Citizensheep. "Michael Grimes lives in Birmingham (UK). This is his blog about anything that he fancies."

A few years ago a great-aunt died. She was a fabulous, eccentric lady, who sucked extra-strong mints and drove a succession of old Minis precariously around Surrey. Auntie Elsie had an open wood fire, a large garden with a jungle and a lion (that we never actually met), and cats who would scarper from anyone [...]

I keep telling people how my life has altered since using Twitter, even though I’m well aware of how sad that sounds. The thing is it’s not really about Twitter at all, but about people: all Twitter did was help me find them. This post will appear particularly self-indulgent: it’s trying to articulate something that [...]

For a long time I had no way of knowing who to ask specific technical questions of, and now – thanks to the power of social media – I suddenly know loads of people on whose expertise I can call. The trouble is, when does the relationship become professional and require a financial commitment? This [...]

Right, this is the very last time I respond to a meme – chain letter, whatever you call it – on this. I wrote Seven things you may not know about me, and thought that was it. Now Ellie Lovell has gone and tagged me with one that requires twenty five items. So here, sort [...]

The internet can be great for supporting and developing friendships, but it doesn’t create them by itself. It’s simply a tool: we use it to support the things we want to do in our lives, which include offline as well as online activity. Friendships may be part of that. Pete Ashton recently wrote about how [...]

I’ve wittered about this before, but I’m still concerned about the dangers of encouraging new people to use social media tools without supplying some sort of pastoral care, or covering some of the social and legal implications that they may encounter. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that most of the time we evangelists [...]

Much has been debated about the merits of blogging: as journalism; as a mouthpiece for the masses; as a platform for the literate and illiterate alike. But what about as a therapeutic activity? Or, rather, as a creative outlet for those of us who may sometimes be uncomfortable in traditional social situations? I’m not going [...]