Spam

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I am sure that we have all been a victim of a spammer at some point in our digital lives and most of us equate spam with email.  However, some of us may be perpetrators of spam and not realize it.  I see spam as being anything obtrusive, invasive and unwanted.  So, unsolicited emails selling me something or receiving an endless stream of email communications invading my inbox is spam in my eyes.

Now, I understand that in the digital landscape an email sales pitch is similar to a “cold call” in the physical space, but at least customize it and pitch something that is relevant to me.  Pitching a new VOIP phone system for my company is irrelevant to me as the only employee and one that communicates without the use of a phone primarily.

An endless flood of postings on a social media network is also spam in my eyes.  If when I view my timeline, feed, etc all I can see are postings from the same person and a lot of scrolling has to be done to see something else, I consider it spam.  I read this post the other day from Marc Ensign, “15 People Ruining Social Media,” and the Vanisher qualifies as this type of spammer in my eyes.  The Vanisher is not the only person that does this.  Rants sometimes take on this form as well depending on what network it is posted on.  I’ve seen tweet after tweet of one long rant broken up into 140 character bites.  For me, it’s spam.

In the past, I have been guilty of doing a bit of spamming.  At the time, I did not see it as such.  I would billboard, posting the same general message, several times a week or day.  My thought process was the more I posted it, the more people would see it and hopefully commit whatever action I was trying to get them to do.  The biggest problem with that, is that was all I was posting.  When I looked at my posting feed, I realized it was all the same.  It looked spammy and I would not follow me if I was someone else.  The second problem is that it’s annoying.  If they are annoyed, they are not going to do anything I want them to do.

From that point forward I started asking myself a few questions before clicking submit, send, post, etc.  “Would anyone care?”  “Does this add value to someone’s life?”  “Is this completely for my own gain, drivel and selfish in it’s motive?”  Then I apply the golden rule:  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  If it still seems like a good idea, then I will click submit, send, post, etc.

Finding Out You Are Not as Smart as You Think

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I am sure this is something that happens to many of us, a moment when you realize you aren’t quite as smart as you thought.  This can happen when someone proves you wrong or when a great idea turns out to be a terrible one.  For me it’s often in the form of a “great idea” that someone else already thought of.  The moment the idea is born, I feel very clever and smart.  The moment I learn that I am late to the party, I feel a little dim-witted.  The moment that I realize that not only did someone else think of it, but so did others and a very long time ago, I feel the size of a peanut.

One example is the community of digital nomads.  When I came up with the idea to travel for extended amounts of time, while still working, I thought I was so clever.  I was also so very late with that idea and not very clever at all.  I found that there is a term for a business that can be operated from anywhere – location independent business.  There is also a term for the long-term or extended-stay traveler that works at the same time – digital nomad.  There was also almost an entire industry of travel bloggers that do just that.  Travel, work and earn money while seeing the world.  In this case, I was late to the party, but being late gave me an opportunity to see what worked and did not work for the individuals that were already doing it.  It made me more prepared when I travelled and worked.

In the above case it was actually a good thing that I was late.  I was late, but I learned something from being late.  The same can be applied to new products and services ideas.  If they already exist, being late will allow you to research the flaws and benefits of what is already existing.  It can help you to make a decision to abandon that idea or improve upon what already exists.  Aha…now I feel clever again!

Bloggers Should Stop Blogging?

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After writing my post about Brain Dumping, I read this post on Christopher Mance’s blog, “Calling for Death to the Daily Blog.”  In it he talks about an article he read from an Atlanta entrepreneur saying in essence, that daily bloggers needed to stop daily blogging.  It is flooding the internet, they often lack depth, and is unproductive.  While he made great logical points for these reasons, Christopher’s take on it, was to continue because his purpose for daily blogging was a personal exercise for himself.

I found it to be an interesting topic and after reading the original article here, I did agree with a lot of his points.  Ultimately though, I felt the same as Christopher.  I have a personal reason to blog.  If you read my Brain Dumping post, you know that blogging has become an unexpected outlet/release/therapy session for me.  I honestly feel that if no one ever read my blog posts, I would be okay because it has become something that I just enjoy doing.  So, I think it rests more on the purpose and the quality related to that purpose.

If you have time, read both articles and if you feel so inclined, leave your thoughts.  Check out some of the discussion in the comments area on both as well.

I’m Already Failing

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We are not even a full month into 2014 and I am already failing with my New Year’s resolution.  My resolution was to make more art (separate from my graphic design) and I thought it would be a great way to exercise and expand my creative muscle.  When I was young, I used to draw all of the time and always had a sketchbook handy.  I stopped drawing in high school.  I went to boarding school for the last two years of high school, and no, I was not “bad.”  It’s a family tradition and my father and several relatives attended the same school (it’s coed).

Being an introvert, living in a dorm and not having a lot of privacy made it difficult for me to draw.  I don’t like people looking over my shoulder while I am drawing.  In elementary school kids would do that and try to guess what I was drawing as I was doing it.  “Is it a dog?” “Is it a horse?” “Is it a lion?” I would give them the stink eye and tell them to wait for me to finish.  Then, I would get the, “oh, it’s a unicorn with Rainbow Brite hair!”  I could not avoid the over the shoulder’s at boarding school, so I just stopped.

I really want to get back to drawing and that was where I wanted to start this “more art” resolution, but I have not drawn a single thing.  Not one line, stroke or erasure this month so far.  Every evening when I am winding down from work, I procrastinate and say, “maybe tomorrow.”  The same thing happens on the weekend.  1 month in and I am failing.  So, I’m thinking announcing it to the world, might shame me into kicking myself into gear and sketching.

After all, I am super rusty and the only way I will get better and find my “style” is if I practice, right?

I have a dream…

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Today is the day the U.S. officially observes Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday.  His most famous speech is the “I have a dream” or Dream speech and today I wanted to share a dream of my own.  A while back for “dream day,” I posted this to Instagram:

I fear that I may never see this day come during my lifetime, but I can still dream that it can come true.  I hate there is a need to differentiate between people.  Why can’t we just be people?  Or maybe instead of a descriptor that is based on race, gender, religious belief or sexual orientation; we used positive adjectives?  Instead of me being seen as black female Colleen.  How about happy Colleen?  Always trying to stay positive Colleen?  Or use the descriptor that person puts out?  Freelance graphic designer Colleen.

When people ask me about myself, I don’t say, “well I’m female and I’m black, my religious beliefs are…”  That’s not how I describe myself or introduce myself.  Most people don’t describe themselves based on those attributes either…unless that is how they want to be known.  I would love to see a day when if someone asked, “do you know Colleen?”  The standard answer would be similar to, “Graphic designer Colleen, yeah I know her.”  🙂