So yesterday Poppy and I went to the mall to go eat at Johnny Rockets (who claim to have The Streamliner™ in stock), see the movie Swing Vote (best Kevin Costner movie since The Postman), get Poppy a manicure (and get her TOUCHED), drink ice coffee from one of the closing Starbucks, and browse through Borders (where we got REAL Scrabble™) for a very nice and relaxing Sunday.

On our way in to the building with the movie theater, there was a girl at the entrance who was keeping a stack of postcards close to her chest.  As we approached, she drew one from the stack and held it out.  She was a human spammer.  You know, those people on the corner who indiscriminately stuff flyers into your hands for some local store that is running a special.  While I hate spam (although I’m all about the fried SPAM™ ) I do feel bad for these human spammers.  It’s one thing for a spam e-mail to get deleted from your inbox, because the spammer doesn’t know they have been rejected and won’t take it personal.  I can’t help but feel that some of these people, when ignored or waved away, take it personal.  It has to damage their self-esteem at some point… which is why, unless they’re being nasty about it (waving the flyer about, calling me “poppa” or some other deragatory name, or being a heckler), I generally take the flyer.  So when she held it out to me with a slight smile, I did not rebuff or reject her.  I accepted her for who she was, a human spammer forced to do this degrading work for too little, and I took this postcard and kept walking.

Once on the escalator going up, I looked at the human spammer continuing her trade.  The girl was being selective of who she was handing the cards out to.  She would hand it out to a few people, then withdraw the cards.  She even withdrew them from someone who reached out for one.  She was profiling.  The content of the actual card told the reason why.

The postcard was for Precise Optique, and their ”Blow-out Summer Sale”.  There were a bunch of different designer eyeglass frame manufacturers listed (Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Fendi, etc.) and their “slashed” prices.  All of which were over the $200 mark AFTER the deduction.  Newsflash: I spend about $150 on each pair of my glasses, and I STILL think that is WAY too much.

The truth is, I had been optically profiled by this sly spammer.  Her choice to spam me was discriminatory at best, based on the perception of my poor eyesight and obvious poor fashion sense.  We allow this type of profiling across the nation in the interest of “marketing a product”.  Ads frequently target age groups, gender, and income levels.  You’ve seen and undoubtedly partaken in the surveys that ask you these questions.  There is a purpose behind these profile building surveys, to make you a target of specific ad content.  If you do not fit the profile, you don’t receive the content because it is believed you will not take action on it.  This has in fact been going on for decades, and yet no one really complains about it.

Since it is such a common business and marketing practice by the companies in this, and probably every other free market country, I have no problem with the government doing the same thing.  Hence why I am not opposed to racial profiling by law enforcement and other agencies.  Once we decide to stop profiling, then I’m all for stopping profiling as a whole, and not only where stopping it would be considered “politically correct”.  To hold our government to a higher standard than the corporations we support economically is hypocritical at best, and discrimination at worst.

Social Media.

Those are two buzzwords I have seen thrown around ALOT this past week. 

I have run across more ”social media professionals” this week than ever before.

While Wikipedia’s definition is pretty long and technical, I think there is alot left up to interpretation.

Such as influence.  I’ve read this week that a traditional media outlet trying to influence someone is wrong… yet isn’t that really what social media is based on?  The influence of friend to friend, or that of a community as a whole?

What about size?  When a “social media” outlet grows to a certain size, it becomes nearly impossible for that outlet to interact with its community on an individual, and therefore social, basis.  Is that still a form of social media although the interactions that originally made it social no longer exist?

Finally, with all these professionals and blog posts about what social media can do, can it actually deliver what it promises?

I’m interested in your opinion and take on the whole thing.