36 thoughts on “Social Media”

      • It’s amusing how the older generation doesn’t adapt or adopt these new technologies and are left a bit befuddled with what those “young people” are up to….well Facebook is for our grandparents now apparently.

      • You are right. It is harder for the older generation. The pace of change seems to be increasing and a lot of them figure; it is beyond them, so they give up before even trying it. Soon they will be saying that as well about Twitter and Instagram, when newer services come along.

      • It’s incredibly easy for people to think that connecting with someone via a form of social media, is the same as truly knowing that person. In a world where it’s difficult to truly know people that we actually meet, how can we begin to know those who we merely connect with digitally. Don’t get me wrong, I think connectivity is a great tool, but just not a substitute for genuine friendship and lasting relationships. Just my opinion, but I do have direct experience, both bad and good, so I like to think I have a balanced perspective.

      • In a world where people fall in love in video games, meet on online dating sites and socialize 80% of the time on their mobile phone, it does make you wonder! Face to face interaction cannot be replaced…. really enjoyed reading about your perspective on this…

      • I’m someone who did just that, I ended up meeting and falling in love with someone I met online. The crucial difference was I didn’t trust the feelings I had until I met and really got to know the person. My story had a happy ending, as I’m now married to that said person, but I would never have trusted my heart to someone without first making certain they were who and what I believed them to be and that took years. Instant messaging, instant food, instant opinion, a life of convenience has its plus side, but everyone should take time, when it really counts. 😀

      • Well congrats to you! I do think this is all so mainstream that we barely give it a second thought, really. And IM can be pretty intimate with the levels of sharing and disclosure. I hear we have less than the attention span of goldfish now with all these channels and all this multitasking 😛

  4. So true Wuji. I struggle with the online world. I am not on twitter or facebook, they seemed pointless and distant to me. Just my opinion. My personality type likes fleshly contact and conversation. I’ve looked into groups in my home community but even those aren’t spontaneous, you have to look them up online and everything is prescribed (we meet this day and time and we’ll be discussing…). I also hate that people can further deepen the mask they wear in the online world. I even struggle with having a blog, except that I like having an outlet for my poems, since books are hard to sell and it’s free. At least I can read great poetry from folks like you online 🙂

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    • Dara I feel you, it’s not as easy to “meet people” as it once was. I used to have weekly meetings with 3 or more friends, now I’m lucky if I see my friends once a month. I’m fully immersed in the digital world and I’m often stuck wondering about these kinds of things. Especially the blog, it’s just words in the end….

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      • That was one of the reasons I was going to give up blogging because I felt like I was just putting words out there and left thinking, “Okay, now what? Is anyone getting this?” I don’t see my words as just words, so I felt that blogging watered them down. Not to be negative but that’s how I feel at times. I’m still here though… for now.

      • That’s the problem with the digital age, information is redundant, authenticity is rare, human connection is harder to find. Even literature, I’m often left with a feeling of what is the point. It amounts to my brain’s own amusement, which seems hardly altruistic.

      • Yes it’s worth exploring I think, the futility of information. Why do we write? Why do we need to connect to find meaning in our lives? It’s fascinating….the decline of art and literacy is the modern age?

      • I am desperately trying to hold on to literature and bring back a movement, probably presumptuously, but I can say I tried in my lifetime.

      • There is no doubt it is in a great decline I think, it’s fun to be pioneers against those odds. But if people are on their mobile devices with a 5 second attention span, realistically we have to imagine that readers might only skim what we write…

      • Taking the time to read another’s work is slightly altruistic, beyond one’s brain’s own amusement. It’s a kind service to do that, to give in that way. Let them know that you dig it too, or not, either way, they’ll be happy with the kindness of the gesture. Conversation is redefined, via posts. I wish my kids would put down their phones and develop some social skills. No one reads Your poems and wonders “what is the point?”… We all question ourselves, at some point, perhaps that’s point that’s in question. Strive to be pointless, you don’t need to be pointy; leave that to the compass.
        Cheers bud!

  6. It’s been great following your discussion. I’m one of those who enjoy rich deep conversations and really connecting with people. So getting a like on my blog is not enough. Nevertheless, I get to learn so much from different perspectives and issues to take back to the “living” world. Many of us write about nature and life but I worry that with the pursuit of masked people behind devices – we’re missing out on life – That’s my few pennies worth 🙂

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  8. What an interesting discussion!
    My girlfriend and I were just chatting about how we can bring back face-to-face meetings in our local urban community where we all live behind our gates, electric fences and window guards yet chat with people in other countries and continents (like now!) who we will probably never meet. However, I think there is a balance. I get sooo much from these types of discussions and reading others poetry which I would not (and was not! ) be able to do in a non-digital world – so there’s a HUGE plus (and I get to sell some books!).
    Of course, understanding the whole time that I am only seeing snap shots of people but, you know what? After 55 years of living, and many different relationships, I suspect that’s all we see of others anyway! In body or not – sometimes the snapshot the other person wants to show us and sometimes only the one we want to see – and that’s okay!
    If we can but step back from our expectations/perceptions/perspectives, maybe we can just love what we see just for what it is. How we see it, what it means to us is for us – doesn’t change what it is! It Gives us an opportunity – for us!
    For me it’s kinda the same principle whether I’m interacting online or in person – it’s different, yet, in some ways, it’s the same! If that makes any sense! 🙂

    Reply

    • You have a good point there Rob, for people in the last 3rd of their life it’s great. I just wonder for some younger folk, if it’s actually quite a distraction from actually living. Digital immersion is increased at quite a rate, when does it actually find a balance?

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      • So true, Wuji. We have the balance of having experienced life without the digital. Difficult to relate to how it must feel without that. So many my age and above complain about the youth continually absorbed in texting, computer, etc etc and how difficult we find it to bring them out of that into our perception of the ‘real’ world. Like you said a few weeks back, the future is digital so maybe, for the youth that future is the present! Maybe that is their balance?
        I know my son, at 29,finds his balance from his job and daily living in his computer games. I used to think it was an escape but have realised it is actually a need.
        And so the world turns!

  9. Also would just like to quickly add (haha!) that many of the recent neurological studies on how the youth brains are affected by the digital world are fascinating. The brain’s physiological functioning has and is changing.
    In the past, we thought vertically and the brain worked along single tract lines (sorry – not explaining this too well!). Essentially, we could only give 100% attention to one thing at a time – then chemicals were released to ‘wash’ the brain and we could move on to the next thing.
    However, now, the younger brains are working horizontally! So, when my son says he can give me, his texting, the TV and his computer screen each 100% attention – he can!!
    It’s a different world with new paradigms, new thinking patterns, new developments both external and internal to the body!
    How exciting! Providing we can release the built-in patterns of the past and allow ourselves to flow with the movement of exploration! I don’t think anything is built in stone anymore. Everything is fluid and changing – we each need to find our own way through this, which means, I suppose, we really need to get to know ourselves well – something I don’t believe we have been taught too well to date!! A ‘failure’ of my generation and those before, maybe.

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