Social Media: Conveyor Belt versus Assembly Station

Sometimes I’m in the mood for the conveyor belt approach of Twitter. I like to see comments on the day’s news, feelings and non-news passing by in a continuous stream. Unlike a factory conveyor belt, I am hardly seeing the same information in a repetitive fashion. This is more like a pizza oven conveyor—sometimes pepperoni going past, sometimes plain cheese, sometimes the works. Like a pizza conveyor just before the Super Bowl, there’s a constant, dense stream of comments which I find endlessly entertaining.

Then at other times, I need something along the lines of a factory assembly station where everyone comes together in the same place to add a piece of the final product. That’s more or less how I view Facebook. Sure there’s a conveyor belt of statuses flowing by, but when I make a status comment I can watch the assembly of an entire conversation in one place—the replies to comments, the extension of comments, the disagreements, all come together in one location.

It’s just social media mimicking real life.

Managing Sibling Rivalry with Business Principals

Production: Clearly that is what created the sibling rivalry in the first place.

Human Resources: “If you have time to distract your brother while he’s doing homework then you have time to take the trash out.”

Engineering: Engineering can be helpful when the kinder, gentler precepts of human resources fail. Think building a wall between the children in the back seat of the car.

Business Development: “Jennifer is having a friend over after school. Would you like to invite Maddie over?”

Marketing: Instead of, “The brownies will be out of the oven when your sister gets home” try “I just put brownies in the oven. They should be ready for you to eat one in about 20 minutes.”

Sales: “You’ll be glad you have a sibling to share the burden of your parents when we age.”