So five days in Austin filled with technology, panels, geeks, gadgets, software, social media, analytics, food, beer, music and sunshine can sure alter your reality. So far I’ve been back in the real world for about 36 hours and I’ve been displaying major signs of SxSW Interactive withdrawal. Here are a few of the telltale signs:
7. Eye contact anxiety. In a room/bus/street full of SxSWi folk, the majority of people have their head down tap-tap-tapping away on some mobile device, if not multiple devices. Back in the real world, not everyone is so obsessively connected. Which had me a little paranoid on my commute to work this morning. What exactly is everyone looking at? What are they thinking about? Are they really just sitting there? Huh. And, am I the only one on this bus wearing jeans and Chuck Taylors right now?
6. Hash tag fever. While prepping for a client conference call today, I actually took time to consider what the hash tag for the meeting should be. #notsomuch.
5. Phantom geek speak. At SxSW I was constantly thinking, speaking, and overhearing in geek, which has led me to see and hear phantom geek speak everywhere I go. Flipping through a magazine on my flight back, I ran into an ad for SEO lip gloss. I sat and stared at it for a little too long. Could this really hold the key to getting to the top? Nope, absolutely nothing to do with Search Engine Optimization. I overheard a conversation on my lunch break about CSS and was wondering if they were as disappointed in the WC3 panel as I was. But no siree, turns out were actually talking about the band with the same name. I’m afraid this might be a long lasting symptom.
4. Device delusions. Did I remember to bring my iPad to work yesterday? Yes. Did I need it? Not really. Did I remember to bring my laptop to work yesterday? No. Did I need it? YES! Doh. No concept of reality on this one as I almost even grabbed my SxSW badge on my way out the door.
3. WiFi High. I don’t know about you, but I’m still adjusting to the fact that there is not free WiFi and charging stations everywhere I go. Leading to dead batteries and loss of connection.
2. Lone Star Dry Mouth. I didn’t have tacos, chips & salsa, BBQ, or beer all day yesterday. Alright, so maybe I had a beer. But only with dinner and not with lunch. And definitely not between meetings. And it wasn’t a Lone Star, nor was it free, nor was it surrounded by live music. So needless to say, it left something to be desired.
1. Cat meme hallucinations. Between cats with mustaches, cat meme stickers, and conversations about famous internet cats carved out of giant blocks of cheddar, these pesky felines managed to have worked their way into my dreams. I wish this was a joke, but it’s not. I had a dream about cat memes last night. Seriously disturbing.
meow
So in an experiment back home in being unplugged, I sat at a coffee shop sketching notes for this blog post on a napkin and the two guys sitting next to me were engaged in a in-depth conversation about donor database management. That I can relate to. Plus I work in an office full of geeks, live in a neighborhood full of hipsters, and it’s 70 degrees today here in the DC area. So maybe my reality isn’t that far off from my time in Austin. In a good way. One more day of SxSW and I might have turned into a robot.
