July 24th, 2008
By Dave Imperiale
It’s been three months since I joined the Facebook and I’m now mostly just annoyed with it. Every morning when I get up I do two things: I check the temperature/forecast on New York 1 and I check the Yankee score/standings (in season). Now I have to click on one more bookmarked page every morning. I don’t want to. I find no real pleasure in it. I won’t compare it to drugs or booze because it’s not as good. I don’t know why I do it. I’m not sure what I think will happen or who I’m waiting for. I’m already friends with everyone I know on there. Yet more keep finding me. (more…)
Filed under All, The Luddite.
June 20th, 2008
By Dave Imperiale
I’ve recently returned from working on what felt like my hundredth sales conference. Here’s something for you people to start accepting: PowerPoint is almost universally misused, and thus, stupid.
I would say people use PowerPoint properly 14 percent of the time. That is based on a first-party, subjective study. Most of the time presenters don’t even speak to what’s on the slide. Or there’s so much crap on the slide you can’t figure out what’s going on and they don’t take the time to tell you. Or my favorite: bullet points. Presenters read them out loud, word for word. Or, they’ll ignore them entirely because the font is so small even they can’t see them. Here’s an often overlooked point: an audience can read faster than you can read to them, unless you’re talking to 7 year-olds.
Just yesterday I was walking down the hallway in our NYC office suite and I passed a conference room. There were two elderly women sitting in there, looking anxious, waiting for others to arrive. There was a slide projected on the wall which read simply: “Welcome!” Yes, with an exclamation point. Welcome to what? This isn’t your house. I’m not coming over for dinner. I’m about to walk into a shared conference room for you to bore the sh*t out of me. I don’t need a sign. People who have a slide that says “welcome” aren’t thinking about the people in the room. And who the hell taught these old ladies how to use a computer? (more…)
Tags: business communicators,
leadership training
Filed under All, The Luddite.
April 24th, 2008
By Dave Imperiale
I felt legitimate fear when I clicked the button to upload my profile on Facebook about a month ago. That fear was immediately warranted when my first friend sent me my first note saying: “You probably don’t want to put your cell phone number on your profile.” (more…)
Tags: facebook,
millennials
Filed under All, The Luddite.
March 12th, 2008
By Dave Imperiale
Text messaging is destroying the English language. I question the manhood of my post 30 year-old friends when I get a text that says: “C u L8r!” I am reminded of the irritation of my 1980s parents when my friends and I overused the word “like” instead of pausing silently between words. Grown men should not be using the abbreviations of a 13 year-old girl. (more…)
Filed under All, The Luddite.
February 27th, 2008
By Dave Imperiale
I am 31 years-old and I have been a proud, self-promoting Luddite for almost 15 years. In college, shortly after the internet and email were introduced and becoming main stream, I wished for a world of typewriters, stamps and the sound of the rotary phone.
I actively fight technology when I can. I still carry the most basic Nokia model because I can drop it in a puddle and the battery lasts for days. It does not have email or a camera. I think MySpace is for predators yet I’ve only been there when a link for a band takes me there. I think Second Life is twisted. Or do you think it’s normal to get yourself an avatar and have to purchase genitalia for it? I think choosing the word “avatar” for one’s online presence is blasphemous – to language. I’m a vehement opponent of organized religion and still think it’s wrong. Look it up. (more…)
Filed under All, The Luddite.
