The Corean Chronicles
Being Connected
Twitter is, of course, unless I'm already outdated, the latest phenomena, and it's epidemic. But why? Messages are limited to something like 140 characters, enough to say, "Here I am in suburban metropolis, going to Vortex [or whatever]" or "At San Diego ComicCon, and Neil Gaiman's here..." Why should anyone really care? And yet, they obviously do.
College campuses are filled with students, and more and more, they don't talk to each other face to face. The moment a class lets out, most of them are on their cellphones -- those that weren't already texting under their desks in class -- connecting to someone, and oblivious to anyone around them, so much so that students have been known to walk in front of oncoming cars... and not just occasionally, either. It's not even remarkable when a high school girl receives something like 20 twitters/text messages in less than a half hour... or that none of them convey any information to speak of.
So... why are so many people working so frantically to "stay in touch," especially given that it's not that cheap? Since human beings come from simian stock, is this fad a form of "verbal grooming?" Or is it an attempt by the communicators to reassure themselves that they really do mean something to someone in a universe that we as humans have been forced to realize is so vast as to reduce even our entire solar system to comparative nothingness? Or perhaps an effort to fill some sort of emptiness with the sound of a familiar voice... or at least the letters texted by a friend?
It's clear that I'm incredibly dated and old-fashioned, at least in the social communications sense, but I'd rather hear those words and voices in person. It's not that I don't have a cellphone, because I do. I just never carry it except when I travel. When I do travel, I use it to obtain information, such as directions to the bookstore I'm going to visit. Although I do know how to use a
I even forgot the cellphone when I went to WorldCon in
And yes, when I travel, I do call my wife to touch base -- generally every night, not every five minutes. But that may be because we're more connected in the ways that count.
In my feed, many of the tweets I receive consist of very short summaries, followed by links to more meaty information. From such tweets, I have learned more about my craft (software development), politics and economics (many different viewpoints, most unavailable from traditional media, some whacky, but many thought provoking), and even read some great literature.
To this latter point, the drabblecast sponsors a 100 character twitfic story contest. It is hard to fit an entire story into 100 characters and I am amazed at how ingenious some writers are in the form. It does not always work, but does often enough that I find it worth my time to follow the stream.
My main criticism of your point is that because some have chosen to misuse the medium, you appear to argue that there can be no valid use for the same. I use Twitter, and to a lesser extent Facebook and LinkedIn to augment my communication with the world, not replace it.
For more on this, I refer you to Neal Ford's articles on this, Twitter Matters: Keeping Up With Weak Social Links. Neal does an amazing job of arguing the value proposition of social networks and Twitter in particular.
Twitter can be a great communication tool, just don't use it for letting folks know what stage of hygenic maintenance you are currently practicing! ;-)
I also get world news without having to subscribe to an RSS feed or going to a cable news website. For instance, I learned from twitter today that President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.
On the other hand, I'm not tethered to a smartphone (my cell phone usage seems to mirror your own), so maybe the people you're dealing with really are out of control. When I'm with someone in real life, electronic stimuli tend to take a back seat for me.
The second part of the conversation was about Facebook. My daughter uses it to have "live chat" sessions with her friends. My comment: you have free evening, night, and weekend minutes on your cell phone. Why don't you talk with your friends instead of type at them? She said that this way they could do other things (such as look at other web sites or play online games) while chatting. Plus, they really didn't have much to say but were spreading it out over an hour or so to alleviate boredom.
I'd rather have a meaningful five-minute call via POTS (plain old telephone service) than an hour of intermittent chat-typing. Apparently, I, too, am an old fogey who doesn't understand today's teens and twenty-somethings. And it's true: after multiple conversations with teens and young adults, I cannot understand this desire for constant contact of an insignificant nature. I do like Mr. Modesitt's hypothesis about social grooming. It's as good an explanation as any I've read.
: 4:28 PMReally.
Otherwise, I just kept phone numbers in it, and I got myself an address book and wrote those numbers there when I had to cancel my cellphone service. Now, I take a dollar in quarters with me, and call my friends from the payphones on the transit stations (about the only places you can find them in my area).
I have a twitter account, but don't update it frequently, and when I do, I generally type in something silly like, "checking out twitter" on it.
I do facebook, but that's for more long-distance, and I don't really communicate on it, except with my sister, in Georogia, who doesn't do phone calls very often.
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