Amen, Tac. Come join me over here on the fringe, where we still get to tinker and play and make cool stuff. Plus,we have cookies.

Cookies? This sounds an awful lot like the Dark Side. Okay, I’m in.

I like the video, Tac. “Pure, raw Tac in the morning” has gotta be better than most of the AM radio morning crews out there.

RE: social media moving from the fringe, I think we’ve been seeing that more and more as mainstream America (-slash-the-world) picks up on things. But just because you or I may not give a darn about the Black Eye Peas or Bieber Fever in social media doesn’t mean it’s over. Or that we should abandon it. Heck, I didn’t stop liking the Cure when a song of theirs was covered and put in an Adam Sandler movie (not that there’s anything wrong with Adam Sandler movies, but they’re not exactly edgy), so I’m not going to be drawn away from social media because Twitter is a buzzword on both CNN and TMZ.

Just my 2 cents.

Interesting. Here’s my analogy. I used to follow (physically, it was 20 years ago!) a bunch of local Seattle bands. I felt like I was part of a select group of fans that had discovered a talent that most had not. I liked that. As some of them grew larger and larger, I became a little jealous. They were my find, dammit. I didn’t want to share. By the time they were playing Wembley I was often turned off and following the next up and comer. They outgrew me. I don’t mourn the maturation of certain players in a space. I am now fueled by new, cool, tech companies that still boast “Mom” as their primary endorser.
For what it’s worth, I am not a fan of the Black Eyed Peas, either, but it would be cool if you integrated an auto-tuner into your video blogs. : )

In a society that often (usually?) rewards ambition ahead of talent, many of the most-followed people on Twitter or Facebook are not the ones with the most interesting updates, but the ones who transferred their notoriety and audiences from one medium to another.

I think about Mystery Guitar Man, Joe Penna, who is the 6th most subscribed-to person on Youtube. 100% of his following emerged from consistently good content put out episodically, 2x a week.
Then there’s Badbanana, Tim Seidell, who I believe is the only person to truly become “famous” through his content on Twitter alone… 450K followers (then again, his following benefited from mentions/interviews on NPR.) Then I think about how just about any “big name” celeb can arrive and open a verified account on Twitter and eclipse that following in no time- and it makes it all seem like Sisyphean futility.
“I can work my tail off for years building an audience, and a 16-year old kid can sing some bubble-gum song and do the same overnight.” But ultimately, his audience is not everyone’s audience, we’ll be relevant and interesting (cool) to different people.

Cool enough? Well, relevant enough to fit in with your own audience…

Auto tune video blogs. Now that would be cool! lol

Reminds me of the variation of Andy Warhol’s quote: “Everyone will be famous for 15 people.”

Agree. Like I said yesterday, us early adopters aren’t going anywhere yet http://bit.ly/i0t27S but the skater punk in me still can’t help but to complain a little

Thanks for the comment Jon.

I like to start my day w/ a cup of Tac, great video! Like everything else, people take something great and abuse it til all the passion is gone. Speaking of Celebs in social media I hate how most are only doing twitter for sponsored tweets, not that i’d follow kim kardashian anyways.

Yeah, I agree- always took that quote as an ironic slam at the californium-half-life nature of fame. “In the future, it will be possible for everyone will be famous-for at least 15 minutes.”

I think we will always have emerging social channels to flex our geekdom.

GroupMe isn’t quite tainted yet, so I’m pretty happy about that.

The topic you’re talking about here was the impetus for my friends and I starting Socialrazzi.
You might be a great candiate for our efforts of ripping social a new _____ hole over the next several months.

It’s the skateboarder in me too. We like things before they become cool. Not after.

I don’t think one necessarily has to be a fan or a member of that pop culture audience. However, if you’re able to connect the dots and see how mixing one thing with another can result into a desired result, then I don’t see how you wouldn’t be cool enough for social media. I think for the most part, the engagement and being able to see actionable things happen whether it’s online or offline means you’re doing something right.

I’m digging this new direction with vlogging from time to time. Look forward to more.

Bring it!