# hashfogged

There's more here than meets the eye.

I am trapped in an information bottleneck.  Caught between what I need to know, what I think I need to know, and what I have set out to accomplish (amid numerous other priorities), I am in real danger of becoming stuck on stupid.
   
Information overload, dead ahead.

Now, about these hashtags.

A hashtag is a means of assigning a smidge of information its own little place in the search engine universe.  A hashtag puts information in your electronic junk drawer. A thread is its container.  A bunch of other people's junk is in there too.  There's some hope of finding it later.  Really.  Your personally created hashtags contain a wealth of information about you and your habits.  If you create hashtags regularly, you are likely a profiler's dream.  Beware.  A search bot looks for hashtags in a much more systematic fashion than you or I.  It aggregates these bits into a Frankenstein Monster of living, breathing data.  On the internet, you are the sum total of your content.  If you lean more toward shoe shots and dizzy gifs, you can always adjust your content creation upward.

Ask yourself, "What is my data doing at any given moment?"  

LaShanda Henry, that question never gets old.

Data crawlers labor deep within the data mine, digging up marketing gold for the lucky few with a stake in the claim.  This aggregation of information will outlive each and every one of us.  What does that mean? Conversely, the internet lives and dies with the power grid.  No electricity, no internet.  What does that mean for those humans who do not live in the developed world?  In times of disaster?  For national security?

 As we chart our course on the frontier of the Fifth Dimension, let us be aware of the costs involved.

Currently, The Cloud is a Conundrum.  The Thing is Alive!

I took these pictures.  They are my intellectual property.  I am the self-proclaimed "Queen of Content."

Clouds are always there.  We take them for granted, until they collectivize themselves into a typhoon, super-size unto a hurricane, or twist and shout into a tornado.
Or unless there's a drought.  Then we do a rain dance.  Try to make it rain.  Pray for rain.

Fog is something else entirely.  Fog is often beautiful.  Beautiful and deadly. Fog itself obscures the way forward. Too much light on fog, and we are blinded.  Fog engenders pile-ups and carnage. Fog clouds judgement.  I am hashfogged.  I attend to the conversation in the Jungian jungle of John Kellden's intellectual

salon, and I am scared.  People well-versed in this stuff see a future you and I cannot see.  They are making their way through the hashfog, and I am mighty doggone glad that they have chosen to be a beacon lighting the way, rather than a wraith guarding the path.  (It seems that the word wraith has its origins in the Old Norse word for 'guardian,' according to Webster's New World Dictionary, 2nd College Ed.) There are many reasons to become cognizant of the implications engendered by our online lives.  You really cannot do that without a thorough grounding in SEO and social media psychology.  An entirely new group dynamic is arising out of the World Wide Web.  There are rules of etiquette, ranging from "ALL CAPS INDICATE SHOUTING," to "Be sure to uncheck 'Notify by email'!" There is a paradigm shift afoot, me hearties!  A new social order is evolving, and quickly.  Hashfog is obscuring the tip of a titanic data-berg.  Don't ignore the signals just because you're aboard a really big [Google] barge.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.

#FriendsofMalachiMaxwellGlass

"I +1 the Sandbox!"

blogger vs wordpress = sandbox vs quicksand?

Blogging is tricky until you get a grasp on it.

I'm behind.  There's so much I need to learn in order to do what this blog purports to do!  I need to set aside time to look at all +martin shervington 's videos.  I find new experts who help me understand different aspects of the online arena from a myriad of differing perspectives every hour I am online. +Meloney Hall is someone I've just met.  +Christine DeGraff is another accomplished individual whom I'm pleased to meet.

WoRLDTraVeLeR 

Blogger makes name-dropping fun!

Good Day Google Episode 7

+ron tolbert and +O'Neil Godfrey are kinda like security.  I like seeing them every day.  +Dave Sutton  is my G+ chum.  +David Amerland is a mentor to so many.  +Mark Traphagen , +Eric Enge , +Craig Fifield and so many others are mapping the uncharted territory of The Fifth Dimension.

+Mari Thomas is a lot of fun.  She doesn't mind explaining stuff, and she knows what I mean when I say "What it do?" +Susanne Ramharter 's Daily Picture is always on my radar. My Electronic Muse has broadened my horizons!  I haven't seen it today, and that's unusual.  +R. Harlan Smith can't quite take me seriously...and that's ok.  I could go on.

Why shouldn't I stay in the Sandbox awhile longer?

What's wrong with Blogger?  Within thirty seconds of my first Soundcloud post to G+ from this here blog, somebody else had one up too.  I think someone noticed.  And for sure, I don't care if I am in the Sandbox, one good click-through deserves another.  Just because it's blogger does not mean you will not be edified by its content.  You might be pleasantly surprised, +Dustin W. Stout .

Despite the danger of kitties, I am going to sit in the blogspot Sandbox awhile longer, while Google figures out that it's a likely portal into the world of blogging for people with NO HTML, or any previous experience on the internet at all.  Everybody's gotta start somewhere.  Like I told a girl at community college: "These people were not born knowing this stuff!  Calm down and give yourself a chance to succeed!" 

I can sit right here and hone my chops while Google pays attention.  I am in a mutually beneficial learning curve with Google.  I don't mind being a koi in their pond, believe me.  How long would it take me to get the kind of exposure for my kid that I've gotten in these past weeks?  Maybe forever.

Google is at a point almost like Food Network.  It can  and does have a hand in germinating popular culture.  Google has a colossal advantage over television networks of any kind, however.  Google can test consumer preference in real time.  Not just with those asinine hashtags, but by simply asking a question, Google can gather an inestimable amount of demographic data, both statistical and sociological.  A G+ participant opts out by not engaging with a post.  Simple.

 Arising from the disparate people who read my blog, there are an exponential number of marketing possibilities.  If Google does something unique, and asks for input regarding brands Plussers indicate they enjoy in a laid-back and friendly way, then it instantly generates the best metrics in the world: user-initiated engagement with brands they are already purchasing--with a favorable view of that product going in.  Now, I could be wrong and uninformed, so,

Why should I get off the porch while I'm still just a chihuahua?   

It's a doggone conundrum!

Blogger needs some TLC, sure.  It's been a lonely little outlier, but we picked up right where we left off, didn't we?

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.

#FriendsofMalachiMaxwellGlass