Call me Mr. Early Adopter.  When people started having web pages, I figured out how to make my own web page.   That was fun, and I learned some stuff.  Then people started making blogs, so you’ve got what you see here.  Then there was instant messaging (you can reach me on AIM at “fastandbad”).  And text messaging on my phone (probably the most I have kept in touch with my daughter since she was borned).  Then someone sent me a Facebook link and that seemed interesting, so you can find me there.  And now there’s a lot of media attention on Twitter (have an account, don’t use it).

And all this stuff is cool and great and the wave of the future blah blah, but (and here’s the part that hopefully goes without saying) one has to ask–going from pages of text, to Blog posts, to a pithy 140 characters on Twitter–what are we really gaining here?  I’ve been doing this stuff for years and years, and I enjoy writing about what interests me and attempting to share what’s interesting about those interests (hopefully) to the world.  And I make no great claims for producing profound insights into the human condition as we know it, and I agree with people who would say there is a (varying) level of narcissism in all these kinds of activities (look at me!  Look at my insightful comments on contempirary culture!).

But (and here’s the cranky old people stuff), the constant move towards more and more active (and more and more limited) “communication” – what are people really communicating?  ”Gonna pick up the kids–What a weekend!”, “Love those Tigers!”, etc.  I mean, I’m as capable as anyone of making some short, pithy, funny statement that can give a friend or acquaitance a laugh or a glimmer of what’s going on with me (not that they should even care what’s going on with me–they’ve got their own lives, and their own short, pithy statements to make).  But where is this going, exactly?

If you asked me what’s wrong the world (and many, many people do), I would say one of our biggest problems is the shallowness of our thought and our arguments, our unwillingness to dig a little deeper and confront and deal with the bigger picture of what’s really going on.  And these supposed new “tools” for communication, be they cell phones, Facebook, Twitter, text messages blah blah–they are actually hurting more than they help.  I don’t want to hear what my Congressman tweets when watching President Obama’s State of the Union address–I want him to make the country a better place for me, my family and my friends.  I don’t need 500 Facebook friends-I need a couple of good friends I can depend on to watch my back.

Sorry to go on for 467 words.  Next I’ll talk about the latest book I’m reading, OLIVER TWIST.  It’s by a guy named Dickens.  Look for him on Facebook.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 9:07 am and is filed under Cranky Old People Stuff, Existential Insights, Techie Geekie. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.