Jason Calacanis Has Fallen (And He Can't Get Up)

Jason Calacanis reminds me of those television actors who suddenly find their lives as popular series regulars too confining, too empty, too common. You know, like when Henry Winkler found Fonzie to be limiting his artistic brilliance, and lit out for the big screen.

My old Silicon Alley friend (and yes, we tangled, but that was long ago) throws up his hands today and bashes Facebook, Web 2.0 applications, friend requests, blog comments, and blogs in general. He basically says blogging is over. This from the man who made his fortune launching a successful series of niche blogs that AOL found compelling enough to fork over their millions for.

"Feels like the blog format is lost and adrift," he complains today on his own blog, where he's switched off comments and ended his years-long conversation with the common man. Jason's really steamed about comment spam, impolite posters and most of all, the insane number of requests for everything imaginable that he gets on Facebook.

I don't blame him, and I did notice from his Twitter stream that he's been bed-ridden with some hideous ague. That can make a blogging mogul cranky, fer sure. And comment spam is insidious and horrid. Facebook is in its learning phase as a platform; it is hard to take it all in.

Yet, who better to try than Jason Calacanis, a former New Yorker who went west and made his fortune; once a little guy himself from Brooklyn handing out xeroxed fanzines, an occasionally demented promoter who never took no for an answer. Now that gutty, driven guy (who beat the hell of out me a time or two) is too big for blog comments? Facebook requests annoy him? Geez man, let the antibiotic work before you go on a misanthropic posting jag, will you?

What really ticked me off about Jason's posts, though, was his utter dismissal from poolside about the possibilities of what I call "Facebook philanthropy" - which has tremendous promise in linking the net natives to real and compelling causes. I've written about it here and here. Quoth Jason:

Also, I've got my own causes that I don't have enough time for, so no, I really don't need the guilt trip of telling you I don't want to be in your group that's going to stop the suffering of [INSERT THE NAME OF YET ANOTHER GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO ARE SUFFERING TOO MUCH]. It's brutal. No one human can solve the problems of all humans but based on social networking I'm going to be presented with just such a challenge. What?!?!?! You are not going to join my group to clean the water, support free culture, stop the killing of INSERTSPECIESHERE, etc.

What a cold, rotten rant. I know for a fact, because I'm watching it happen, that people connecting other people (and generally, they're much younger and certainly more idealistic than either Jason or myself) is driving support to world-changing causes.

C'mon Mr. Calacanis. I know you really do believe in philanthropy and the power of the great networks to change the world. Don't make us ask what's Hawaiian for "cold-hearted miser?" A wiser man than either of us once wrote:

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Comments

[Jason Calacanis]

Pretty solid come back.... I give you +++ for it. :-)

Seriously, it's not that I don't like causes... I'm all over them. It's just that these systems--and I guess I didn't get my point across--make it really easy to ask for attention, but the systems themselves are taking away the attention.

Everyone is investing in getting "adds" for their causes, movie picks, and groups... but is anyone actually going out and help someone, watching a movie, or meeting face-to-face anymore?!!? It sure doesn't feel like it.

maybe i'm experiencing the tipping point early since my social networking accounts are super routers.

my point, and thanks for helping me make it a little more clear, is i don't want to be online this much click "add" and "confirm" but rather out there doing stuff.

as for blog comments... I think i'm gonna start something private with an ask for an invitation system like Denton did. it's just too much work to deal with all the wack jobs.

... gotta run, time for my meds. ;-)
j

[Jerry Colonna]

I disagree Tom. Jason's post resonated with me (and I'm not half as engaged and bling-blinged as you, Fred, Jason, et al. My Facebook profile is empty, a container, created mostly so I could look at other's pages--like my kids').

In reading his post, and I'd say this to Jason if his comments were back on, I had a twinge of recollection--a madeleine if you will--of when I wrote Madeleines, my blog. More specifically, the feelings that led me shut it down and turn it off (Fred Wilson suggests that Jason take a hiatus, noting how draining blogging, twittering, et al can be.)

So while I think you made wonderful points, and do it well, I disagree Tom. I read Jason's post and thought, geez, this guy is overwhelmed. He needs to stop. Here's a bit of wisdom from an 18th Century Japanese Buddhist Monk: If you want to find the meaning, stop chasing so many things.--Ryokan

Ya know the bit about before helping others we gotta help ourselves...

[Tom W.]

Jason's point here about attention deficit is totally valid - there are too many choices, too many requests. but I also think it's generational - it may drive me crazy to have so many options, so much data coming at me. Same with Jason or Jerry. But not, I'd submit, for the kids. Guys, they're smarter than we are - quicker, anyway. Their processors are much more capable of dealing with this.

So I'm saying - don't underestimate their ability to process zillions of requests, make their own choices, and support causes that matter to them.

I think it's a very important trend.

And yeah, burnout is important to recognize and react to - no doubt. Many's the day I feel I simply can't keep up with the flow of information, so I dial it back. You have to.

[Nathan Ketsdever]

I really don't need the guilt trip of telling you I don't want to be in your group that's going to stop the suffering of [INSERT THE NAME OF YET ANOTHER GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO ARE SUFFERING TOO MUCH]. It's brutal. No one human can solve the problems of all humans but based on social networking I'm going to be presented with just such a challenge. What?!?!?! You are not going to join my group to clean the water, support free culture, stop the killing of INSERTSPECIESHERE, etc.

Jason is on to something here in the sense that 90-97% of groups on Facebook are entirely useless. The groups that seem to get the most traffic are nightlife promotional information (aka booty dancing)

There isn't a read sense in which most of them are participatory communities. If groups get the full functionality of message board
along with some other bells & whistles....I think the facebook community could really thrive beyond the level its at now.

[Tom K]

Wait:

you mean a bunch of kids talking about their favorite bands and who they want to get with haven't come up with a way to get more clean drinking water to sub-Saharan Africa?

[Tony Alva]

Tom K LOL! You're killin' me...

"i don't want to be online this much click "add" and "confirm" but rather out there doing stuff."

Or not doing stuff for that matter. I can totally dig what he's saying hear. I've said it before, the on-line social networking world once gave kids a chance to expand their time with their friends. Now, it's become an excuse to NOT go hang out. Turn the computer off, lie to your parents, and go hang out on a street corner for cripes sake. That's my advice...