I’m sure you are wondering why I have such an absurd and arbitrary video posted. Well…these ridiculous videos gain viewership. New social networking butterflies see a funny video, they may decide it’s funny enough to add you on Facebook.  If you are added on Facebook of course they would follow you on Twitter…the list goes on.

Looking back and pondering social media, my experience with it, and the way I have seen it take a positive effect I can’t help but remember CreateathonCHA. I had the pleasure (unbeknownst to me at the time) of working on the documentation team.  Our mission was to continuously update five social media outlets every hour, on the hour. These outlets being Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and a WordPress Blog. Being a social media critic, at the time, I was wondering why I hadn’t been put on the environmental graphics team or the print team. Wah Wah.

It turns out that I could not have been more wrong about social media (duh). That long 24 hours we spent together made me realize that  A) I really did like it and B) it can work for a special cause or business in an incredible way if used properly. Since CreateathonCHA I have become convinced that a blend of strategy, personality, creativity, and statistical measurables can go a long way in the social media realm. If you don’t believe me please feel free to check out some of my favorite articles I have been reading to entertain myself.

Want some insight on how to REALLY utilize your account? Check out  10 Free Tools to Make the Most of Twitter

How about some strategy? Check out How to Build a Twitter Following From Scratch or PR News Q&A with Jason Falls: Business Strategy Comes First, Then the Tweets

Freaking out about the job? Try these: You’re the entire social media marketing team. Now what?  or  for all my infographic lovers Infographic: The Social Media Strategist

I hope these articles will be helpful to you.  If not, at least you were able to enjoy a comical video.  If the video wasn’t comical to you…perhaps you should brush up on your inner nerdness.

Over the past few days I have been reading Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino and Twyla Tharp’s, The Creative Habit.  In addition to my standard 40 hour work week at the office, I have begun making a habit of creating a piece of “art” (if you will)… The exercise should only last about 30 minutes, and it is generally inspired by my choice of book or article. I intended on posting my first quick creative exercise a few nights ago, however, sleep won the battle.

Ironically enough, I came across a TED talk given by Kate Hartman on human communication which immediately led me back to the 30 minute doo dah I constructed a night ago.  The sentence from Calvino’s, Invisible Cities reads, “All these beauties will already be familiar to the visitor, who has seen them also in other cities.” A vague sentence, but one that struck me as intensely true.

Being actively involved in communication, human and technological, most of us are introduced to countless images that desensitize us from fully experiencing something new. Well, Kate Hartman touches on this a bit in her ability to dissect our common forms of communication and cleverly attach wearable devices to mediate and provide for a totally unconventional and new form of communication with the self, other humans, and the natural world around us. Give it a watch. It will be worth 10 minutes of your day. 

Lucky for me…I can be a bit stubborn.  I broke down that door and began reading again. Reading A LOT. I have also been watching TED talks, looking at artwork, looking at my old artwork and past writing. Shwing! I’m back on track. Motivated to do what I like to do best: learn.

Now, when I say I’m back on track I do not mean I am Carla Shoopman, Graphic Design Extraordinaire! Probably more the the contrary, but Paul Arden’s It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be gave me hope.

Now that I have briefed you on my silent months, I will now entice you with a link to buy the book,  It\’s Not How Good You Are, It\’s How Good You Want To Be and will be back to write about something Carla-ish soon.

Here we go…

French philosopher, Jean Baudrillard argues that we live in a era in which “signs are no longer required to have any verifiable contact with the world they allegedly represent” (Baudrillard 55).  He uses the term ‘simulacrum’ in describing the nature of a contemporary society that is constructed out of models, or simulacrum, “which have no foundation in any reality except their own” (Thompson 244).  This production of images, with no attempt to base their meaning in reality, results in a new social understanding of meaning and birth of a cultural identity that is rooted in the consumption of images and signs.

The journey to discover personal and cultural identity is composed of endless experiences,concious and subcounsious. We strive to create a sense of belonging through labels and stereotypes, but nothing is black and white.  Identity becomes a cycle formed through many connections: social, cultural, sexual, religious, idealist, musical, cinematic.  Nothing is stagnant but the self. Identity is the creation of a lifetime. Always in orbit and never at rest. Your many faces combine into one.  Attempting to define a single identity in this simulacrum society is gray, composed of so many black and white facts, labels, and stereotypes that they become fused and unclear.

So I drifted.  Winds and currents decided where I went.  Time became distance for me in the way it is for all mortals—-I travelled down the road of life—-and I did other things with my fingers than try to measure latitude.  -Life of Pi, 193