Monday, January 20, 2014

RANDI ZUCKERBERG

Randi Zuckerberg has published a book that advises us to publish more family pictures, and talk more about our private selves

"Hmm."

Randi is Mark Zuckerberg's sister. In my mind, this guy is the "King" of Social Networking. There are other big name-innovators, but when you say social networking, billionaire Mark Z is number one.
 
In 'her book, "Dot Complicated, Untangling Our Wired Lives," Randi said:
    "Right now, there are two generations in the workforce who think in diametrically opposite ways about identity. Executives who came of age in the pre-smartphone era take it as a given that you should have a separate professional persona that reads like a profile in Forbes and doesn’t overlap with your personal life.
    "But my generation came of age in a world with social networks, and we know that we don’t have that luxury anymore.
    "We should embrace this new world. The answer isn’t fewer baby pictures; it’s more baby pictures. It’s not that I should post less; it’s that everyone else should post more. Let’s change what it means to be professional in the Internet age. The time when your personal identity was a secret to your colleagues is over and done. And that is a good thing."

"Hmmmm."

Would I be reading about Randi' s ideas if she weren't Z's sister? (31-year-old Randi is 29-year-old Mark's older sister; his younger sisters are Donna and Anelle -- I searched everywhere -- can't find their specific ages.)

Randi Z's been building her professional identity for quite a few years, working with her brother, doing digital content stuff ( text, audio, video, graphics, animations on the Internet) for various prestigious clients, including The Clinton Global Initiative, Cirque du Soleil, the United Nations.

But when I checked out Randi's Facebook page -- hey, she doesn't reveal her married name, or her son's name. It took quite a while, in fact, for me to learn her husband is Brent Tworetzky. I couldn't' find out where he worked, but I found out that they have a home in Silicon Valley and a two-and-a-half- year-old son -- Asher.

So folks, what Randi is advising us to do -- share-share more personal info -- is not what Randi is doing for herself.

Anyhow, re sharing more about yourself -- most of what I see on Facebook is trivia -- pets, politics, movie-music-sports stars, marvelous photos of sunrises, sunsets and things like  waterfalls -- photos that get me wishing that I didn't live in the city. Mainly what I glimpse as I'm scrolling through news feed, gets me feeling yay, boo, wow, oh dear, or ho-hum.

I think Facebooking and tweeting are communication recreations, 21st Century ways to be busy using devices, tools, techniques that we spend time, energy, and money to acquire, and utilize skillfully. And being busy with those routines makes social networking mean more and feel more important than it is.

Confession:  I think social networking is a giant tower of Habel that keeps billions of us from feeling small and insignificant, even though that's what we are.

So would you buy her book?

Here is Randi chatting quite skillfully about her share-share ideas, though what she has to say doesn't really ring in one's mind.


UPDATE:  JUST HEARD THIS VIDEO WAS DEMOVERED... I am figuring it's Zuckerberg family power. Willy  was not overly flattering ......
Here's Willy Geist, co-anchor of MSNBC’s Morning Joe and The Today show, getting Randi Zuckerberg to say something that's very interesting about taking a day off or a weekend off even, from all our communication devices.


I take time off from social networking (which I dislike) whenever I can, but I like knowing more about Mark Zuckerberg's family. His stupendous success makes the Z name royalty -- there's Donna and Anelle, and who knows what Asher Zuckerberg Twortsky will be selling us in 20 years or so.

1 comment:

Carola said...

I agree with you: a tower of Babel and babble.