Ministry of Food in Leeds

January 25, 2012 under Leeds

I have to write this quick post just to say hello and thank you to the wonderful people at Leeds Ministry of Food in the Kirkgate market. The food they cook is fairly simple and basic in some ways however not many people can actually cook the whole meal without substitutes. When being presented with the fajitas dish I completely forgot that we would have to make the salsa and guacamole from scratch. Its simple foods well done time and time again.

If there is anybody who has been on this course and can share their opinions, please do, I hope that everyone is happy with the recipe’s they provide.

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when will coffee shops get a big blue like button

September 19, 2011 under Cyber Culture, Leeds, Marketng, News, Social Media, Technology

In the world of the web and business, people are always buzzing around thinking about what the next big thing could be. The difference between these people is they they talk about it and some others help make the dream a reality. Ever since the dawn of cyber-punk we have managed to create a self-fulfilling prophecy where society gains the new products and designs that we are told are new.

The reality is that there is a lot of technology that is based on peoples ideas of the future. Rather than building new products we are handed the vision from ‘Space Odyssey” or given phones with touch screens that have already been designed and thought through by science fiction. The future supposedly will come to and end and when it does we will have to go back and live amongst the trees.

With this mentality of looking back on our roots and the things that have worked for us in the past, I have a new idea. We as children are taught to play but when we are older we do not recognise that we do still play, its just that we do it in different ways. Whilst we move through the urban cities to and from work, we all interact by moving around the city, and absorb the marketing artwork before us. My suggestion is quiet simple. What if we could now actually be tagged and use the marketing or objects around us to connect to digital media, weather it is social media or event visiting a site.

Once upon a time people complained about the files in their cabinet, and now we have hard drives to condense the space. By using technology we may have answered certain questions that allow us to live in more space and gain access to things more instantly, but why has nobody thought of complaining. Technology seems to have kept its shine despite the physical nature is still the same and the manual labour of the real world and the digital work is the same, only less strenuous.

If we continue to need our bodies for certain things and we increase the use of technology, how on earth do we actually have time to live online and use facebook? The answer for that is really quite simple. Whilst going to your local shop to buy a magazine, in the future, you have the chance to press the ‘like’ button and actually comment if you wish. Cameras could also start to track your eye movement so that marketing companies an talk to you directly each time you look at one of their products. This doesn’t mean up selling, it means that the digital cloud technology behind it will be able to tell you if your choice could be a good or bad one based on your income.

As a red blooded male its typical that I only want to go into a shop to but what I want, but all that can now change. If i see something I need at home, the voice from above may then remind me that I have been in the shop 17 times before and I liked this on facebook so much I tweeted about it and I also need to buy it because ive run out of it and need a top up!

What if we are now living at a point in time where we are actually at the tip of using technology manually and now we just need to find ways to make the cloud part of the real world. In being human, surely the point of living is to live. So when will we be able to live the life we want and share it effortlessly at the same time, seamlessly as part of the real world. My final question about the unknown future is; when will coffee shops get a big blue like button where people can just hit the button to vote, thus avoiding the need to spend time getting their device out, find the site, login, find the online coffee shop, find the like button, and like it !

 

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Do we need social media or does it need us

September 4, 2011 under Cyber Culture, Leeds, News, Social Media, Technology

This is a slightly stranger post that asks the question, do we need social media or does it need us. I think this is a stranger post than my usual because I have had time to reflect back on my real practises.

In getting busier I have found that I have been a little unhappy. Not because im over worked but instead that I am finding that I am too busy in the real world to tweet and facebook and generally get digitally social. Instead of spending time digitally mixing with people, im doing this in real terms. This is the fun stuff and it does not make me sad. What has made me sad is that as a consequence of me living my life, my klout score has dropped and some twitter folk have stopped following me. At the same time I feel im getting more responses because my less frequent tweets are fully loaded. So now im left bitter about life and how I need to manage digital life.

My reality is, and possibly your reality too, that I am actually good at being social and it does not matter about where or how this happens. In recent years I have had my own choices and feel that I can choose my own path about the things I like ands dislike. So the question then arrives to me at this point. Do I need to be digitally social? Well, it all depends on your field or work and how busy your personal life is. It doesn’t really matter, but it can make a huge difference to someone who needs to engage directly and feel confident.

In my busy period of neglecting some social media it seems that I have also missed adding photo albums of things I have been doing on Facebook. After a week or two my partner then decided to post those pictures on her Facebook albums. All I was left with was a buch photos that I was tagged in. Its almost like the digital world had began to remind me how rubbish I am being at keeping in touch. Having taken a brief look at my partners pictures I found that she had oddly become more social.

Here is the interesting bit. Not only did she seem more interesting and popular than me but she also had a full stream of information about “Big Brother” other TV programmes and was also following bands and festivals like Leeds Festival.

I seem to be happy, and so does she, so I guess social media does have a place in our world. But in all honesty I really believe that I do not need to communicate in that way, I just choose to. Having social media is a digital add on. To answer the second half, does social media need us..? Yes, of course it does. Without us the social media sites would be charging money. So the idea of it being a free social medium is non-elitist. This sits really well with a utopian vision and it also tricks us to into the feeling that we are all together when really we are not. I still have a lot of people to meet.

By engaging in social media I am only continuing my level of instant gratification onto a much more grown up platform. Not only am I becoming dumbed down but social media makes me feel stronger and more powerful about being dumbed down. How odd! To make matters worse, companies like Facebook are making money form me. Okay so thats not a bad thing, but its terrible if you consider that by wasting time in voyeuristic behaviour I am not actually learning in the way that I should be. The right way would be to get my hands dirty and engage with reality.

I hope that you have come to the conclusion, like me, that social media is a dumbing down tool that equals additions like drugs at times and that we do not need it! Social media most certainly needs us.

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Do we need a Hero?

April 27, 2011 under Cyber Culture, Leeds

Late last night I somehow managed to write a comment on a blog about finding a hero. The article seemed to grab me from an unusual angle. I should also mention that I found the blog through a tweet or two.

It was suggesting that ,in this case Leeds City Council and other bureaucrats, the city needed a hero to help guide and channel, or even champion everyone together. I personally believe that this is a terrible idea. Nobody wanted Jesus to walk the earth, it just happened. It seems that post 2000 we are now wanting another god like figure. Am I to guess that having a local government and Prime Minister is not enough. These arenas already have strong leader figures and even if the governments dont float your boat, there are community leaders or centres!
Okay, so the last bit may be a slight jump and a different tangent. The point is still the same. Do we really need a hero or a leader in a society and culture that is already affluent and rich. It seems even stranger that the blog that inspired me was a blog, something digital. In essence the words we write on a digital surface may mean a great deal as it is poured out of a human soul, however the fact that is poured onto a digital surface is quiet funny because it doesn’t exist. A piece of paper does exist and will do in the future, unlike a digital prose that could disappear either at the click of a button or when a server dies.

It seems that the over saturated use of media and marketing has lead our culture to want a free’er version of reality, something digital, a world that we can control and but also fulfils the ‘global village’ need to be instantly gratified. As most of society seems to be on facebook it seems even stranger that the art and craft of a community champion is based in the real world, and yet we look for it online.

It seems the more I write, the more a hero looks unlikely. The idea of magically wanting or looking for a champion is thought of in a modern manner. We NEED a hero, where are they? We don’t have one! Why? Because we live in a world of instant gratification where you may want or need one. Had our culture of thought we wanted one, like we do now, it may be wise to realise the next one will arrive in 30years from now if we plant the right seeds NOW! Let me spell that out, it has to be RIGHT and it has to be NOW.

At this point I must confess I am also asking a lot of question about what I have written as it opens many doors. It seems that, just like watching a film where we require a sense of escapism and control to feel gratified, we have met our new best friend the underground hidden darkness that we all hope will become the light. The digital world. Rather than following the rhetorics of wanting and being a part of the ‘global village’ it now seems we want freedom and happiness from the world wide web. To take this further, what happens if we only want it in our local area, or within our personal circle, wether it is a city, and borough, country or continent. Essentially we no longer care about the world. We just want where we live to be a better place.

With the rise in use of all things digital it also seems that we want the world wide web to be the dark angel that saves us. The digital world that has opened the door and allowed escapism has equally allowed us to become withdrawn from an area of society. We now no longer feel the desire to help, hence we need a champion to push us. As mentioned, the champion must be based in the real world. My own conclusion is that in the new digital age, there may be a champion around the corner who has the greatest following online and that this person will need to be incredibly ugly poor and has no friends family or social life.

Is this what we want, or are we creating this as our future by the way in which we use technology more and more?

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