Friday Night Commentary:
I broke down this week and finally joined the ranks of the "Twitter heads"...or is that "Tweeters"---I know it isn't "Twitterers".... because even for a made up word, that would be bad English...
I digress.
I had not signed up for Twitter before, not because I didn't see the value, or the appeal -- no, I did not think I had the extra hour in the day to check my incoming "tweets," update my outgoing "tweets" and collect followers. I had already spent significant time becoming a fan and collecting friends on Facebook. Updating my status has become near automatic, albeit still time consuming. But yet, I am a social introvert and therefore drawn to these methods of communication without the complicated and awkard face-to-face interaction.
Let me talk about that concept of "updating my status" - similar to tweeting, Facebook allows me to share with all my Facebook friends what I am doing or thinking at any given moment. Day, night, in the bathroom... wherever I have access to the Internet (and don't joke, people do update their status while doing #2.... weird, but that is just how attached we have become to The Matrix... ) AND who cares any way that "I am working", or "enjoying a cup of tea", or "on my way to the mall"? Funny thing is, they do, and we have become obsessed with being voyeuristic. AND for some reason uber sharing! We are oddlly compelled to open previously private aspects of our lives with everyone - or at least anyone who may be a friend, fan, or follower....
AND about that, "friend" thing. For some reason, we seem to have lowered our criteria for what makes a friend. Why is that? A Facebook friend for example need not be anyone you have ever met, or spoken with - you just have to ask, they have to accept, or vice-versa. Then there are those formerly known as acquaintances - there is no tag for "that guy I went to high school with who sat next to me in AP English, but I never really talked to" -- he is now a "Friend" too, same as mom, same as your best friend, same as your old babysitter, same as your grandma... and yes, all these people are on Facebook and Twitter too. The great equalizer...
Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. It is super handy to be able to type a message into the little iPhone and let all 854 people on your Friends/Followers list that you have landed safely in DC and you are headed for the baggage claim. Although really only mom and the friend---real friend--- picking you up really care. But that is how we are now, unafraid to open our lives up in 140 character blurbs, making friends with the single click of a mouse and hearing the collective heartbreaking sigh of the world when it finds out that an icon and idol has left this mortal coil--all in bursts of blurbs and updates so loud we end up temporarily breaking our binding, cutting off the ability to reach out and share, and learn and pry and tweet.
Ironic.
Meghan Wier
Author Writer Web Consultant
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Friday, June 26, 2009
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Friended/Friend-Ed
Friended Friend-ed
So after much resisting, I finally joined/got sucked into the social network of Facebook. Initially designed for college kids to get to know their classmates, it has now gone global, allowing people of all ages and demographics.
As a person in the process of examining friendships, I find this whole concept very interesting. You seek out people from your past or present and connect online. I went and looked up people from my high school class to see if there were any signed up on Facebook and there were several --- including a guy who lived on my street, whom I saw nearly everyday much of my adolescence. I “friended” him, meaning I clicked on a link to add him to my friends list (criteria for “friendship” on these sites is pretty loose). Within a couple hours, this accepted my “friend request.” And then wrote me a message – it went something like this: “Hi – thank you for friending me. I forget—how do we know each other?”
Funny on so many levels:
1) He accepted the request
2) He then emailed me to ask if we knew each other
3) He used theword “friending”
4) We will probably now actually become friends because I friended him
5) I just used the word “friended”
This whole idea of collecting “friends” is an interesting one. In a way, this online social networking is a great thing connecting people who have lost touch, or for whom physical interaction is not possible. But the internet has created this strange world, where people throw around the word “friend,” making it lose meaning.
In some ways I really like this way of networking. It helps connect people. That is a great thing. But I can also see how these online sites can suck away the time that once could spend truly being with another human being. I am the last one who should preach about putting the laptop down, but I do recognize that this can be dangerous territory. We need to be able to physically share space, or at the very least talk to other people. There is too much lost without tone and inflection, or a look, a shrug, a sigh. Words cannot communicate full meaning alone.
That said, I have to go check my Facebook account and see if I have any new friends….
So after much resisting, I finally joined/got sucked into the social network of Facebook. Initially designed for college kids to get to know their classmates, it has now gone global, allowing people of all ages and demographics.
As a person in the process of examining friendships, I find this whole concept very interesting. You seek out people from your past or present and connect online. I went and looked up people from my high school class to see if there were any signed up on Facebook and there were several --- including a guy who lived on my street, whom I saw nearly everyday much of my adolescence. I “friended” him, meaning I clicked on a link to add him to my friends list (criteria for “friendship” on these sites is pretty loose). Within a couple hours, this accepted my “friend request.” And then wrote me a message – it went something like this: “Hi – thank you for friending me. I forget—how do we know each other?”
Funny on so many levels:
1) He accepted the request
2) He then emailed me to ask if we knew each other
3) He used theword “friending”
4) We will probably now actually become friends because I friended him
5) I just used the word “friended”
This whole idea of collecting “friends” is an interesting one. In a way, this online social networking is a great thing connecting people who have lost touch, or for whom physical interaction is not possible. But the internet has created this strange world, where people throw around the word “friend,” making it lose meaning.
In some ways I really like this way of networking. It helps connect people. That is a great thing. But I can also see how these online sites can suck away the time that once could spend truly being with another human being. I am the last one who should preach about putting the laptop down, but I do recognize that this can be dangerous territory. We need to be able to physically share space, or at the very least talk to other people. There is too much lost without tone and inflection, or a look, a shrug, a sigh. Words cannot communicate full meaning alone.
That said, I have to go check my Facebook account and see if I have any new friends….
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