A not-so-serendipitous TEDx event
by Adelaide Z | February 22, 2011
It was an early start for a Saturday, but it was an incredibly interesting day. Montreal’s Concordia University hosted more than 500 people from all walks of life on February 19th for its independently organized TEDx event. The theme: Captivating inspiration.
More than a few speakers talked about the growing anti-social nature of the internet and social media (the irony of my blog on this topic is not lost on this blogger). That was my biggest take-away from the day. From losing your ‘memories’ (i.e. photos) because of aging digital media (think MySpace and where it is now) – to life-changing serendipitous moments lost because we’re constantly wired to our micro virtual world (think Facebook).
My favourite by far was Lenny Rachitsky’s ‘Losing Serendipity’ talk and how social media creates ‘manufactured serendipity’. Your gmail, amazon, and even online dating accounts auto-suggest things and people you might like based on past searches thereby diminishing the little serendipity left in your world a little more every time.
I can’t wait for his video to be uploaded to the TEDx Concordia site so I can watch it again. It’s worth the 20 minutes. Luckily, I found his presentation on slideshare! http://www.slideshare.net/lennysan/tedxconcordia-losing-serendipity
You can check out some pictures from the day on the Vigilant Futures Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vigilantfutures/sets/72157625979941623/