So last night, as I was twittering while reading a book, watching tv and returning phone calls/text messaging I wondered if 10 years from now, there may be cyber-rehab for all of us who are superconnected *allthetime* and addicted to it.

Naturally, I threw this theory out to my twitter peeps and not surprisingly, a few people thought they'd be ready for cyber-deprogramming group. My pal Connie Reece quickly sent a tweet alerting me I'm a candidate for Socnet Rehab.

Now, while Socnet Rehab may be a clever spoof, I really suspect that cyber-rehab isn't far away. Many of us *are* addicted to our communication tools, as crazy as that may sound. Withdrawal from social media communities can result in depression, anxiety and yes, in severe cases, even panic! Even more telling, as more and more entrepreneurs make money via social media and online/mobile platforms, they have more money to spend on access points to their addiction. They also have money to pay for costly rehab programs.

My question is, what do you think the gateway drug is for us cyber/tech-addicts? Was it e-mail? Text Messaging? Will we have to swear off mobile phones (please God, no).

I hope we can get a group rate somewhere. And they'd better have a hand surgeon on-hand. I don't know about the rest of you, but my carpal tunnel is getting worse; I'm going to need surgery upon check in.

I'm excited to be a part of a new community movement online, that started in Twitter. Last week, two of my Twitter friends, Connie Reece and Laura Fitton, started tweeting about PEA-vatars. The next thing I knew, I looked at my Twitter page and it was populating with Twitter friends who also featured avatars with peas. I learned that the PEA-vatars were being adopted for fellow Twitterer and bloggerSusan Reynolds, whom had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. Susan had changed her avatar to a photo of a package of frozen peas and explained that the meaning behind the image was that she used a bag of frozen peas on her sore breast after several biopsies. To show my support for this member of our Twitter community, I quickly jumped aboard and created my own PEAvatar.

Not even a week has passed and peas abound in Twitter avatars. Connie Reece and Laura Fitton and a few others no doubt, even created a "PEAple" Twitter account, which they are asking members of the community to "follow" and they use to share news about Susan and the PEA-movement. On December 21st, The Frozen Pea Fund will go live, and anyone will be able to donate money via this site to help raise money for breast cancer research.

I'm excited to be a part of this real-life, positive social media movement. I think this is great example of how a global community can connect to support each other for no reason other than helping someone who needs support.

I'll keep you posted on our progress but I hope you'll join in and participate!

Give PEAs a chance:)

I've noticed a trend among the most popular social networks/communities online that is disconcerting to me; I'm calling it the McDonaldization of social media. Platforms and communities that I have used and participated in because of their different services over the last few years, such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Plaxo have moved away from their initial core services and become everything to everyone. What's even stranger about this trend, is that somewhere during this evolution, they morphed into each other, becoming this MyFaceLinkedPlaxo that I can no longer tell apart.

I don't know if this is a case of a Silicon Valley Meetup gone wrong or if one designer had a great year winning business from all the top communities, but everything is looking the same to me anymore, right down to the common denominator of blue and white templates.

Even worse, this blurring of the product/service line confuses me on the products. I no longer know which community does what, best anymore. When you do everything, can you really distinguish yourself as doing any one thing well?

It's almost as if social media has become the beast that we ran from: mass media. We left mass media because they weren't speaking to "me," they were speaking to everyone about everything. Think of The New York Times "All the news that's fit to print," versus our online news moguls like Digg that started as just tech news. Now, McDonalized social media properties are all offering the same fast food social media products, with different marketing campaigns and Madison Avenue taglines assigned.

"Plaxo keeps you in-touch and up-to date!"
"Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you."
"LinkedIn: Relationships Matter"
"MySpace: A place for friends"

Sounds a lot like: "Burger King: Have it Your Way" or "McDonalds: I'm Lovin'It," doesn't it?

I worry that just one year after Time Magazine Named "You" as person of the year, social networks have forgotten about us.

I also worry that we are ignoring history and the valuable lesson of hubris. It's only been a few years since we were misled and misinformed by MSM's Jayson Blair, leading even more people to cynically defect from MSM media and seek truth by reading more news sources online. Yet, here we are just a few years later, watching Mark Zuckerberg similarly trip up in his own hubris, in what seems to me, his abandonment of his Brand's core audience and product because of greed.

Is social media becoming the new "corporate america"? Worse, are we allowing them to become this? Like sheep, will we simply graze, nod and follow? What's the alternative to a social media world that sells out? Where do we go next? Or, are do we have a chance to save social media and not make the mistakes of msm? I'd love to hear other thoughts on this.

I attended the Cultural & Heritage Tourism Alliance conference held in Seattle about a week and a half ago. Seattle is a favorite destination of mine, and visiting during the holiday season did not disappoint. They do wonderful job lighting up the city.

I was there to speak about Philly and how we are using social media to connect with travelers, but I really felt like I was schooled by some other smart session leaders.

In the morning, we heard from Glenn Kelman, President & CEO of Redfin, who was a breath of fresh air. This guy is the CEO of a healthily growing business, but he hasn't lost site of what's important: his site's users. He knows which users are cult-like in their devotion to the site and periodically reaches out to them directly and personally, via email, shares things like new features they are thinking about adding and asks for those loyalists feedback. And he LISTENS to their feedback. That's engagement.

Cari Guittard, Executive Director, Business for Diplomatic Action, talked a tough topic, "The State of America's Reputation and How it Affects Tourism." I applaud her for starting by acknowledging Zakaria's recent Newsweek story titled "America The Unwelcoming." If you haven't read it, I strongly encourage you to do so. It is an alarm bell sounding for all Americans and our economy, which is largely reliant nationwide on tourism dollars. The basis of the story is built around the Commerce Department finding that "the United States is the only major country in the world to which travel has declined in the midst of a global tourism boom." This, as the dollar drops against many foreign currencies.

She showed us Discover America Partnership, which is a site targeting businesses and individuals, seeking to connect with them in a big enough way that inspires them to act as positive WOM ambassadors for the US when they travel. I like the idea, the execution underwhelmed me. I felt like the red-white-and-blue of it all was too establishment to win over someone like me, who travels abroad and doesn't politically align with the Bush Administration. Design-wise, I think the header graphic wastes too much of the page and looks like a McDonald's commercial (an image that I would think we'd want to get away from overseas).

They did much better on their "consumer" site, world citizens guide. I like the design, the animation and the content here. Do click on the "100 People" tab - absolutely brilliant educational application. Simple, easy to comprehend and to me, thought provoking about "my" world vs the global world we all share. I can see why they won a Webby. To win another Webby, I think they should refresh this site with a area for a community. A place for people to converse, speak, listen and learn. Or, if they aren't equipped/ready to build their own community, join a pre-exisiting social networking community that will better connect them with "connected" citizens; be present and participate in a NUMBER of those communities. We're already there, so rather than working relentlessly to convert us, come JOIN us. Get in the conversation. Sure, those traditional media hits are great for some people; but many of us employ the internet as our default news source. We're missing your 60 Minutes hits, unless it's recapped on Gawker or you post it on Viddler.

Revolution isn't just occuring overseas. We are in the midst of a global social revolution. The world has changed, whether we like it or not. So marketers (yes, even you, USA), either get up to speed and join the new world or let it pass you by, but understand, the global social revolution is in full swing and there's no turning back now.

Well, I did it. I finally did it. I deactivated Facebook.

I have been angry with Facebook for a while now. I was angry when they started publishing our feeds; I didn't need all my friends seeing a 2am scribble on another friend's wall. I was angry when they abandoned their core audience and their brand equity by opening the community to everyone and their grandmother.

And then came the widgets. Jesssssuuuuuuuuuuuussssssssss. The first pirate invite was cute. The next 250? Not so much. And the vampire bites? Never cute, never fun. Just. SUPER. Annoying.

And then they decided to split things up: individuals here, bands and brands there. OK. But did you need to delete the pages of Brands that were already in-community WITH NO WARNING, OVERNIGHT, after you made the announcement, Facebook? That's like breaking up with someone you live with and not giving them a chance to pack up - just throwing their shit out the window and on the street!

And then came Beacon. With this, it's almost hard to believe that Facebook started out as an Ivy League community, although I'm Jesuit educated and we believe we're smarter than Ivy anyway, so I guess it shouldn't be that surprising that a bunch of Harvard kids could eff up marketing so hugely in this day and age. Rather than even tiptoe in the stupidity of their "opt-out" answer, I defer to Chris Heuer's excellent post on that topic.

So, I tip my hat to my friend Colin, with whom I've bitched, lamented and threatened to do this for many, many months, but whom beat me to the punch to it earlier today and I bid adieu to my Facebook friends. You can find me on Twitter, here, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo and many other places but you will no longer find me on Facebook.

Good riddance and AMEN.