So, I for one am always online, whether by phone or laptop, or whatever. I'm pretty much always contactable by at least a few people by whom I want to be contacted. And, to some extent I share some facets of my existence via Facebook and Google+ and various other avenues of broad delivery.
Without getting into whether these are good or bad things, but just accepting that we have them, and a drive to use them, where do you see this pervasive first-world connectedness going in five, ten, twenty years?
I am thinking it will scale back for a lot of people, or at least it will be something we don't talk about but rather just accept. I have the obligatory lap-top and iPhone thing going too, but I find social networking, other when it's used to get news, kind of odd. I do use it to keep up w/some folks but I don't use it to broadcast my personal or familial achievements, and I certainly don't think people care about my breakfast. I like the UER board to keep in touch w/humanity when my wife and kids are away, so this in kind of my social network. Plus I can be a jerk sometimes and it really has no repercussions in my immediate circle. My ultimate view on social networking: Could I live w/out it? probably, but it's nice to have it.
Posted by G to the Race I do use it to keep up w/some folks but I don't use it to broadcast my personal or familial achievements, and I certainly don't think people care about my breakfast.
Try not to let our meta-evolved-bio-connected-consciousness hit you in the ass on your way out, OLD MAN.
In the next few years, codgers like you will still be sitting pitifully in your little meat hovels, crying about "privacy" as if it actually matters or has even existed at all for the last 50 years. You're so dumb, you don't even realize its already gone.
mutantMandias may cause dizziness, sexual nightmares, and sleep crime. ++++ mutantMandias has to return some videotapes ++++ Do not taunt mutantMandias
mutantMandias is something more than human, more than a computer. mutantMandias is a murderously intelligent, sensually self-programmed, non-being
i am not a fan of this age of connectedness. It seems like we're TOO connected and TOO insulated at the same time. Also, with all this insulated connectedness, manners and human interaction are going the way of the dodo. People don't know how to talk to each other, or treat each other. I had the opportunity to finish watching "God Bless America" the other night and despite the dark/darker/darkest tone and somewhat abbreviated script, it hit several things spot on. We're hyperinformed but uberignorant. We megaconnected, but further apart. We're living in a smaller world, but we're still not making genuine human connections.
here's a youtubie to illustrate the point, in a humorous way, of course:
Try not to let our meta-evolved-bio-connected-consciousness hit you in the ass on your way out, OLD MAN.
In the next few years, codgers like you will still be sitting pitifully in your little meat hovels, crying about "privacy" as if it actually matters or has even existed at all for the last 50 years. You're so dumb, you don't even realize its already gone.
You're just being mean to me so I don't hit on you again.
Posted by metawaffle Without getting into whether these are good or bad things, but just accepting that we have them, and a drive to use them, where do you see this pervasive first-world connectedness going in five, ten, twenty years?
I see it growing exponentially.
Let me use music as an example of what I think is going to happen.
Let's say you start in the days of opera houses, where you have to be present to hear music. Then wax cylinders come along, and you're able to listen to the music as long as you're at home. The same goes for records, reel-to-reel tapes, and other vintage media formats. Then the cassette tape comes along, and you have a whole format based around compactness and versatility. Now you don't have to be at home to listen to music. The same applies to compact discs. Then digital audio formats come along. You can now listen to music if you have a computer or with an MP3 player, for instance. There's literally no need to have human contact with a musical artist as long as you can listen to them. But some people still choose to go to concerts, even though they could listen to a live recording at home. Why? It's a different experience.
Let me try and connect this to social media.
The days of opera houses are like life without social media, where you have to communicate in person because there's not a better alternative. Primitive forms of media, like cylinders and records, are like the beginning of the Internet. The technology is there, and it's growing quickly. Cassettes, compact discs, and other advanced forms of physical media are like social media in the Myspace area, for instance. Social media is there, but people aren't perpetually connected yet. And then you get to where we are now, where, for some people, human contact has been replaced by social media. But, of course, some people choose to defect and shy away from social media, for the same reason: it's a different experience. (I know there are other reasons, like privacy worries, but that's a whole other ball game.)
Am I making sense, or am I just rambling?
[last edit 5/30/2012 12:21 AM by Harvestman - edited 1 times] Oh good, my slow clap processor made it into this thing.
I'm just going to throw a quick two cents in here.
I can see why it would become an issue - people are ignoring those who are there before them in the flesh, declining literacy, and so on and so on.
But for those of us who perhaps need to feel a bit more connected to others to ward off loneliness and depression, but are crippled by a fear of judgement and social interaction, social media gives us a nice dopaminergic bump.
[last edit 5/30/2012 2:30 AM by Lexi - edited 1 times] [15:00:33] <SeeThirty> cause you're not likely to be anywhere that other people haven't been who didn't have protection [15:00:41] <SeeThirty> still better safe than lexi
Posted by Lexi But for those of us who perhaps need to feel a bit more connected to others to ward off loneliness and depression, but are crippled by a fear of judgement and social interaction, social media gives us a nice dopaminergic bump.
That's a good point. I'm not exactly a "social butterfly" either.
It's not limited to social media, either; the mentality of having a screen-name sort of separates one from one's normal personality. I know I've said some shit on here that I wouldn't say in real life (take that at face value).
Oh good, my slow clap processor made it into this thing.
Posted by heinrick Warhol got it wrong—in the future, everyone will have fifteen minutes of privacy.
Hah!
One good thing about this social media thing is that I have been able to make friends where I otherwise probably wouldn't. When you live in a town (or state) full of douche bags, your options for friendship are limited to douche bags or loneliness. The internet makes it possible to find many like minded people to connect with. Sure, they may be thousands of miles away, but distance doesn't really matter these days. Hell, I talk to you folks on avchat more than I talk to my own roommate.
One good thing about this social media thing is that I have been able to make friends where I otherwise probably wouldn't. When you live in a town (or state) full of douche bags, your options for friendship are limited to douche bags or loneliness. The internet makes it possible to find many like minded people to connect with. Sure, they may be thousands of miles away, but distance doesn't really matter these days. Hell, I talk to you folks on avchat more than I talk to my own roommate.
i find that with my Xbox. There are about 20 or so people that we regularly play with from across Europe, North America and Australia. This group has so 'hit it off' that we've met most of each other face to face. That's kind of funny, i think.
One good thing about this social media thing is that I have been able to make friends where I otherwise probably wouldn't. When you live in a town (or state) full of douche bags, your options for friendship are limited to douche bags or loneliness. The internet makes it possible to find many like minded people to connect with. Sure, they may be thousands of miles away, but distance doesn't really matter these days. Hell, I talk to you folks on avchat more than I talk to my own roommate.
That's a really good point! I've taken many trips to catch up with people I've met online, and really, my closest friends these days, even locally, are probably people I originally knew from the internet.
But, more so, being able to transcend the local douchebags is an important point. One thing that online communities do is de-marginalise people by validating that there are other People Like You. Beyond that, too, having such an easy reach beyond your local borders does mean exposure to different attitudes and philosophies... could broad, pervasive connectedness bring the attitudes of multicultural society to places that wouldn't get it through local population alone?
That sounds way too utopian, I know - maybe there's room in there for online ghettos to develop
Posted by metawaffle One thing that online communities do is de-marginalise people by validating that there are other People Like You.
Oh, no, no, no, Meta. You should not feel de-marginalised or validated. That really isn't okay.
mutantMandias may cause dizziness, sexual nightmares, and sleep crime. ++++ mutantMandias has to return some videotapes ++++ Do not taunt mutantMandias
mutantMandias is something more than human, more than a computer. mutantMandias is a murderously intelligent, sensually self-programmed, non-being
Ethics
