I hate politics. Politics is like your underwear -- I know you have them on, but I really don't want to see them. This time of the election cycle, and with the advent of social media, politics and political messaging has become close to unbearable.

I've expressed concern over the rapid spread of LCD backlit screens, which disrupt and dominate attention. Lost focus is one negative byproduct of more screens, but they're also a big security threat - especially since so many distributed screens and devices connect online with our unique profiles and require deeply personal information, like Social Security numbers, passwords, credit card numbers and more.

We received a postcard last week. It looked fake -- or, at the very least, salesy. But in fact it was a picture of some friends, taken by the Thames in London, by a machine or a kiosk or a service that obviously specializes in automating the sending of personalized postcards. The note, clearly written by our friend, was printed in a font evocative of handwriting but obviously not. I imagine that there was some kind of setup with a sign, "Take your picture, write your note, and we'll print and send your postcard anywhere in the world!"

On the eve of Labor Day weekend, our thoughts start drifting ahead to the fall and the reawakening of the ad marketplace from its annual August slumber. Will ad spending be up? Will Q4 budgets anticipate an optimistic holiday season? Or, will marketers and merchants tighten their belts, their inventory and their ad spending? I don't know the answers to those questions yet. However, for today's column, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on what IS likely to happen this fall in the media and ad market. Here they are:

Has the time for a truly integrated mobile marketing effort finally arrived? It depends how you read the numbers on the level of user's engagement with mobile content. I personally think the time has come, but it requires a very gentle "touch" to ensure mobile is less distraction and more interaction.

Digital screens are taking over the world. Specifically, LCD backlit screens are taking over the world. You may say "no big deal," but I have a problem with them.

The digital media business is evolving so fast that the roles for people are changing very quickly. In some cases, people have migrated to adjacent industries. Others have so closely tracked the transformation of media into a technology business that they now essentially work for tech companies. And a few have left media and advertising altogether. Here are some recent examples:

Let me tell you about Greg. Officially, Greg is a salesman. He works for a computer company, securing significant corporate contracts for data centers. He is very good at this job. Unofficially, though, the value Greg brings is not his ability to talk features and benefits. It is his ability to serendipitize.

You'd better get ready: TV media-buying processes, protocols and parameters are coming to the Web. Lately, the trades have been full of stories about the long-awaited convergence between ads on the Web and ads on television. Multiplatform advertising is finally arriving -- albeit in fits and starts, linked across platforms more like a paper cup and string telephone than the locked-down digital linkage we'll certainly have within a few years. However, as we bring together campaigns running on different media, we find that technology is not the only thing we need to integrate. We need to knit together some very …

There's a video on YouTube of a guy answering the questions he asked of himself more than 20 years ago. Sometimes I wish I could do that. Of course without time travel, I can't speak to the Cory from 20 years ago -- but at least I can give advice to the fresh-faced versions of me who are currently surfacing in the work force. Maybe I can provide them with some of the knowledge I've accumulated from the experiences I've seen. Where do I begin?