social validation Archives

So it used to be a case of having a thought, and then deciding whether to act on it. Now that’s changed as I have to:

Tweet it with a short link and hashtag
Then Facebook it, ideally with a picture
Then give it a businesslike description for LinkedIn.
Then +1 it, with a few more words
Then Tumblr it, ideally with the picture and a link
Then blog it here, with a lot more words
Then Stumble that post with a nice description
Then bookmark it with Diigo and Delicious
And maybe bung it on Reddit, Digg or HackerNews.
Oh, and maybe any relevant old school forums

And then I need to monitor all of those sites for social validation that it wasn’t a terrible idea. Or I could just decide for myself anyway and go right ahead and get the minimum viable product out there – is it any wonder that the ratio of stuff actually being created to the amount of required self-promotion deemed necessary for success is becoming so skewed?

Voting is a pretty personal thing, and I’m not as intrigued by how you may have voted on electoral reform as I am in whether you actually went and voted?

Quite a lot of people have already written about the two campaigns, and whether or not they’ve been effective – in my opinion, they’ve both been pretty rubbish at getting the points and information across in a clear way that I can not only understand, but actually share with other people.

Project 365 Day 125: Polling Station — Image courtesy anemoneprojectors on Flickr (CC Licence)

I’m a big believer in voting, not least for the belief that if I don’t try and make my vote/voice heard, then I don’t have the right to complain about whichever party make it into power, for example. And yet after all the money spent on campaigns, and all the debating, I found it incredibly hard to head out to the polling station. I’d been in some great meetings in London all day, finally got in around 7pm, and really just wanted to collapse on the sofa with some snacks…

It wasn’t the campaigns which got me out and voting, and my desire to make my voice heard was somewhat subdued and drowned out by my desire to watch TV for a bit.

What got me out of the house was the quick and simple question ‘Are you voting’ sent by a friend.

So did you vote? And what motivated you to head to a polling station?

social validation

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