Okay… now that I’m over the puns. Seriously you’ve got no idea exactly how excited I am that they’re reforming and that they’ll potentially be coming to Australia. Now all I need is Roxy Music to tour and my life will be complete.

Kinda.

Still that’s great news and I just thought I’d share it with anyone who cares really. Awesome.

Read the official Spandau-reforming story here.

For a techno nerd like me, that’s the equivalent of an extreme fad diet – the kind where you find yourself allowed to only eat things small enough to fit through straws or discover the joys of meal replacement shakes… only to drink six and realise you just had six meals in one day.

So for five days I stuck to a self-imposed technology diet. No phone, no computer, nothing to type on, nothing to tweet about, no one to poke. So with my pen and paper (remember those two chestnuts?) I started a small journal… here’s my thoughts about five days without Facebook and Twitter.

Day One
Right. I’ve got no phone and no computer. My hands are jittering from all the pent up energy and lack of fumbled touch-screen typing. I find myself staring blankly at the television wondering if there’s a way I can rig up the antenna with a Pringles can to pick up some form of Broadband access. Come to the shattering realisation that the TV I’m looking at was manufactured when the internet didn’t even exist.

Curl up in a ball and sleep.

Day Two
Facebook withdrawal symptoms start to kick in. They find me going through real photo albums and writing humorous self-deprecating captions on pieces of paper and sticking them under each image. I repeat the process with people’s names… an ancient version of “tagging” if you will. Consider sending duplicate photos to friends in a postcard format, asking them to comment on the photos and return them. Realise that’d take far too much effort.

Curl up in a ball and sleep.

Day Three
Went to the beach today and saw a pod of dolphins. Normally I’d take a photo of them with my iPhone and twitpic it up with a witty comment. Think about what said witty comment would be this time around. Decide on “At beach and saw dolphins jumping. Jealous much?” Realise this is both pointless, dull and bitchy.  Also realise I don’t have Twitter, nor iPhone. There’s nobody else on the beach that I can tell either.

Curl up in the sand and tan.

Day Four
Lack of technology sees me rediscover old things again. The joys of reading off – gasp – real paper and not wall posts and retweets – thrill me. Not being confined to 140 characters or less has made me feel less constricted and as such have begun using real words again! Finally no more bouts of “thx”, “u” and “lol”. Begin boning up on big words by flicking through the Thesaurus…bingo

Curl up in bed and finish a book.

Day Five
I’ve made it through five days with no Facebook and no Twitter. Jittering has stopped, compulsive phone checking has stopped. Posture has improved, feelings of jealousy and rage have subsided. Remind me why I was addicted again?

“A WOMAN in a lesbian marriage has been arrested in the US after allegedly attempting to forcibly inject her brother’s sperm into her wife.

Stephanie Lighten, 26, allegedly threw her wife Jennifer Lighten, 33, on a couch in the couple’s home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and threatened to impregnate her with “a turkey baster” filled with semen from Stephanie’s brother kept in a sealed container, letzgetreal.com reports.”

Who needs Foxtel when you’ve got Americans and online news? Ahh bless.

Anyhow, let’s look at the SCANDALOUS news sweeping the country this morning:

• Everyone’s favourite fish and chip politico Pauline Hanson has had alledged nude photos leaked. Never, ever, in my life did I think I’d use the words “Pauline Hanson” and “nude” in the same sentence. Click here to view the photos and decide whether you think it’s her (but do you really want to?)
• There’s an arrest warrant out for Lindsay Lohan following violation of her DUI offences. Yawn, do we care what Leslo is doing these days?
• After years of success, the now faded celebrity jaunt, The Stamford Plaza Double Bay (formerly Ritz Carlton) is scheduled for demolition. This is the place where Princess Di, Madonna and George Bush Snr have stayed among others. Oh yeah, and Room 524 is where Michael Hutchence was found dead in 1997.
• Pop trannie Lady GaGa used to be a stripper she says in an interview. She’s also quite humble too, “Some people are just born stars,” she says. “You either have it or you haven’t, and I was definitely born one,”. Back to her being a stripper though… brings a new meaning to Poker Face.
• Miley Cyrus reckons she’ll ruin Radiohead. Dream on Hannah Montanna.

Wow, that’s enough Controversy to last you all at least a day. Awesome.

Well, maybe a tad dramatic, but a big shout out thanks to Tim at Mumbrella – the definitive website for everything under Australia’s media and marketing umbrella – for publishing my little opinion about social media fatigue, with particular focus on the ongoing “controversy” that Tourism Queensland seems to drum up with their dream job campaign.

Mumbrella have just launched a new-look website too – if you’re keen on knowing more about Aussie marketing and media I’d encourage you to check it out. Nice plug eh?

Thanks again Tim.

Meet Julia from Russia. She’s 29 and is she is good at speaking the England. She likes blue screens and she don’t use the alcohol at all. She’s also a popular entrant in the Tourism Queensland “Dream Job” competition to be an island caretaker. Oh and surprise, she’s also become embroiled in controversy over a secret porn past. Sigh.

She’s weird, over-produced and would I really watch her video updates about The Great Barrier Reef? Nah…

I’m over the Tourism Queensland campaign already, it’s taken up far too much airtime. Why not stick her and “Are You The Man In The Jacket Girl” on an island together Lord of The Flies style and see who makes it off first.

Over it.

Social networking sites in particular have become havens for personal information. I was reading a story recently that said Facebook has in its possession over 10 Billion photos its users have uploaded. These detail intimate, personal moments and are online, tagged for everyone to read. The thing is, when you decide to leave Facebook or MySpace or Bebo behind, where does all that info and the personal details attached with it, go?

That’d be your online fingerprint, and in what has to be a sign of changing times, comes news from the U.S that a man who posted status updates on Facebook, set his “moods” using emoticons on MySpace, and commented on videos online has now had his online activity used against him. Read the story here.

Compelled by that, I decided to do a quick Google of my name (not the first time I’ve done that – but for very different reasons) to find out what people would find out about me. No major surprises really , using Google, people can find out:

• I used to be a journalist with AdNews Magazine
• I then took a job in PR at Zing Public Relations
• I am currently employed as a Senior Publicist at eckfactor
• I have a Last FM profile and my favourite artists include Sarah Blasko, Roxy Music and The Ting Tings
• I have a Twitter Page
• I once addressed local council with my concerns about the area (yep, nerd)
• I once won a Catholic Schools Art Competition
• I once won an Australia Post Colouring In Competition – when I was a kid, rest assured

Quite a bit of info right there, and that’s only the start of it. When I googled my personal email addresses and the like I discovered more and more about my online activities.
I’d urge you to do it when you’ve next got five minutes, Google your name and your email addresses and see exactly how much information you’ve got up there ready for people to access. It’s strangely satisfying and scary at the same time and it might just make you think next time you go plug in more information about yourself… who exactly is going to access this info one day?

Ever thought about that one?

I’m never one to kick a charity, but given the charity concert is around to raise funds for the devastating bushfires that swept across Victoria, it does make sense to have a “flame-like” motif across the earth. But on the flipside, Firefox, being an internet browser with a “Fire Fox” as its emblem can also stake equal claim to the visual.

It could just be me, I could be mean, but I saw the logo and thought, hmm… that’s a little familiar. I’m just saying…

It became clear to me that I was using Facebook far too much and for evil rather than good. Sounds a tad melodramatic no? The answer to that would be yes, yes it does. But it’s true. I had been using Facebook to track certain friends and see what they were doing and I didn’t like how I felt when I’d read comments on their pages and get twangs of pain or fits of jealousy. Quite simply I hated who I had become because of something as petty and stupid as a website.

I remember feeling the same way about MySpace – and then hey presto – a month after the feelings began I deleted all the content from my page and abandoned ship. There’s still a ghost of my former profile there because MySpace refuses to delete my account even after all these years (I think it helps them maintain the illusion that there are actually people still using their site)

For me, there’s that curiosity of what the final page looks like when you’re about to say sayonara to a website. For MySpace, it was a simple screen that asked if you were sure you wanted to delete your account, and then with a click of a button you were gone. Facebook does things quite differently, and true to form tries to guilt you in to sticking around. First up, they run about five photos across the top of the page that feature you and your friends (thanks to the joys of tagging) – and they personalise it by saying “John will Miss You” and “Michelle will Miss You” etc, etc.

If you make it through that emotional hurdle, they then ask you to select the reason you’re leaving from a drop down. As soon as you select an option it gives you a counter-reason why you shouldn’t leave. So if you selected “I’m leaving because I get too many emails from Facebook” their answer is “Well how about you change your settings here and we’ll contact you less often?”

In the Web 2.0 world that would generally be considered a cute personalisation feature that really brings your website to life. When it comes to a monolithic social networking site it screams of sad desperation. They know that it just takes a handful of influencers to mark the beginning of the end of a social networking site and then before you know it Facebook founders will be kissing their Maserati’s goodbye, packing up their uber-nerd-cool offices and find themselves poking around in the dark again.

So you might wonder (or you might not, but I’m going to tell you anyway) right now how do I feel? To be honest, a little empty. My fingers are itching to type in that URL and hit “reactivate” my account – that’s the clincher there, with Facebook they don’t let you actually delete your account, they simply put it to sleep in case you change your mind one day. It’s interesting. I’m a little on edge, I’m a little emotional and I for one can’t believe I’d ever be like that over a website.

I’ll agree that Facebook does do one thing well, it uses your friends and lots of loving things like pokes and smiles and tagged photos and gifts and cute little video posts to make you feel like it’s more than a website… it’s a member of the family you just can’t live without. It emotionally blackmails you right to the very end. They want you to know that getting rid of Facebook would be like euthanising the lame family dog – and nobody really wants to do that do they?

See ya Facebook… I’m off to have a real conversation.

PS. Check out this site http://thedisgracebook.net/ – the tagline says it all “Surprise! You just ruined your life with Facebook. Well played.”