Picking My Nose . . .

by Dick Mac

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a fan of technology and can be relied upon to consider using technology to advance the effectiveness of the municipal government. He's a really smart guy, and although I think he is too often beholden to the notion of market solutions over civil solutions, he generally does a very good job. We are lucky to have him as mayor, and he is the perfect example of why term limits are absurd.

I am a big fan of social media. I was an early pioneer at Geocities in the mid-nineties, used Friendster, then I used MySpace, and now I use Facebook. I have a Twitter account, but don't really know how to make use of it. Either I am not enough of a twit, or I am too fond of the sound of my own typing to limit my posts to 140 characters.

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg spoke a little bit about social media:

The thing that surprises me is why people want to tell others what they're doing day in and day out . . . . And you wonder, No. 1, what on Earth, why does anybody care? Why do people, why would you look at it?

It is rare that Hizzoner is at a loss for words, so his amazement by this trend is clearly sincere.

I do make status updates on Facebook at least once a day. This morning, mine is a take-off of Carl Paldino's now-famous quote about homosexuality being invalid:

Dick Mac thinks our children would be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don’t want them brainwashed into thinking that being an Italian-American is an equally valid and successful option — it isn't."

I don't recall if I ever say anything as specific as "I am picking my nose" or "I am getting coffee"; I try to be slightly more esoteric than that.

What is your status update or tweet at the moment?

Anyway, there's a short article at the Daily News site about Mayor Bloomberg and social media, and it's worth the read:

>Mayor Bloomberg may have his iPad, but hizzoner is no fan of Facebook or Twitter