I have to admit, I never got on board with Facebook or MySpace or quite understood the need to accumulate friends with online social networking. Business or professional online networking I understand. I’ve been to Second Life and thought it was cool, but to hang there with people I don’t really know seems unproductive. I have a hard time getting connected with the friends I have in my first life.
And it’s not that I’m not a bit narcissistic. I am. After all, I have several blogs and manage two Wikis. I have started cataloging my books with Library Thing, thinking someone out there might actually care what books are on my shelf.
Sometimes I reach out in the online community because I want to know what’s out there. What tools are bringing the world closer together? I want to be in on the future as it’s unfolding.
Alice Mathias makes some good points in this piece. She’s probably right about Facebook being a means of escapism, especially for teens. But right now, we’re only playing with these social networking tools. We don’t exactly know what lies ahead or how they’ll change how we communicate. While I’m a bit worried that computerized human relationships are less human, I have more faith in the fact that we’re hard wired to need each other.
4 responses so far ↓
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brtom
// Oct 13, 2007 at 11:31 am
hi dawn … i must be that “someone out there” … if you care to divulge: what’s yr LibraryThing moniker? maybe you could create an LT widget for this blog?
i’ve also pooped out on Second Life … just don’t quite know what to do there …
also, I just became a tiny bit more active on Facebook … because I’ve volunteered for a school committee to explore one of our long-range action elements: Explore technologies & software applications which promote social networking … (i think our first question should be WHY?)
i share yr faith in our hard-wired need for solid connection to each other … we’ll always come back to that …
tom
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2
Dawn
// Oct 13, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Hey Tom,
I was going to direct you to lit.er.a.ti, my literary life blog, where I do have a widget for Library Thing, but you beat me to it. : ) And I do have more than 37 books, but I have not added them all yet. Everything in its own time.
Dawn
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AM Strzyz
// Oct 23, 2007 at 9:12 pm
I like what you say about reaching the online community and the prospect that it will bring the world a bit closer together. This seems to be the paradox of technology. We can be brought together (as I am with your thoughts posted on this blog) or we can be separated (as text messaging can replace conversations…something I am guilty of at times). Honestly, the more and more I explore blogs and wikis, I have faith that it will help more than harm…however, like anything else, it depends on the user, doesn’t it?
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Dawn
// Oct 24, 2007 at 10:30 am
Thanks for the comment. I agree. I have faith that these new tech tools help more than harm. But we live in an age of fear and when fear dominates, we see only the harm, not the good. The harm is magnified, when the good shrivels in the shadows. In an age of fear, free, public voices are needed more than ever.
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