I randomly found this cartoon clip; it relates to our first lecture when we discussed society’s fascination with social networking sites. It’s basically a parody on the people who are obsessed with the site twitter. I thought it was pretty funny, what do u guys think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2HAroA12w
And I totally agree with you Talin, why bother playing that game? Anyways after today’s lecture and all the google earth talk, I read in the newspaper today that it has become more common to divorced due to finding their partner’s car parked outside somewhere they shouldn’t be.
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Haha! That was great.
ReplyDelete-Who are they talking to?
No one and eeeeeeveryone.
-If we cant twitter we don’t exist!
Very entertaining look at one of the mediatised social networks. And I have to say I agree, I would rather have some one ring me.
…hi, me again. I was thinking about my response on the bus today and maybe what it really comes down to for me is the lack of commitment this form of communication brings.
ReplyDeleteWhere I would rather a phone call I would feel the same about an email or a letter because the level of engagement is personal. Hmmm, maybe I can compare it to seeing someone you know passing by on the street and though you know they won’t have time to answer, and you don’t particularly have the time to listen even if they did; you ask “how are you?” I mean really what’s the point? It becomes a superficial engagement, more of a socially accepted acknowledgement of each other in the same space, rather than an actual inquiry as to ‘how they are’.
It’s this kind of community relationship that I think is presented in things like twitter. Perhaps it’s that the use of ‘I’ as the prominent indexical rather than something like we, they or them that makes interaction a little one sided. And as a result the interaction is, as on the street, a process of acknowledging each other’s existence, rather than thoroughly engaging with them. And more over I think it becomes a cycle: The more people become used to these worlds, the more they feel isolated from ‘personal’ interaction and so participate in these communities even more to try and fill in what is missing.
I mean this may all be way off the mark for a lot of people. I had a myspace (oh wow I’m writing this in Microsoft word 2007 and it wanted to correct myspace by giving it a capital ‘M’)profile ages ago but it felt hollow and pointless to me, it lacked the qualities of ‘personal’ interaction that I feel are important.
Anyway…rambling.
I’d like to pose the question: Are you part of an online social community? And what is it about this community that engages you? Why are you a part of it?
Christopher.
To answer your questions, no I don’t have a twitter page or a facebook. The reason why I chose not to sign up is because I feel like it’s a false representation of who you really are (you know, all the pictures, quizzes and friends etc). It becomes kinda competitive with who can collect the most friends. And don’t you hate it when you talking to someone about what you did or whatever and they answer “yeah I know I saw on facebook”. And I’m sure the world does not want to be informed in everything little thing we do (referring to twitter). What’s the point? From hearing other people talk about these social networking sites I gather that it is a way of keeping in touch with friends. Which I totally understand yet I still prefer to talk to my friends in person. However I do have msn, because its just plain old chatting!!
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ReplyDeleteI'd just like to say that the main reason i got a facebook was because i realised tehre were people from my primary school and my old high school trying to get in touch with me. I went to primary school in New Zealand so it's a really incredible thing to now be able to see what these people are doing in their lives; i know who's married, who has children, who is studying, who already graduated and has a career, as well as where they've moved all voer the world. it's an itnernational community that, for me, helps to keep in contact with people we would probably never see nor speak to again. these people were important to us once upon a time weren't they? i still love seeing my 48 year old mothers reactions when she goes on a webpage called 'nasza classa' (we're polish and both she and my dad went to school there) which translates to 'our class' and sees what her classmates are doing today... 30 years later!! technology has come so far and i think we just take it for granted. i am not in an online community to talk to strangers. i'm sure there are more people like me out there aswell. i hope that gives some people more of a perspective on these kinds of things...
ReplyDeleteAwesome video,
ReplyDeleteit really encapsulates the absurdity of Twitter. Like the video, i believe that Twitter is a form of exhibitionism. When people talk about trivial and mundane stuff in a live conversation, i usually think that they're boring. The same should be applied to Twitter. The need to tell everyone about your everyday experiences is narcissistic and strange. I've watched quite a few videos that parody social media and they all adopt a literal take on the nature of communication that occurs in social networking sites. Could you imagine having 100 'friends' in your bedroom and telling them all about your toothache?