Shezi & S.

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    The Virtual Sand Dune

    I lived in simpler times. As a child growing up in Kuwait, I used to watch a hierarchy of ants reconfigure a three-foot sand dune in hours. It was a marvelous sequence of events. The way each ant singularly focused on carrying particles of sand to its destination, building an intricate social network out of an oasis. If I poked a stick in their perfect design, chaos would ensue.  The ants would come out by the thousands from their fortified pores with the ferocity of a defending army, eager to reconstruct their way of life.  More than leisure, I spent my days growing up with an innocent curiosity that, combined with an active imagination, resulted in wondrous encounters with the elements of the natural world. There was an energy in nature that I could connect to, a deep sense of earth that, ironically, begs me to ask even deeper questions about the nature of our digital world today.

    Comprised of what can be aptly considered Too Much Information (TMI), embodied by the infinitely streaming universes of Facebook, Twitter and text messaging, today’s world is immediate and demanding. It seeks your attention with the unapologetic firmness of a maternal aunt who will force you to keep your behavior in check should you want out.

    Today, in the early 21st Century, I wake up to the first thirty emails waiting for me on my iPhone, and that’s before I even get out of bed.  Once up, I’m on my laptop for hours.  Beyond work, there are websites to browse, news articles to read, words to hyperlink, blogs to write, personalities to ponder, games to play, hobbies to collect, and targeted brand advertising to digest.  Only the onset of hunger compels me to get up and think about slapping together a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a rather mundane task compared to what awaits me on my Twitter feed. All those shortened bit.ly and is.gd URLs that open a world of worlds for me to explore. Who doesn’t want to know the latest theories of management pronounced by Harvard Business Review, the results of mapping the brain to ascertain evil, the sophisticated algorithms that automate cars by Google, or the regulatory tools to curb recessionary fluctuations? And we haven’t even gotten to the mindless Facebook status updates by the dozens, by the hour. My childhood curiosity, once supple ground for growth, has become an exhausting curse.

    My social network is akin to the sand dune brimming with ants, granular yet comprehensive, routine but infinite. To unplug myself is to violate some unspoken, cardinal rule of human interaction, built not on personal development but the artifices of unrelenting digital expressions and sound bites. To unplug is to not exist.

    But I do exist, and my digital extension is simply an extension, not some nebulous substitute of who I am. I’ve managed to narrow my use of new media to my professional purpose, similar to ants using particles of sand from among the waves of the desert.  The struggle is a perennial one. In some ways, I still live in those simpler times, a bygone era when the physical world of ants, not the digital link, represented a URL.

    • 10 October 2010
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  • Shezi Sardar's Space

    Shezi is a media and technology lawyer in New York City, with a penchant for entrepreneurship in emerging industries. He is a co-founder of Global Executive Board, a social media advisory services company.

    An avid blogger and industry journalist, Shezi also blogs at The Laughing Owl. He is also a member of the International Trade Committee of the NYC Bar Association, a nominated position, and is admitted to practice law in NY.

    Sardar Law Firm LLC
    www.sardarlawfirm.com

    Profiles
    http://about.me/shezisardar
    http://flavors.me/shezisardar

    Blogs:
    The Laughing Owl http://thelaughingowl.tumblr.com
    Shezi & S. http://shezisardar.posterous.com

    Twitter:
    @shezisardar
    @socialmedia_law
    @sardarlawfirm

    Email: sardar [at] sardarlawfirm.com

    Contributed by Shezi Sardar

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    • Shezi Sardar
  • About Shezi Sardar

    Shezi is a media and technology lawyer in New York City, with a penchant for entrepreneurship in emerging industries. He is a co-founder of Global Executive Board, a social media advisory services company.

    An avid blogger and industry journalist, Shezi also blogs at The Laughing Owl. He is also a member of the International Trade Committee of the NYC Bar Association, a nominated position, and is admitted to practice law in NY.

    Sardar Law Firm LLC
    www.sardarlawfirm.com

    Profiles
    http://about.me/shezisardar
    http://flavors.me/shezisardar

    Blogs:
    The Laughing Owl http://thelaughingowl.tumblr.com
    Shezi & S. http://shezisardar.posterous.com

    Twitter:
    @shezisardar
    @socialmedia_law
    @sardarlawfirm

    Email: sardar [at] sardarlawfirm.com

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