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This past week, I watched Kevin Kelly’s TED talk on the next 5,000 days of the web mentioned in Everett Bogue’s article How to Achieve Complete Autonomy: Zombie Hunting 101. The following are my thoughts on connectivity, sharing, and identity. Hope you enjoy….
My Plea: I would love it if you shared your ways of Touching the Cloud Without Losing Identity….so please share in the comments once done reading. I appreciate it and I appreciate you…
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The Cloud & You
My fiancée, the wonder that she is, spends a lot of time reading the news feed on Facebook. Partially because I am a recluse, she enjoys seeing that people are actually living a life out there in the wide world without the web. In actuality, the wide world is everything but without the web. They are becoming one in the same as we speak.
Kevin Kelly brought to light in 2007 talk what the web was to become and actually has…even faster than he thought. The web is our eyes, ears, touch and so much more. We have become beings that supply the data for the web to grow and grow stronger than ever every moment. In a way, our life is ours as long as we don’t let the cloud control its every waking moment.
That being said, we still do have control over how much direct interaction our physical lives have with the cloud of the web. We are able to maintain independence (sanity?!) while connecting with the cloud.
Life & The Cloud
Despite where you think this article is going, you are probably wrong. Assuming is rarely accurate.
I don’t mind my life being out there in the cloud. I like sharing (most of) my life. The web has allowed me to find the community and voice I may have neglected had I been wandering aimlessly. My life via the web is not the end of me as long as I maintain a life without the web.
The cloud should not be your life and your life should not be the cloud. They should co-mingle in the dirty, yet fascinating world of the web.
How to Touch the Cloud
A couple times per day, I head out to Twitter and start communicating with those I deem interesting and worthy of my time. I tend to read about an hour’s worth of quality blog content. I may stray over to Facebook. Lastly, I take a look at the world goings via Google News. This whole time, I am touching the cloud known as the web.
You are communicating with the cloud right now. This blog is part of that endless cloud. There is so much involved with this cloud, which can lead to unforeseen circumstances and consequences, that we often are unable to disconnect from the cloud and live in the present reality.
The cloud can become overwhelming. Whether it’s your email or Facebook or RSS feed reader that may be overtaking your actual life, the cloud is beginning to take over your life and your control is harder to regain than one may think.
I love the new Microsoft phone commercials (not so much the phones). They depict societies, fairly accurately, that live within their windows of the cloud rather than living within the physical surroundings. Often, we each forget that we need to connect with both worlds, both clouds.
So how does one actually touch the cloud without losing their identity?
This balance can only be found via practice and understanding of your connected nature to the cloud of the web and life itself.
The following may shine some light on areas you may not have noticed your lack of control of your state…in other words, Where You’re Screwing Up…
- Reliance on connectivity at all times. Must you always have some means of connection to the cloud of the web? Can you go without your phone or computer or internet connection by any tools for any time you so choose?
- Expect others to have the same connectivity as yourself. I hate expectations. I have stopped making them of others and I am slowly weaning off expecting the world of myself outside of my major life principles and goals. Don’t set standards others must meet to connect with you. Connect with them when they are available and if that doesn’t work than move on to someone who does connect at all times as yourself.
With the faults being expressed, it is only fair to provide ways to approach touching the cloud without being sucked in…in other words, How to Touch the Cloud and Run Like Hell…
- Disconnect because life is calling and not just your wife calling. Life is happening and intertwining the cloud is absolutely acceptable, but make sure you are living two lives that morph together and not just the life in the cloud that dictates the life in reality.
- Deeply connect with 1-2 people per day via the cloud and that is all. There are billions of people and distractions online. Instead of trying to make time for all of them (aka doing the impossible), build a deeper connection with a few that will improve your life. Everyday, we walk past hundreds of people, but we rarely try to have a meaningful conversation with them all. Apply this same theory to your cloud connections.
There are plenty of other ways to balance the touch of the cloud. Here are some more that I have seen/learned from smarter people than myself…
- Joshua Becker “prunes his rss reader“
- Courtney Carver “sets aside time for distraction“
- Tammy Strobel “takes digital sabbatical’s“
- Everett Bogue “powers down his twitter“
These are each ways that we can balance. As with most thoughts expressed here and the much smarter lifestyle design blogs, balance and control over one’s life are the all important aspects to life itself. The involvement of the tools afforded to us must be managed or we simply become data that the tools manage themselves.
Without A, B, C’s & 1, 2, 3′s
Kelly notes how our mediums today are seen as the web and it’s many windows. He dually notes that since the time of man, we have had others tools that have built a centralized way of life such as the alphabet and numbers.
For a second, believe that your life did not have language. Do not solely think of oral language, but body language as well. Life would be extremely difficult to communicate. I am not sure that communication would even exist. The same goes today with and without the web. Our lives are so intertwined through the windows of the cloud that we stray down the path of relying on a tool so heavily, our data begins to diminish. Languages, tools, means of communication have their place in life and we must acknowledge their effectiveness and power, both positive and negative sides of such.
Using the Cloud, Not the Other Way Around
The cloud is a powerful tool. Everett Bogue has built a minimalist business that allows him to do whatever the hell he please whenever the hell he wants strictly by using the tools of the cloud. He didn’t build the cloud, as he discusses here with Corbett Barr and Niall Doherty, but he makes the cloud work for him and not the other way around.
The cloud’s potential is that of your own. The cloud could end up being life if we all let it live and stop feeding it data. The same goes for you. You can use this tool to find, morph, create identity. As long as it is just a means to development, use the cloud for all it’s worth.
As always, be mindful of it’s power as you are nothing if the cloud is living your life.
As the Cloud Fades
I want to leave you with what I feel are the most important aspects to life and it’s relationship with the cloud.
- We must always keep creating data for the cloud. The cloud may not exist forever as new, improved tools become available. But as with language, the cloud can have no meaning and purpose without the people. Create data that can be shared with the cloud and you will find peace that the cloud is, fortunately or unfortunately, part of your life.
- Do not depend on the cloud as much as the cloud depends on you. The cloud needs your information to grow. Without you, there is no cloud or at the very least the cloud stops growing. Live life outside of the windows of the cloud and come back to the cloud with new and exciting things to share.
The cloud may always be near, but life should happen whether the cloud exists or not.
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I hope you enjoyed this article. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.
I appreciate your time.
Schucks...This one is super unique. No similar posts.
Hi David,
I like the mantra in your header
This article is a great reminder of how consumed we’ve become with technology and the power it clearly exerts over most of our lives. I do try, like Courtney, to set aside times for distraction, but I admit that I sometimes find it challenging to stick to my own rules. I love your point about not setting “standards others must meet to connect with you”. I often get flak from family and friends about not answering my phone, but they don’t seem to get that I’m trying to minimize distractions when my day is already so full. I’d much rather have them text me and we can quickly say what we need to or if it’s important, I can always get back to them when time allows.
Another great article, David. I’ve always been told I had my head in the clouds… now I can apply the meaning literally, lol. I’m a web addict. I love the constant flow of information. I love learning something new every .5 seconds. I love meeting new people because I suck at making friends outside the cloud. But I’ve begun to notice how much time can vanish while I’m updating my twitter feed. I quit my job, but I’m putting myself on a strict schedule at home to start off with otherwise I will just turn into a couch potato despite my lofty ideals.
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