social networking is killing society
- Thread starter matt b
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3 Body No Problem
Well-known member
You spent too much time of your youth in record shops and have a skewed view: what fraction of the population did write fanzines? Was it 0.0001$% or 0.00001%?. Sorry, but the new social media is on a totally different scale.
3 Body No Problem
Well-known member
I often find the electronically mediated asynchronous communication introduced by the Internet preferable to F2F because it allows me to think for 10 seconds or 2 minutes before replying, to look up something in wikipedia etc. (Also one can multiplex several interactions at a time easily which is not really possible F2F.) This makes conversations much more substantial and interesting. I'm somewhat introverted and never, even as a child, saw the point of bantering. In pre-Internet days, that mean social death (especially for men, society is more tolerant towards introverted women). The main benefit of F2F is the presence of the body, which is also interesting, but in other ways. I expect future societies seeing F2F more clearly than we can do as bodily encounters (in a generalised sense that goes well beyond the obvious sexual interpretation).
Yes, expense accounts (see above), restaurant dinners, hookers, less work more idle time, no supervision, and extending a business trip into a holiday.
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3 Body No Problem
Well-known member
LOL OMG/writing = baby-talk/spoken-language
mixed_biscuits
_________________________
F2F encounters are often dominated by those good at glib one-liners, with the speedy response times required lessening the likelihood of speakers coming up with anything original or risking something especially thought-provoking (as this would require long response times of the interlocutor). That said, there are often times where the pace of conversation is somewhat slower and attempting to pull off any silver-tongued shtick feels inappropriate.
I wonder if F2F meetings of previously online communities carry over some of the characteristics of online communication, such as longer response times and extended responses. Or even if there are any communities that have combined the two: a group of people sitting round a table drinking beer and swapping sweaty chemical signals whilst conducting the bulk of conversation on their Pocket PCs (Dissensus meet-up idea?)
Yeah, probably where I picked up useless social skills like engaging in 'banter' and not running to Wikipedia every time I want to reply to someone. But turning this argument on its head - what % of the populace has constant access to Facebook? And have you got any examples of how this is redefining 'social media'? Cos, of my last 5 FB updates from friends, the most interesting one was "Miiiaow"
3 Body No Problem
Well-known member
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
I think I have a facebook IQ of about 25. I can't figure it out. I like it when people post links to articles and websites or youtube videos, but I just can't be bothered to follow the Twitter-like update-a-thon that's become the frontpage. Some people are really good with that aspect, though, and make use of it, so I can't say it's "bad"...I just don't care to log in every ten minutes to be sure I stay abreast of it.
Sometimes I'm on there to check my inbox and random messages pop up from people on the screen, and I didn't even realize I was on "chat" mode or whatever. This is the thing that finally did me in, especially because I got stuck once in a 4-hour conversation (if you want to call it that) along the lines of "listen to me pour over the details of my shitty relationship for clues that x is cheating on me". X happened to be one of my best friends from college who I knew damned well was cheating on the person. This put me in a very awkward position, as you can imagine. What do you even say?
Some conversations are better left unspoken. Some people from school are not really your "friends" anymore. It's nice to have their contact info, in case you're cruising through another city and want to hang out. But I do feel I've moved on in a sense and that I'm not really "friends" with all but a core group of my huge college posse anymore.
One thing I think younger people don't realize yet is that sometimes it's very nice to be unreachable. It's funny to think that there's a generation that's grown up with handheld electronic devices and never knew a life without them. Due to hectic urban lifestyles people don't make a big enough point of finding a place and a time in life where they're unreachable and can relax and be alone in their own thoughts. As you can imagine I'm pretty big on doing that, it's one of my (ideal, and hard to keep to) priorities right after hard work.
Edit: Have you noticed people in your classes doing AIM/instant messaging on their cell phones?? I sure have... drives me nuts...
Also, at the fucking movies! During the film! Even if the ringer's off the thing keeps lighting up over and over...kinda annoying...
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padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
...who lives in a place where there is reliable, cheap, fast Internet. which is not, after all, most places.
this is still true on the Internet. how often does anyone "risk something especially thought-provoking" in any medium? I think mainly it just lets us get away with more pretending to know what we're talking about. also, I'm with Martin - is it so terrible for people to have to develop a modicum of social skills via real world interactions? dudes make it sound like it's this hideous ordeal, yet somehow people managed before twitter & so on.
& co-sign @ nomad that nonsense about texting in class. seriously, it's an epidemic.
Room with a view
Banned
i was on a date of sorts, more like a meet and greet with 2 ladies i met online and i took my mate along as wingman. we all ended up back at my apartment spending most of our time texting each other stuff to prompt conversation and other things best not said face to face. it was hilarious. to suddenly burst out laughing for no reason and cell phones lighting up every minute or so. thing is we were all playing along.
scottdisco
rip this joint please
bollocks.
i'd love to banter w 3BNP but they've already called me a cunt * on a politics thread so i'm off elsewhere to moan
* by cunt i mean apologist for Sudanese empire
grizzleb
Well-known member
I think that there was always some element of alienation even in face to face encounters, I think the difference is more about being more/less limited in terms of who you have the chance to talk to - 100 years ago your social circle would most likely be limited to your neighbours and co-workers, that may not have been so good if you were into a specialised subject like electronic music, but I'd imagine it would teach you about being humble with other people, and not basing friendships soley on things which can be actually fairly shallow, like similar interests. In my old work I made friends with lots of people who are outside of my normal social zone, old coots and the like, and that was something that made me more open to different people.
With sites like myspace, facebook, I think these pages often act as a stand in for the 'real' social interaction, so instead of getting your hands dirty by going to see those old friends from school or whatever, you just have this thing acting as your social representative, you can still say 'oh we keep in touch' when in reality you do nothing of the sort. Acknowledgement rather than sociality.
With sites like myspace, facebook, I think these pages often act as a stand in for the 'real' social interaction, so instead of getting your hands dirty by going to see those old friends from school or whatever, you just have this thing acting as your social representative, you can still say 'oh we keep in touch' when in reality you do nothing of the sort. Acknowledgement rather than sociality.
3 Body No Problem
Well-known member
They probably do, but (1) don't particularly care about it at that point in their life, where they are hypersocial, more than in any other phase of life, partly because they need to organise their sexuality, (2) there's an observation bias, because you don't notice when people are unreachable as much as when they are reachable.
It's funny to think that there's a generation that's grown up with shoes and never knew a life without them.
Speaking from the point of view of somebody how delivers lectures, I find that way less intrusive than (old-school voice) chatting.
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mixed_biscuits
_________________________
Once culturally embedded these mediatory devices and their apparent benefits are assumed, but, just as life shorn of our bristling communicational devices might actually be a better one, so might walking without shoes. It's funny that once the period of transition has been forgotten, the generation that witnessed it grown silent, a return to the previous or default position will come across as a strange, futuristic move:
3 Body No Problem
Well-known member
Congratulations advertising industry, you have convinced Mixed Biscuits that wearing "Vibram Five Fingers" isn't in fact wearing a certain kind of shoe! Well done.
mixed_biscuits
_________________________
You're right - you aren't any good at banter.
I think the idea is that this is the next best thing to going barefoot without cutting your feet to shreds on shards of broken Britain.
Gavin
booty bass intellectual
I recently had a strange experience of meeting a new group of colleagues, most around my age (late twenties-early thirties). Started off the typical awkward introductions, people tentatively feeling each other out, etc... After a couple days everyone had facebook friended each other and there was this overnight sea change into easy affability and familiarity, completely unearned (hadn't even gotten drunk together!). It was abrupt and palpable.
I was a bit off-put by it, because in person (or f2f - hah!) I prefer to get to know people slowly, preserving my mystique as much as possible, even relishing the agonizingly slow uncomfortable slide into acquaintance. Also everyone had researched each other, so I had suddenly become both a raging communist and a party boy, quite unintentionally. I had even neutered my facebook profile quite a bit to head off this eventuality, to little effect.
Now I'm wondering how inevitable personality-clashing of the next stage of group dynamics gets worked out... but it's such a passive-aggressive little medium that it's never very satisfying, unlike pseudo-anonymous blogs and message boards where people can really sink their fangs into each other.
I was a bit off-put by it, because in person (or f2f - hah!) I prefer to get to know people slowly, preserving my mystique as much as possible, even relishing the agonizingly slow uncomfortable slide into acquaintance. Also everyone had researched each other, so I had suddenly become both a raging communist and a party boy, quite unintentionally. I had even neutered my facebook profile quite a bit to head off this eventuality, to little effect.
Now I'm wondering how inevitable personality-clashing of the next stage of group dynamics gets worked out... but it's such a passive-aggressive little medium that it's never very satisfying, unlike pseudo-anonymous blogs and message boards where people can really sink their fangs into each other.