the digital delinquents

Oooh, new books! Initially only planned on getting Colleen Jones’ Clout, but after leafing through Seductive Interaction Design, I’m way more excited about reading that.

Where Children Sleep

I’m not sure why we sometimes feel compelled to share how rotten our day or week has been with our online friends. It’s easy to slip into bitch mode, bang out a few heated words into that ever-inviting Status Update box (“What’s on your mind?”), see your rant appear on your Wall, then cross your fingers and wait for a response from your FB buddies. Sometimes we vent because we’re truly mad; other times I wonder if we do it to get attention, to validate a sense of superiority (“I’m right, that idiot was wrong”), or because we just like pity parties.

I struggled for a while earlier because I wanted to say that this has been a shitty week. But of what news value is that? Apart from letting people know that they probably shouldn’t stare if I flare my nostrils at them, why do I think it’s my Facebook-given right to share both the ups and downs of my life, without caring about how it might make others feel? Bad energy begets bad energy. The less of it in our News Feed, the better. So what can we do to distract or comfort ourselves?

My cure arrived in the form of a book, Where Children Sleep by James Mollison. It’s an excellent distraction when you’re feeling all crapped out. The pictures of children from around the world — along with their bedrooms — are telling. There are the lucky ones, born into privileged positions and surrounded by iDevices, while those born into poverty or war-torn countries are stuck for now with an uphill battle with life (not to mention social/psychological problems later on). In light of these less fortunate kids, your problems are probably not so bad after all.

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James Mollison - Where Children Sleep