"you took my love and i'm willing. there's no limit to the love i'm giving. the love i'm givin..." MIchel'le - Something in my Heart
has nothing to do with the price of tea in China, but i can't get the damn song out of my head... #movingon
a long time ago, 2001 it was i believe, a very single friend turned me on to BlackPlanet.com, a forum set up with profile pages and photos, set up presumably so that professionals could network and post job opportunities... connect if you will
what began as a very small part of what BlackPlanet was, matchmaking... became largely what it was being used for. it became a place to hook up... and get hooked up - i'll pause here and invoke my 5th amendment right to not self-incriminate
BlackPlanet turned to MySpace. MySpace turned to Facebook. Facebook, not Pinky and the Brain, took over the world... on office computers all over the country (if not the world), on smart phones via the Facebook app, on notebooks, tablets, and laptops at your local library or Starbucks... we seemingly can't go more than an hour or so without checking our news feed to see who said what, or looking for that little red "notification" icon to light up, or continuing that inbox conversation, or creepily looking at that friend's photo album again, or getting in a few moves on bejeweled, cafe world, farmville... the list goes on and on...
no longer is it "special" that i remember your birthday; by the time i send you that happy birthday text some 80 "friends" have already posted on your wall. not because they know your birthday (change your b'day to tomorrow on your profile and watch your wall light up
when you randomly come to mind i can satisfy that curiosity, not with a phone call or quick text, but just by giving your page a quick once over... and therein lies the problem
communication in its purest form is dying, if not dead. as much as texting had taken talking out of the equation, facebook has taken real life, real time interaction and rendered it moot. a conversation that might take 5 minutes on the phone can take several days on Facebook. we exchange numbers in a social setting and i have a friend request before i can get back to the car good. i haven't talked to you in over a year but you can tell me my last 8 statuses...
it's not that Facebook is the devil. like anything else, it's just made it easier for us to be the devil's WE really are
I can totally relate to your post and no doubt agree that communication has changed in the last decade and it’s up to us “old-heads” to keep the more antiqued ways of communicating alive and well. Maybe we can create a communication side salad..a little texting, sprinkled with a few phone calls, peppered with an email or two, and voila, now we have something that can truly be savored.
ReplyDeleteCommunication is not "dying"...it has EVOLVED. You weren't bitchin when yall stopped writing messages on tiny papers and tying them around the legs of pigeons, now were you? #hypocrite :-P
ReplyDeleteI can appreciate ur perspective valholla, and I would agree... if this new wave of communication was more efficient or effective than the methods that were already in use. trading on my carrier pigeon for a human courier, and ultimately a steam powered locomotive was a sad day, but it also meant the removal of pigeon shit from my life, and my letters... #pooperscooper
ReplyDeleteCommunication should be key any every way that you choose to communicate. I have to agree that facebook as made communication somewhat impersonal. Those people that like to hide behind words or a computer all the time and never engage in personal conversation...#facetofacethatis...would enjoy social networking sites.
ReplyDeleteI myself am a lover of words and love to write but need the face to face communication
@ R.J. Yes...I agree. You already have enough shit in your life. Pigeons should be the least of your worries...o.O
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