Eighteenth Nomadiversary: Time To Embrace TikTok?

Today marks EIGHTEEN years since I first set off on the road, trading a San Francisco apartment and a Silicon Valley career for a life of adventure and exploration.

So how has it been going?

Time to settle down?

Mission accomplished yet?

Hardly.

If anything – it feels as if I’ve been going around in circles.

Every year is a repeat of the same basic formula:

Visit cool people – new friends, old friends, family.

Tour interesting places – on and off the beaten track.

Long drives. Short stays.

Boat projects. Bus projects. Van projects. Tech issues.

Share about it all on social media.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

The daily grind – Technomad style.

And every year I feel pressured to come up with a clever Nomadiversary post to mark the passage of yet another year.

And this year, I feel unusually stumped.

Is there anything new worth writing about?

Is anyone still even reading?

What is the purpose of blogging here?

Should we focus on video more and use only YouTube to keep an audience engaged?

Or is it time for something new and entirely different?

Maybe…

TikTok?!?

Blogging Is So Over?

As I demonstrated in my Nomadiversary post last year – humans writing words on a blog is basically as obsolete as human’s riding around in horse drawn carriages.

It might be fun for a quant historical tour of a scenic old town – but it is not anything anyone takes seriously for actual transportation anymore.

Words are over.

AI can do that better than any human now.

And humans aren’t even reading blog posts anyway – they are just having their AI agents summarize them.

We are quickly degenerating into a world filled with AI’s writing content, and AI’s reading that content.

Humans at best just get a summary.

It is fun to every so often dive into our old posts – a reminder of the incredible adventures we have been on.

We do have a lot of great history here on Technomadia.com, including our early forays into mobile internet redundancy – a gospel we clearly have been preaching for a LONG time:

Cherie’s Post – May 2007:
Yesterday, our new Sprint Rev A EVDO express card arrived – giving us a full spectrum of options for mobile internet access. We signed a 2-year contract with Sprint.. so guess that means we’re committed to each other for at least 2 years now, huh?

We’ll have that through Sprint, my Verizon ‘regular’ EVDO access via my xv6700 smartphone and Chris’s T-mobile lower bandwidth access via his Treo if all else fails. We’ll be setting all three options up on both our laptops, and making both as shareable networks.. having essentially a wifi network with us wherever we go.

It seems that the seeds were being planted for the Mobile Internet Resource Center way back then – 17 years ago.

Clearly our relationship outlasted that Sprint contract, our first joint legal commitment.

But while blogging was the hot thing back in the 2010’s – it has faded away for many.

But if blogging is over, what next?

YouTube?

Isn’t video the better place to focus now?

Been there, done that.

And YouTube seems to be going the way of the dinosaur rapidly too.

Vlogging Is So Over?

As best as we can tell – our Technomadia YouTube channel is the second oldest RV-related channel in existence on YouTube.

Our first videos were published in 2009 – using YouTube to redistribute short videos we were creating primarily for the now long-defunct TripFilms.com site.

Our early videos were pretty rough.

We even did an exciting video about the world’s largest Amoco sign:

People like drama – our first video with over 10,000 views featured our Jeep getting stuck:

Eventually we started taking YouTube a bit more seriously, and Cherie did a whole series of interviews with other nomads called “Ramblings” – the 30+ interviews in this series inspired a whole generation of folks to hit the road.

To this day, we still have people mention to us how much Ramblings meant to them.

This April 2010 video was the start of Rambilings, and featured 17 nomadic households who were converging for a NüRVers rally – an early incarnation of what eventually ended up evolving to become the Xscaper’s Annual Bash:

One of our other early popular videos managed 590K views, and focused on “The Sucky Sides of RVIng” (Wow – look at that bushy beard on me!) and how awful life on the road can be.

People like drama, after all.

But our biggest YouTube hit of all time was a spur of the moment live broadcast tour of our friend Ben’s bus. Despite the low-res video and lousy camera work, this video has almost crossed the one million view mark – and it still seems to be getting viewed even today.

But compared to our heyday – Technomadia YouTube traffic has ground to a halt.

Our long-form irregularly uploaded content just doesn’t go over well with the algorithm-driven modern YouTube experience.

And I really think YouTube penalizes us because we keep opting-out of letting YouTube insert ads into the middle of our videos.

Sure – the start and end are fine, but interruptions are SO rude!

I’d rather no one watch than force people to watch un-skippable garbage ads inserted right in the middle of our videos.

For the past several years our annual subscriber growth on the Technomadia YouTube channel has been negative – we’re at 77K subscribers and slowly sliding, meaning that we are now unlikely to ever earn a snazzy YouTube silver play button.

So if YouTube is dying…

What next?

Is It Time To Embrace TikTok?

Perhaps there is no use fighting it anymore…

People only have 15 second attention spans.

YouTube content measured in “minutes” seems like an eternity.

And blog posts filled with WORDS seem endless.

What the world seems to want is short form TikTok content.

Short repeating snippets of inanity and fail and fast talking.

So is that what’s next for Technomadia?

A few dozen new TikTok posts a week – adding up to perhaps an entire minute of actually interesting content?

If TikTok works out – the YouTube channel and the blog can both be archived.

Even the Technomadia Facebook account could get mothballed.

And if I can figure out how to log in to shut down our Technomadia Twitter X account, I’ll turn that off too.

From here on out – we could be 100% focused on TikTok!

Here’s the potential future – lots more content like this:

@technomadia

What do you think?

TikTok Downsides

But before we contemplate shutting down the blog and YouTube channel – maybe some deliberation is in order.

Is TikTok really the future of all media?

As someone who has recently been forcing myself to try out TikTok for more than just a few moments at a time, I have some observations:

• Human eyes are horizontal, therefore video should be landscape and not portrait. Duh.
• Video clips should not auto-repeat. If someone wants to watch something twice, they can choose to do so manually. Auto-repeat is a curse. Auto-start is almost as bad. The play buttons was invented for a reason!
• Video really shouldn’t be edited with sped up footage and such fast cuts so that people need to watch things multiple times to figure out what is going on. Pushing people to watch something multiple times might make the algorithm happy, but it makes actual real people sad, anxious, and frustrated.
• What is up with the TikTok app UI being layered on top of video?!? If I am watching a video, I don’t need to see hearts flying past, or buttons and captions obscuring content.
• Seriously – what is with the chopped up snippets of songs?!?

Cherie’s response just now when I showed her the exciting TikTok content I have been creating:

“I don’t get it.”

The millennial and younger crowd might think I sound like a cranky old geezer ranting away against progress – but I am a proud Gen-X’er who will always be on team wide-screen.

TikTok makes my brain hurt – and most short form content on TikTok, Shorts, and Reels tends to leaves me feeling unsatisfied and anxious.

Perhaps TikTok isn’t for us after all…

Eighteen – Old Enough To Vote!

Since my nomadic life is 18 and is of voting age – it seems appropriate to leave the TikTok decision and the fate of Technomadia up to a vote.

So we ask everyone reading (!!!) this to reply with your choice:

1. TikTok all the way! Nothing else!
2. TikTok is making me claw my eyeballs out. Never ever mention the word “TikTok” again! Delete the Technomadia TikTok page!
3. Give up and stop sharing online entirely.
4. Blogging and vlogging and sharing in a way that feels fun and authentic is all that matters – no matter how you do it.
5. I am an AI – I can summarize this post, but I can not legally vote… yet.

Cast your vote by commenting wherever you have seen this post shared – Kiki will be left as the final arbitrator.

Results will be announced on TikTok.

Maybe.

If I can manage to keep from deleting the app long enough.

My Vote: Share As If No One Is Watching

I am personally firmly in the “Vote #4” camp.

I’d rather share something that inspires just one person, rather than share some quick clip that gets looped a million times.

Dance as if no one is watching.

Blog as if no one is reading.

Vlog as if no on is tuning in.

And Tik your Toks as if you were an ADHD cyclops on speed.

Do what works for you – and who cares if there is an audience.

That’s what keeps things fun, and that’s what ultimately finds your people.

This is how we have always treated Technomadia – it is our personal space to share what works for us, and what we enjoy creating. We do it for fun!

And I personally like crafting long introspective semi-serious Nomadiversary posts – posting on the blog just once or twice a year.

Cherie loves posting semi-regular travel updates – mostly just to archive our memories, and to pass on some bits of inspiration.

To hell with chasing the algorithm!

We don’t do this for clicks, views, advertising, or “influence”.

We’re just doing our thing – and we love to have those of you that we click with following along.

Thanks for being here – some of you for nearly 18 years now!

PSA: Be smart about what you watch, read, or listen to!

When it comes to watching YouTube, reading blogs, listening to podcasts, surfing TikTok, or even reading or watching the news – we should all do our best to fight back against the algorithm.

Media algorithms (no matter the site) are focused on what will get you to click – and what will get you to “engage” with or share the most profitable content.

This means the algorithms will always surface stuff that is most likely to grab your attention (click bait!), or content that tells you what you want hear, or that makes you angry, or that pushes whatever agenda those paying the bills have in mind.

The algorithm cares only about engagement and revenue – not about if you view something and emerge inspired, smarter, more empathetic and connected to those around you, or even just satisfied and entertained.

Focus on breaking free from what the algorithm is spoon feeding you. Don’t just mindlessly surf – find and engage with what makes YOU feel satisfied and inspired.

And when you find creators that that really inspire or entertain you, tell them!

As Gandhi famously said: “Be the algorithm that you wish to see in the world.”

And if TikTok had been around when he first said it – he probably would have choreographed a really banging Bollywood dance number to go along with that timeless quote.

Nomadiversary Memory Lane:

Today (April 1st, 2024) is my eighteenth Nomadiversary!

18 years (!!!!) on the road and water…

Here are some links to my (mostly) annual past posts.

Step back in time and check out some of our past adventures:

• Seventeenth Nomadiversary (2023) — A Nomadiversary post co-written with AI – with some serious warnings about the risks of this emerging new technology. This post is pretty epic – check it out!
• Sixteenth Nomadiversary (2022) — A “Sweet 16” montage, chronicling my journey from fledgling nomad through today.
• Fifteenth Nomadiversary (2021) — Sharing about the magic of “5G” vaccines, and some of the people who have most inspired me over the years.
• Fourteenth Nomadiversary (2020) — Thoughts on being a nomad in a newly locked down, pandemic ravaged world.
• Thirteenth Nomadiversary (2019) — I explain how we move our Mini Cooper between ports using prototype self-driving technology, summoning the car to us remotely.
• Twelfth Nomadiversary (2018) — Some mathematical analysis of the future trends in boondocking, extraploting out a future with millions of boondockers fighting over every scrap of desert as the suburbs turn empty.
• Eleventh Nomadiversary (2017) — We contemplate some innovative ways to bring Zephyr along now that we are living part of the year on the water.
• Tenth Nomadiversary (2016) — I share my past history traveling with a powered paramotor, and our future plans to renovate a Zeppelin to be a flying RV. Meanwhile, we were actually already secretly starting our hunt for a boat.
• Ninth Nomadiversary (2015) — Sharing test results of LTTE boosters. Not to be confused with cellular LTE boosting, LTTE boosting (Libation: Technology Tribulation Elimination) is an even more critical element of a technomad’s tech arsenal.
• Eighth Nomadiversary (2014) — Way too swamped and stressed with launching RVillage and dealing with Millenicom madness to write anything wistful or witty.
• Seventh Nomadiversary (2013) — At last revealing the real reason I first decided to hit the road…
• Sixth Nomadiversary (2012) — Reminiscing about all the changes over the years.
• Fifth Nomadiversary (2011) — Giving up nomadism and buying a condo (not!) in the Virgin Islands.
• Fourth Nomadiversary (2010) — Discovering the secret prize that comes inside every box of wine.
• Third Nomadiversary (2009) — Camped on a beach near Malibu, watching dolphins frolic.
• Second Nomadiversary (2008) — Working with Cherie to custom design our Oliver, moving up from a trailer ideal for one to one made for two.
• First Nomadiversary (2007) — Preparing to set out with Cherie, reminiscing about my first very eventful year on the road — setting off solo and finding an amazing partner along the way.  (This links to my pre-Technomadia solo blog!)