his own damn plane tickets, man. And I don’t see him “dissapearding” as promised because I’m seeing him on every single Super Wall (and even FunWall).

I’m even seeing multiple copies of him on each wall. Come on, people, don’t you see? He’s not a travelling bear. He’s a photocopying bear!

Okay, now, let’s check out a random FunWall.

What is the matter with people?

Don’t you ever get annoyed having to scroll down endlessly just to try to see at least something that’s of interest?? Why would you want such junk on your Facebook profile? I really don’t get it.

who has a crush on u?…

man this is creepy its called mind reader. send this to every1 on ur list and then press F8 and ur crushes name will appear on ur screen**

Seriously!!!

I dearly want to examine the minds of people who read this and think, “Oh, wow! I’m gonna try this now!”

…

“Hey! It doesn’t work! How fun! I think my friends will love it! I’m going to forward this to everyone because I had so much fun trying it out and seeing it not working!”

Strangle me with a wet rag.

People who install either or both walls, why? How does it enrich your life to have repeated copies of spam on your Facebook profile? How does it enrich the life of friends who are visiting your Facebook profile?

I mean, what benefit does it give?

Does it impress the girls (or the boys) who are viewing your profile? No.

Does it make you more intelligent? No.

Does it save a starving child in Ethiopia? No.

Does it make your Facebook profile look like a landmine about to go off? Yes.

People who forward forwards to other people’s walls, why? Do you think your friend reads/watches them? Will your friend love you for sending them? Do you even realise that the “friend” you’re sending this chain letter to already has three of the exact same chain letter on his wall?

People who create those damned rubbish forwards, especially chain letters, WHY? Chain letters are so last millennium. You’re not going to get a Nobel prize for it and it’s not going to make people worship you and kiss your feet because they passed on your stupid chain letter to 50 people in their address book and, as a result, miraculously solved all their life problems and won a date with Angelina Jolie.

Hello??

The applications are not bad, per se. But people misusing them is bad.

I installed both when I first signed up with Facebook because I thought it was pretty cool being able to draw pictures and post videos on someone else’s profile. One could get really creative and have some fun with it.

But I believe in doing things in a sincere and personal way. If not, there is no point in doing anything, is there? Why waste time doing things just for the sake of doing things? So I drew pictures myself and typed nice, personal messages to brighten a friend’s day.

But I never got anything like that on my walls in return. All I got were impersonal forwards from people who received forwards themselves and decided to send it on to everyone else on their friends list.

I deleted both walls because it wasn’t adding discernable value to my Facebook profile.

I know I can stop visiting people’s profiles or even stop visiting Facebook altogether if the walls bother me all that much.

But that isn’t quite the point. The point is that it irks me that people are perpetuating a useless custom and contributing more rubbish to an already rubbish society of thoughtless, mindless puppets.

So, people, please. Grow a brain and think.