Marc Champagne (great name) founder of the Kyo app, emailed a few months ago and wanted to chat with me for a podcast. He wanted to know more about my approach to photography. I don’t quite have an approach, except as I told him “I find photography a way of capturing what I’m feeling and sharing it with others.” During the conversation with Marc, I mused about my approach to life…“Are you living your life by a set of rules and regulations set by society?” And perhaps now you know why I am not so keen on going on with Facebook and other social networks that start to influence how I do things.

I am taking a bit of a vacation from Facebook — mostly because I find the social media is starting to become a bit distracting. It is not that I don’t like connecting to the people, but I am finding it hard to support a service that I am starting to see as empathy-challenged. 

Looking through a wider lens, I am starting to find a subtle change happening in myself. Despite my best efforts, I am starting to see my life in context of life led by others. It is not how I think and who I am, and perhaps a little time off the networks will give me better perspective. The sad part is that I have outsourced my birthday calendar to Facebook and as a result have totally forgotten everyone’s birthdays. So if I miss yours, forgive me and I wish you a great birthday.

In the interim, if you wish to keep up with me – visit my blog where I will post occasional personal updates, along with sharing some of my photos, new podcasts and obviously opinions & ideas around new technology. The WordPress app and SmugMug automatically post links to Facebook and Twitter, so you will always get an alert. My Instagram photos too will flow into your stream, as will the articles from Pi.co.

But the best way to know what’s happening with me, sign-up for my newsletter. And If you need to reach me, drop me a note — email or text message. I won’t be checking the Facebook Messages as well.

September 23, 2017, San Francisco.

Mark Zuckerberg, on first day back from paternity leave, posted his response to the recent questions being raised about the company and its role in elections. Much of the sound and fury has been focused on the “Russian connection.” But focusing on this issue, making it all about elections misses that larger point. And perhaps I thought it was a good idea to ask Mark this question. And I did as a comment on his Facebook update. Here is what I asked him and Sheryl Sandberg:

“From the very beginning, I’ve protested the idea that an office headquarters, whether it’s mega or micro, is only about work. It’s about lifestyle.” Norman Foster, the architect who designed the new Apple’s Campus2.

If you total up the energy spent debating the merits and demerits of the Apple iPhone X event and various devices announced today, odds are that you could actually power another keynote, one where the basic question is why: why does the iPhone X matter? Why it’s even possible and where it could lead us – and why Apple is best positioned to lead us there.