Editor’s Note: You can read more about Adam and his passion for sailing on his sailing blog.
I am on the cusp between Baby Boomers and Gen X, so a bit of an old geezer when it comes to social media. I blog, I facebook, I link-in but the one thing I have not wrapped my head around is Twitter. I subscribed to it a year or so ago and have not used it much. I occasionally get someone “following” me but it must be quite disappointing for them, as I rarely tweet. Even in my more exciting moments my tweets are along the lines of “train late again”, “doing email”, “in a taxi”, etc… not exactly Tom Clancy.
Lately though, I started to give it a second look. During the Mumbai attacks there were reports of Twitter feeds being used to keep people abreast of what was going on. Clearly, Twitter isn’t all about creepy strangers “following” you.
I am mad passionate about sailing. I recently was on Jonny Malbon’s great blog. Jonny is racing in the Vendee Globe on Artemis. The Vendee Globe is the Everest of Sailing – one sailor alone, going non-stop around the world for 4 months sailing the toughest seas in conditions like the Perfect Storm. To put the race in context more than half the 30 competitors have retired, mostly through equipment failure, a testament to how tough the race is.
Jonny has a twitter feed on his blog. Here was a guy sailing in the Southern Ocean, in 40 ft seas, terrible weather, the threat of icebergs but he can cheerfully send messages about how things are going. It was in this way that I learned probably ahead of most people and before it appeared on the various sailing web sites about his gear failure and ultimate retirement. It felt intimate and important.
In 1989, When the first race of this kind took place, the winner and ultimately only sailor to finish the race was out of contact for several months as his radio failed. He could not even let his loved ones know that he was alive. He has no clue how he was doing relative to the other racers. He might as well have been in the 18th century. In contrast, today’s sailors can email, tweet, send video, audio, telephone and even update their Facebook if they want to from anywhere on the surface of the Earth.
What a wonderful modern world we love in! Time for my nap.
Adam Turinas