How much should we really put out there?
I've started thinking about how much information goes out and is stored in the ether....sure maybe I should of thought of this earlier when I wasn't on Facebook, Twitter, Skype and writing a blog...
There's one part of me the 'social Melissa' who thinks great an opportunity to talk to people, maybe meet people I've never met before and wouldn't normally get the opportunity to meet. It also allows me to stay in contact with people I have met and not lose touch with some really great friends.
Also there is a touch of anthropology in there, the loss of community and social cohesion that has occurred in society today and maybe that these social networking sites are creating a 'new community' environment.
Then, the other part, the'angry, this is my personal space, don't enter it or I'll punch you in the throat Melissa'. Is the Melissa who has watched the occasional horror movie and is well aware of the high freak quotient out there.
I don't consider myself naive but maybe I have been with the information I have put online, I guess only time will tell, as once it's out there you can't really take it back.
A funny comment I read/heard once (I can't remember where from to correctly quote them) was.. "isn't it embarrassing when you mention something to someone in a first meeting that you could of only learnt through light internet stalking."
...under four weeks to go....
Think of it as gossip. Gossip is the thread which links people together. Used to be it was over the back fence or in the kitchen or around the water cooler or over a sandwich; now it happens on-line. A mental map is created in which people go about the business of everyday life: mostly banal; occasional flashes of brilliance. Heaven for those who prefer eavesdropping over interaction. Operates much closer to a verbal than written register but there's the rub: unlike the gossip which is here one moment, away on the breeze the next, the gossip-space in cyberworld hangs around. The footprint you leave in this mode is much more persistent than the traces of those "deep and meaningful" chats with confidants in days gone by. Is it more satisfying?
ReplyDeleteFor me the word 'gossip' has a negative connotation, as I think communication links people together, gossip tends to do the opposite.
ReplyDeleteFor me, this is just another form of communication and I don't think that this has any more or less permanence than if I met someone face to face and had a deep and meaningful chat with them.
You have a point with the 'eavesdropping over social interaction'. This is what I was inferring to with the new 2.0 community. People who escape from their face to face social interaction to pursue alternate forms of interaction. With the added safety net of meeting people without actually meeting people.
Satisfying? - well that's up to the individual's preference in communication.