Earth Hour - does it mean I have to turn off my laptop too?

As I was reading an article about Earth Hour on Advertising Age featuring an interview with John Sintras, CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group, I couldn't but wonder how hard it must be for technology junkies to imagine an hour without the precious technology?
I mean, I think even I got teary eyed thinking about having to say goodbye to my laptop screen for an hour. This post doesn't really have the usual links to some new widgets or latest news but rather was written with the purpose to get everyone thinking for a second about how dependant most of us became on our Tv's, iPhones, computers and etc.

I mean I personally spend almost the entire day on the computer lately. Not necessarily because I don't have friends - I do and miss them so much. However, the first thing I do when I come to the office in the morning is tun on the computer and work - I can't really do my work on paper. Once I am off work and arrive home - my laptop is on to check mail, again do work and write papers for school.
Maybe for the Earth day, I can just turn off the lights and leave my computer on, or use it as a perfect excuse to go out for a coffee with a friend. Papers can wait for an hour!
How dependant on technology are you?

Viral Videos - it can bring you up or plunge you down.

Viral videos present an amazing opportunity for companies or even individuals to get viewers, customer, followers and just in general get the word out. A couple of days ago I started thinking - is there a such thing as a bad viral video? For a second, I thought - how can viral video be bad? I mean, if it gained so much attention and went viral isn't that the definition of success?-No. In recent months I've been exploring YouTube in more depth - it's community and the way things work. One thing I saw multiple examples of is - fake viral video can seriously harm company's image.
They definitely can gain a lot of attention but most of the fake viral videos, especially if company tries to cover it up - is frowned upon by most YouTubers. Some of the most prominent influencers (mostly vloggers) on Youtube actually devote quite lot of time discussing these videos and making fun of them at best.
Sarah Perez wrote an interesting blogpost Fake Viral videos: Is this Good Marketing? talking about this very topic and demonstrating a few "viral failures".
I believe that if a company decides to make a viral video they should be cautious about the reaction it will evoke and be prepared for the fact that they will not have any control over how it will be interpreted and discussed.
Furthermore, I think every company needs to identify itself. They don't need to shine a huge logo of the company throughout the video but  a link to your website at the end of the video can be a good idea. This way you may avoid people getting frustrated thinking you are trying to TRICK them.

"Social media guru" - a real profession or just a cool nickname?

In a recent article by Brian Morrissey on Adweek, Brian brought up an interesting discussion about social media and current possibilities that are opening up for professionals in that area.

Brian refers to a video "The Social Media Guru" that portrays a social media professional who is trying to convince a client in his abilities to use social media to immediately improve client's business by throwing out Web 2.0 terms left and right.
The video is sort of a mockery of how many so called "experts" try to take advantage of current buzz of social media and persuade companies in the importance of using social media for their businesses by solely opening up a series of accounts on Facebook, Twitter and...there is a long list.
Nevertheless, there are variety of individuals, and now organizations that specialize in working with companies to utilize social media tools in order to gain awareness, attract new customers and achieve other goals a company might have.
Main question posed in the article is if there is a viable long term business opportunities for such individuals and organizations. This article left me with an impression that Brian thinks that businesses of this sort are not going to last.

However, I think that in terms of competition - there is always going to be a need for improvement. I mean, people come up with new strategies, channels and tools to reach out to consumers on weekly basis and same will keep happening in terms of social media tools and ways to optimize their success.

Companies will need to stay current and up-to-date on latest trends to be able to successfully compete in any market.
Come on, do you really think the list of websites/communities/social media tools like Diggit, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning, delicious (OK, I am tired typing them out) will stop expanding anytime soon? - I don't think so. Even though, many will fail, there still will be plenty left for companies to require people who will know not only how to use them but actually make them useful.