Wired but not Web 2.0? That's normal ...

Although most U.S. adults have a cell phone, a computer and Internet access, a study says only a small percentage are participating in Web 2.0 activities. (SNIP) Lackluster veteran (8 percent) Been there, done that on the Internet since the mid-'90s and could care less about Web 2.0 or mobile media. Usually fortysomething men (not me thirty-something and grateful) who have a laptop and a broadband connection. E-mail and cell phones are seen as essential for work for these users, and they surf the Web to find information (SNIP - but this last bit just ain't me) as well as e-mail to stay in touch with family and friends, but the interest ends there. (End quote). I honestly can't remember the last time I e-mailed someone for a chat or to stay in touch.

I grabbed this quote to get started with my online communities course because it resonates with where I'm at just right now:

In theory I'm in a place that likes online communities - as places for students to develop their learning and knowledge building skills and to develop their thinking and communication skills and build their computer competencies. As places for us to authentically publish and share our work. But that's about it for me. Paradoxically I've long loved the idea of doing things online (you know sharing interests and so on with like minded people). But in reality I'd rather give it all a miss. I chat online with my wife when I'm 'out of town' and I make posts on forums of interest, but mostly when I'm doing that sort of stuff I also doing something else at the same time. And I ask myself do I multi-task because I use a computer or do I use a computer because I multi-task? Either way I get about this far into a blog post and start to think 'this is rambling, it doesn't make sense, it's an underdeveloped thought process' - all these are things that I don't want to finish off and leave in print. Breadcrumbs of a disorganised mind. At least in a conversation one's ideas can trail off and just fade away into the ether.