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The Impact of Social Networking on Society
Anonymous Pingu writes "The latest edition of New Scientist has a series of features on social networking. These include an analysis of the impact on our social attitudes by Sherry Turkle, a feature on the possible privacy implications of using sites like MySpace and Friendster, and a short science fiction piece by Bruce Sterling. It's certainly interesting that so many people post very revealing stuff about themselves on these sites."
I clicked on the short story cos it caught my attention first. It started off well, addressing privacy issues, but then tailed off into the usual rant about everything being digitized and the soulless internet replacing good ol' natural hobbies.
I never could get that line of thought. The internet is a tool, the power is in how you use it. I look around and see the wealth of information I have learnt in the past few years over the net, and it just wouldn't have been possible any way else. I couldn't give that up for anything. And don't blame games for poor parenting either.
Technology rocks, quit whining. Poetic angst just makes me sick.
I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you.
Speak for yourself. I don't have a cellphone, and furthermore I don't ever intend to have one. I don't use IRC/IM or any of that crap. I like playing video games, but I don't get into the whole multiplayer thang.
... white noise.
I don't think people need other people around all the time as much as they need human noise. I noticed this years ago with television. I'd go over to a friend's house to visit, and their attention would be partially focused on the telly as they engaged in channel surfing --- a continuous stream of flash and sound with no discernable message. Now it's cellphones: Everywhere I go in public people spend their time yapping away on them. But, if I bother to sit and listen, I discover that the content of their "conversation" is nonexistant. It's just chatter
I don't understand what compels people to continually talk for the sake of talking, much less desire to listen to it. It reminds me of my kids' continuous babble --- I love 'em, but goddamn it's nice when they head to school for a few hours so I can enjoy some peace and quiet.