A Dumping Ground for Whims?

     I'm in a reflective mood today, and there's something intriguing about being on the internet and knowing that there is so much information out there about me. Part of that is the basic terror of "someone could find me and use this information to harm me" and another part is a "what if..."

     For those of us who grew up as the internet became popular there were the usual internet stranger-danger lessons: don't talk to anyone you don't know in real life, don't give anyone your information including your real name and age, don't do this, don't do that. But now that we're all adults the world wants us to give out all that information and live our lives in the virtual realm. There are even sites devoted to sharing everything from your name to what you ate for breakfast to a picture of that breakfast. 

     Personally, I don't understand the desire to share what I ate for breakfast, or a picture of it, with the world (for those of you asking: cinnamon toast and apple juice). But there are times when sharing something is appropriate, like friends posting about their engagements and asking for help with wedding ideas. But where do we draw that line?

     Should  we be posting on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest all the details of our every moment, or should they be reserved for thoughtful or intentional shares? Is the internet, the archive of our present, a place to record the development of our thoughts and ideas or a dumping ground for our every whim?

Just a thought...

Stephie

New Obsessions: BBC America

     This last week was Spring Break for my university so I've had some free time on my hands, actually I've had a lot of free time on my hands. I started watching Doctor Who this evening--it's the first new episode since Christmas--but got caught by the new shows that followed.
     Orphan Black and The Nerdist were interesting: Orphan Black is about a woman who watches someone who looks just like her jump in front of a train. She takes on the woman's identity and strange things start to happen in the dead woman's life. The Nerdist is about all things nerdy. The host, Chris Hardwick, described the show as a place where any thing that people can obsess over, talk about, argue about, then talk about more can be explored and talked about. I thought it was an accurate description of being a nerd; it's also a description John Green used when talking about nerds and nerdiness in his vlog. But it's also an accurate description of Tumblr, so The Nerdist is Tumblr in a television show.
     It looks like we, as a society, are becoming more interested in talking about our interests in an informal and impersonal manner. What happened to book clubs and other organizations where people meet up in real life and talk about things?
     I know I'm a culprit of this same anti-social mingling; I am, after all, talking to you from my computer while you're out there on your computer or smart phone, but what happens outside of these glowing boxes? Will we revert to finding meeting places and talking about things just as people have started writing letters again? Or will we stay tethered to the magic box that allows us to travel to an alternate world where all the other people are traveling to talk about their obsessions.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Perception

     Charles Bukowski once said something about the world being smeared with the color of forgotten love. I thought it was a beautiful image, but something about the color stayed in my head. What color is forgotten love? Is it a murky kind of purple, or a deep clear blue; maybe it's a rich red, the color of blood, or a rust red--dried blood.
     I'm working on my senior project, my capstone, and the theme is "Image + Words = Picture". This confusion about what color Bukowski's forgotten love is plays into this idea. Every single person makes a judgement when they see an image. The meaning derived from the image is connected directly to the  culturally agreed upon definitions and personal experiences of the viewer.
     There are things the brain filters out of what we see. The biggest example of this is your nose. It's always there, right in the middle of your vision, but you don't ever see it (well, unless something about it changes like a scratch or make-up). Your brain knows it's there, but it filters it out because there's so much more that you should see. I wonder if that is where the term "right under your nose" came from? You don't see it because your brain has erased it from what you realize you see.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Social Media

     So I gave in this week and got a twitter. I have no idea how it's supposed to work, but I'm following nearly anything and everything that looks somewhat interesting. I was thinking that maybe I want a clever tag - you know, that name that other people reference you with. I asked my sister and she suggested an inside joke that we have. It was a clever name, but I wasn't sure people would get why it was attached to me. Another friend suggested that I use "theincrediblesteph", which would be alright, except for it just doesn't feel like me. In the end I just used my school-assigned e-mail username. It's not very clever, but I can always change it later if I want.

     But it got me thinking; there are so many different social media sites that we use to talk to each other and they've become a hassle. One of my friends got a position managing the social media for a non-profit and when she and I were talking about what all goes into it, I didn't realize how many different medias we use. Within the same conversation, another friend commented on how many applications he has on his phone dealing with things like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and other social media. Why do we need so many? And why are the different platforms' interfaces so different? I would almost rather use something to keep track of them all for me. 

     We all act like we're so connected with each other because we know when Joe-Schmo finished his book (because of GoodReads) or when Suzy-Sunshine got a promotion (LinkedIn) or even when Molly and Mike got engaged (Facebook) but we don't know what's going on in their everyday lives. What does it matter if  Suzy got a promotion? The observer doesn't know how she feels about it: maybe she was going to quit, but now she feels an obligation to the company and can't follow her dream of backpacking through Timbuktu. 

     It feels like we've traded the deep and meaningful relationships with other people for the superficial knowledge of the overarching themes of their lives. I talk to my grandmother sometimes about why she's always writing letters. She receives at least one each day and they're all filled with day-to-day reactions and thoughts on what has happened. There's no question that Aunt Jean is frustrated at the neighbor kids because she writes out that they ran into her fence, learning to drive, rather than just posting a Facebook status that her back gate is broken. When did this shift from wanting to truly know another person to wanting to know about another person happen? 

     I've tried the whole writing letters to friends, but my generation just doesn't have time, or the energy, to write out a letter. It seems like we don't know how to make the connections anymore, simply because we share such little bits and pieces through our various social media. The bits and pieces are like a piece of a puzzle with letters and in-person conversations making up the picture from the box to put them into place. Social media will never make up for what it has taken away from us, but it is making strides to put the pieces in a recognizable pattern we can then read from. I still miss getting the whole picture. 

Just a thought....

Stephie