i haven't adjusted to the new models of communication. i'm a little weirded out when someone from work with whom i've never had a personal conversation friends me on Facebook, and i don't know what to think about Google Latitude. my friends knowing where i am at all times? why would they want to? why would i want them to? and wouldn't they just contact me when they are around and want to hang out? i guess what tweaks me is i no longer get to discretely choose what personal information i share with whom. now people come asking for access to my photos, my status updates, my friends, my professional contacts, and my location, and it's considered rude if i turn them away.
in the same week my former PhD advisor sent me a Facebook friend request and my dad sent me a request to share my location with him on Google Latitude. i can't even explain why this feels so bizarre. is it because these are authority figures in my life and this seems to me to dramatically change the nature of our relationship? or is it because they're from the previous generation and seem to be more comfortable with this than i am?
to be honest, i'm even still adjusting a bit to the blogging thing. i thought i was all good until a guy i met on eHarmony Google-stalked me and posted a comment on one of my posts. he was extremely pleased with himself. that ended that (both dating the guy and my posts for a while). i'm already worrying what my dad will think of this post.
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4 comments:
I think Dodgeball.com was popular in Manhattan--a dense enough place such that if you found yourself with some spare time in some neighborhood, there was a non-trivial chance that a friend was nearby--yay, loitering buddy. And a lot of these young people seemed to have spare time. So users derived benefit... maybe? That's my theory, anyhow.
There was a point in the late 1870s when telephones first became popular. People worried about how one should answer the phone, especially when the caller was someone previously unknown. ("Ahoy" had popularity for a time.)
It took a couple of decades for the froth of that revolution to settle, too. :-)
If you didn't know a thing about technology, you could easily feign ignorance and ignore all requests. But we all know you know way too much. So in the end, stupid people have it easier. With regard to the cyber stalker e-harmful dude: is stalking really that creepy? I always thought it was the highest form of compliment...
I just dislike that communication is getting ever more limited as we get more ways. Telephone, letter, email have personal connection & last as long as you want them to.
Blogs have less connection but you can still go on & on.
Facebook is mostly photos & status updates of three lines or less, and you never know who can see what.
And now Twitter restricts everything to a tidy little 140-character blurb. It's painful to realize I'm actually thinking in those terms.
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