Alone Together - Social Networking
Read the article and thought - This is me :O)
However, the author does have valid points.. How many times have you gone to a gathering and people are busy on their BBs or iPhones ....
Is communications technology isolating us ?
Social networking site don't connect people – they isolate them from reality, say many academics.
The way in which people frantically communicate online via Twitter, Facebook and instant messaging can be seen as a form of modern madness, according to a leading American sociologist.
"A behaviour that has become typical may still express the problems that once caused us to see it as pathological," MIT professor Sherry Turkle writes in her new book, Alone Together, which is leading an attack on the information age.
She gave an example of attending a funeral where people checked their iPhones. I have seen the same :O(
Turkle's thesis is simple: technology is threatening to dominate our lives and make us less human. Under the illusion of allowing us to communicate better, it is actually isolating us from real human interactions in a cyber-reality that is a poor imitation of the real world.
Another strand of thought in the field of cyber-scepticism is found in The Net Delusion, by Evgeny Morozov. He argues that social media has bred a generation of "slacktivists". It has made people lazy and enshrined the illusion that clicking a mouse is a form of activism equal to real world donations of money and time.
I would agree to that. Gone are the days where we "marched" on embassies and chanted slogans and carried banners :O(
What say you ???
You are right.. I too remember the days of "waiting for the dot to disappear" before going to bed :O)
Ofcourse technology and communications channels will evolve, but are we getting "hooked" om them ?
Get on a bus in London; All you see is expressionless people on mobiles using twitter, BB etc. We communicate to the world, yet we are alone..
It’s evolution!
I can remember when I was 13 getting our first television, (black and white and rented from Visionhire) and my mum saying that is the end of radio.
Then years later I told her about e-mail she said,’ that’s the end of the joy of getting a letter through the post’.
This is just the way it is, I can imagine us being asked by our Grandchildren to show us a pen.
Those gadgets are tools, nothing more, nothing less. WE, the people must decide how to best use them.
All this also has to do with manners...to check Fb, QL whatever ,during time being spent with friends? Rude, as simple as that. Answering your phone, if it is an emergency, sure, if not politely tell the person you will call them back.
I have met some people who have become very good friends on QL. I use QL as entertainment and for gathering information(sometimes, lol).
There is nothing wrong with using technology if done as it is intended.
Besides, blaming technology is,IMHO typical for today's society....what ever goes wrong, it is ALWAYS somebody or something else's fault....
It depends on the person. I've been addicted to FB and the internet before but now I find it healthier not to spend too much time on these things but instead do some physical activities.
The first step is acceptance.
Please introduce yourself to the group and we can begin the therapy..
I have to admit, that if given an internet connection, TV and money, I can stay at home for days ,without even bothering to go outside. I can order food online, chat with people online, do my work and email it to colleagues back and forth.
I worked a consultant and had to travel a lot.I stayed alone in a hotel room or an apartment for extended periods.
I was shocked at my ability to live alone in the company of my technology friends. Even when at home with family, the laptop or the BB are in my hand.
I prefer to BBM a friend rather than call him.
You are a philosopher, brit. Or maybe not. Reality is not clearly defined. I guess there are many 'realities'.
You're right, but i also agree with the academic who said that :..Social networking site don't connect people – they isolate them from reality"
Don't blame the technology. Computers have a "Power On/Off" button. Ever noticed it? Ever used it?
i think it is a mre act of balancing things. dont overindulge. these are the new addiciton, the new drugs of the future, it destroys life as well.
balance everything, set limits, that way you'll enjoy life .
I wonder, more of advanced IT and technology has really helped us or created more mess in our lives;
Where is godamnn simplicity? beauty of nature, life?
How many of us recently enjoyed beautiful fullmoon night? or only artifical lights which turn to a deadly looking concrete jungle under sunlight.
It seems we all are into a mad rat race, blindly, with no definite end and in process miss the beauty of our journey..
What physical activities r we ignoring due to technology?
Gym?
swim?
Dance?
Sports?
Driving?
Eating?
Can technology replace all these activities?
Ofcourse not..
Now let me give u an example how social sites works as a utility and not a nessecity.
I've decided to play football on friday giving out open invitations to ppl I know or not know..
Guess what, I just saved a lot of tym by creating an event on fb and sent invitations
To my friends and their friends.
Ofcourse, I could have gathered ppl without the internet.
I could have dialed all the 20-40 ppl and explained them location n time.
But I think it would b waste of time & energy
what say you?
Now did I save myself somtym?
a friend's quote,
"I am in all social sites, but no social activity".
Say lets create a no-gadget day with QL and meet instead, just you and no gadget..
Thanks .. You make an excellent point. Many of us have forgotten the art of learning or experiencing physical things outside our virtual world..
Yes it is isolating us and I have been guilty of being on laptop, mobile while being with friends..
true indeed
happygolucky....
We never realized we've wasted so much time checking updates and updates of other people in FB not knowing we could have had updated our own self thru learning new things and enhancing our careers..
Brit... agree...its worrying and unfortunate... and I feel that may be one of the reasons for fickle relationships these days among the young generation where the emotional bonding is through wires unlike through flesh and blood when one interacts in real.
Yep, my hubby calls my iPhone the other man in my life...he says he's sick of competing now.
free FB from VF....i am becoming more hooked to the virtual world..
I am hating though..
a friend of mine was in a toilet for long and was ordering Pizza frm there...:(
Technology i say....:(
My son was at the dinner table at a family gathering and just could not put his BB down..
It is rather worrying and unfortunate.
Some QLers who came to my place were immediately onto QL to check their PM's and posts on my laptop...:) Some however, even wanted the TV to be switched off...
So yes, a part of the society who spend most of the time behind computers, networking, tend to lose the human touch...