After a whirlwind tour of East Asia with GeeksOnAPlane (see my assessment posts for China and Japan here and here), I’m back in the states and almost fully recovered from a potent bout of jet lag. I’m not complaining, however, since several other members of our group came down with a nasty stomach flu on the return flight. And one member, Mike Su of Break Media, actually got picked up by the Chinese authorities in Beijing on suspicion of swine flu, only to be stuck in quarantine for five days before getting cleared and released.
Mike, who had skipped the Tokyo leg of the trip and joined us in Beijing only a couple of days earlier, took his poorly timed incarceration in stride. Since he needed no real medical attention whatsoever (the officials nabbed him because he had sat two rows away from someone on the plane over who indeed carried swine flu), Mike was left to sit alone in a hotel room for days on end with just his thoughts and a computer. Finding nothing else meaningful to do, he decided to blog his entire experience for the rest of us to enjoy.
The result is a set of some pretty amusing and informative posts about what it’s like to experience Chinese quarantine. Welcome to Hotel Quarantine will start you off with the back story, while The Seven People You’ll Meet In Hotel Quarantine is the post that should stand the test of time.
Most relevant to the TechCrunch audience, however, is the second-to-last piece, Quarantine 2.0, where Mike reflects on how social media helped make his time in quarantine bearable. He describes how he was able to use Twitter to interact with the outside world and live vicariously through the rest of the GeeksOnAPlane group. Skype and other live streaming services helped him tap remotely into the events we were attending. And blogging, of course, helped him pass the time and ensure that his experience wasn’t for naught.
Kris Krug, who spoke at a TEDx event in Shanghai on Monday, noted that these days “If you don’t stick it on the Internet, it didn’t happen”. For Mike, that didn’t sound like hyperbole, since no one could share his memories unless he published them online. As he put it, “[It's] not that social media replaces or reduces the need for human interaction, but when you’re forced into a situation that specifically prevents human interaction, social media becomes your best alternative.” Well put, I think, and a good counter-argument to the idea that social media is a waste of time and ironically anti-social. Not that most of us live in a quarantine-like environment, but it’s important to step back and see just how much better we’re able to connect with other people through space and time these days, even compared to 5 years ago.
The most inspirational part of his post comes as an update:
Been thinking about all this more throughout the day. It’s hard to imagine five years from now that we’ll look back at this and think how primitive it was and how much things have changed. But in the meantime, how cool is it to live in a time with so much change, and so many things left yet to be discovered? I’m leaving this quarantine more excited than ever that I get to work in web technology, and to think, no matter how mundane something such as “What are you doing?”, or a video of this kid starting a dance party is, we are changing the way we live our lives, and that’s pretty cool.
Hear, hear. Let’s hope Mike will join GeeksOnAPlane for the full tour when it travels next to Latin America or some other region, with or without a high sensitivity to transmittable illness.
We love ya Mike!
I don’t know whom to take help from…so posting here.
My gmail account got hacked, and by the ‘Activity Log’ feature of Google, I could figure out the IP address from where my email account was logged in.
The IP was 204.15.23.171
I do not know how to figure out which browser is this. Is there any software that can figure out whose machine is this where my account was opened and emails were tampered?
For this particular IP, check out this link:
http://tinyurl.com/nuxbhp
and then for an answer to your question look at this link:
http://tinyurl.com/meqmz4
awesome article mr hendrickson, and mike, hope you are finally back in socal. and that the volcano in russia is no longer cancelling flights from tokyo to LA/NYC (but strangely enough not SF).
It’s pretty crazy how strict and hyperbolical this swine flu thing has become. I can barely imagine how upset I would feel being quarantined, especially if I knew – knew – that I was healthy. I’m glad Mike took it well though. Good thing that governments haven’t suspected transmission of the flu through internet lines yet.
It would scare the crap out of me if i had to be quarantined..
it you happen to be quarantined and you do have swine flu. You will be saving others people being infected by you
God forbid if the poor guy actually had to read a book or something.
hehe – I wonder if you had ever imagined that this would be how you’d get techcrunched for the first time
Quarantining people with swine flu is ridiculous. They can’t stop the spread.
I am for sure don’t want to sit beside you if you will be spreading swine flu. It is better for me you are in quarantine. It is for ignorance people who don’t care about others. Quarantine is good eventhough it is not scalable method in a big outbreak
Um… are those Panda Balls under that fellas chin?
Mike – so glad you’re out and getting on with life – we really missed you on our trip. Please ignore all the posts/tweets about how fun and informative it was.
At least you’ll have an epic story to tell for the rest of your life!
ROFL
The Seven People You’ll Meet In Hotel Quarantine http://aproduct...tel-quarantine/
is the best blog post ever.. too funny
Agreed! You really have left an imprint on the wild world of social media by sharing quite literally, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I really really hope it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience only
“talking” to Mike via Skype on a laptop with the whole GOAP group during a coffee break at TEDx Shanghai was hysterical.
Glad you escaped @biggiesu!
Hey Mike –
It was great to spend at least a few hours with you before they hauled you off, but way to take it all in stride and keep a great attitude about it.
My guess is there’s a lot of us that might not have the character you did in a similar situation – way to not go the “ugly American,” route!
Let’s get a coffee once you’re all settled in!
P.S. Still reeling with the stomach flu too, or as some have coined it, #chinatummy
#goap #chinatummy = #:(
Mike! Glad to see from your tweets you’re safely home. What’s up with the volcano in Siberia. I mean, really? Hello wound, here’s some salt.
I think you did an awesome job of maintaining composure. Very hard to do. I would’ve freaked out and gone kicking and screaming.
Catch up soon!
So glad hes back and crackin’ his goofy jokes here at home now. I’m just hoping he continues to wear the panda hat thing!
ahhh…good to be back home…well, just good to be out of that hotel room, but even better to be home!
Who is this Mike Su you speak of?
Mike – delighted to hear you are back home – what a crazy few days you had!
You’ll be pleased to know that your blog has been entertaining all of us here in London
Well, I’ve just been informed that I’ve been quarantined! Unfortunantly, Mike’s blog seems to be blocked in China now…since I can’t access it =/!
@Angee – just do a google search for “bypass Great Firewall”, or use something like hotspot shield to get around it (hotspot shield works, but horrible user experience)