A feeling;
a need to convey the feeling to achieve a desired result;
real world gestures,
physical expressions,
sounds and words.
This describes what amounts to communication in a certain perspective.
Communication is one among the few foundations which support the human civilization ; its existence & its achievements(however pointless they both might be).
What follows is in part a reply to the paranoid post of my pessimistic pal Sharkey...
Here is the Link... Sharkeys Blog
The both of us have had innumerable discussions on this very topic and our communication process has now taken a new form; of that of blog posts. A very constrained form wherein neither will be carried away by the immediate controversial statement that one might make,which often steers the discussion away from the main subject (and we end up discussing other fantastical stuff :D, without ever reaching a conclusion ).
Now to the matter at hand.
I was going through some numbers; I was not surprised to find out that the total number of Facebook users from USA and the Population of USA (in between age 15-45 years) is almost same. That is a 1/3rd of US population and almost near 100 % of a certain age group.
This
means that the social fabric has changed. The way people convey their
feelings to each other has changed;Communication has changed. To put
things in perspective( of the old ways Vs new ways of communication).
The old ways were intense; very much more intense compared to the new
ways of communication. Nothing compares to seeing the smile on your Girl
friends face; notice the sparkle and the small tear of joy that drops
down her cheek on seeing you after a long time.There is an absolute
lack of this intensity in any Virtual form of communication. you might
have a HI DEF video chat with her and might notice the tear and sparkle
in the eye but never will you feel the warmth of the entire experience
in her embrace.Yet, here we are with 800 million active users on
Facebook. The virtual means of communication is not a completely
ridiculous idea. One doesn't have to travel daily from India to USA so
that he can tell her he loves her or to find out if she is doing well or
to crack a wise joke with her...so on and so forth the convenience of
staying in touch is just too cosy to give up.
Facebook( or the Face that sharkey fears ) is a virtual means of communication.
All Virtual means of communications are in large passive communications; without the Active real world communications to back them up they will fizzle out and die ergo virtual communications will never be able to convey what was actually intended. To make it more clear....
Lets say you try to develop a relationship with a girl entirely in the sphere of virtual communication.
You saw her Profile on Facebook; you truly like her from the little of what you see through status updates, album pictures, interests and activities.and she also likes you back though your Facebook profile and you get a hint of it through your interactions with her over the virtual domain. This relation ship will not last untill you meet her personally.; you will at some point of time get so busy that u wont be able to keep up with this passive form of communcation ( keep up with her status updates) and the liking will eventually come down. had you met her in real life, then there is some part of of your real self dedicated to her and your communications to her will be independent of whether or not u have a good internet connection and whether or not your PC got spoilt.:) . The Passive WILL NOT LAST without the ACTIVE.
So sharkey there is nothing to be uncomfortable with virtual means of communication(/facebook) it will never replace the active form. One should learn to use both of them to effective use and be better at whatever that one wants to achieve.
Coming to the other issue that bugs you. There is definitely an information over load on Facebook in its current form. On a certain level Facebook is just a tinted mirror of the real world society wherein existence of dislike is not acknowledged. Just as in the real world if you put too much information about yourself in the public domain you are inevitably going to land up in trouble . People have yet to come to learn this in the Facebook world. Besides, the information that you put online about yourself is what your trading when you freely enjoy GMAIL and FACEBOOK. ( The cost of free as one might put it). SO if each and every single user decides not to share his interests etc and not to let GMAIL and FACEBOOK sift through your emails and status updates for Keywords. Then the ventures wouldn't be viable economically and will shut down.
By the way nobody is asking you to see the status updates of everyone and then compliant that everyone is narcissistic.....you could just look away(or more appropriately unsubscribe/block the user whose status updates you don't want to see). as to the few persons who are in your friends list and you cannot unsubscribe ..well they are narcissistic in the real world too cant help it( Facebook amplifies the real world qualities in most cases).
Eventually people will learn not to make there life completely public.
a need to convey the feeling to achieve a desired result;
real world gestures,
physical expressions,
sounds and words.
This describes what amounts to communication in a certain perspective.
Communication is one among the few foundations which support the human civilization ; its existence & its achievements(however pointless they both might be).
What follows is in part a reply to the paranoid post of my pessimistic pal Sharkey...
Here is the Link... Sharkeys Blog
The both of us have had innumerable discussions on this very topic and our communication process has now taken a new form; of that of blog posts. A very constrained form wherein neither will be carried away by the immediate controversial statement that one might make,which often steers the discussion away from the main subject (and we end up discussing other fantastical stuff :D, without ever reaching a conclusion ).
I was going through some numbers; I was not surprised to find out that the total number of Facebook users from USA and the Population of USA (in between age 15-45 years) is almost same. That is a 1/3rd of US population and almost near 100 % of a certain age group.
All Virtual means of communications are in large passive communications; without the Active real world communications to back them up they will fizzle out and die ergo virtual communications will never be able to convey what was actually intended. To make it more clear....
Lets say you try to develop a relationship with a girl entirely in the sphere of virtual communication.
You saw her Profile on Facebook; you truly like her from the little of what you see through status updates, album pictures, interests and activities.and she also likes you back though your Facebook profile and you get a hint of it through your interactions with her over the virtual domain. This relation ship will not last untill you meet her personally.; you will at some point of time get so busy that u wont be able to keep up with this passive form of communcation ( keep up with her status updates) and the liking will eventually come down. had you met her in real life, then there is some part of of your real self dedicated to her and your communications to her will be independent of whether or not u have a good internet connection and whether or not your PC got spoilt.:) . The Passive WILL NOT LAST without the ACTIVE.
So sharkey there is nothing to be uncomfortable with virtual means of communication(/facebook) it will never replace the active form. One should learn to use both of them to effective use and be better at whatever that one wants to achieve.
Coming to the other issue that bugs you. There is definitely an information over load on Facebook in its current form. On a certain level Facebook is just a tinted mirror of the real world society wherein existence of dislike is not acknowledged. Just as in the real world if you put too much information about yourself in the public domain you are inevitably going to land up in trouble . People have yet to come to learn this in the Facebook world. Besides, the information that you put online about yourself is what your trading when you freely enjoy GMAIL and FACEBOOK. ( The cost of free as one might put it). SO if each and every single user decides not to share his interests etc and not to let GMAIL and FACEBOOK sift through your emails and status updates for Keywords. Then the ventures wouldn't be viable economically and will shut down.
By the way nobody is asking you to see the status updates of everyone and then compliant that everyone is narcissistic.....you could just look away(or more appropriately unsubscribe/block the user whose status updates you don't want to see). as to the few persons who are in your friends list and you cannot unsubscribe ..well they are narcissistic in the real world too cant help it( Facebook amplifies the real world qualities in most cases).
Eventually people will learn not to make there life completely public.
