Flippish notes that Facebook, among other social networking programs, is causing is social circles to collide. Unlike having two circles of friends happen upon each other during a night out at the movies, Facebook provides a constant transparency between circles. One set of friends will always see when the other set of friends is chatting up last night's highlights. And some people have linked to their boss or their mom - you get the picture.
Flippish is right, and notes that he finds himself editing the content on Facebook accordingly. This is the first step to balance.
Facebook is overused right now (spoiler alert: I am not on Facebook), just like email was overused 5 years ago, and chat rooms were overused before that. They throw our communications balance for loop. People stopped calling when there was email. Then they realized that having a written record of every conversation could come back to bite you in the butt -- or they realized that it was lot less personal than a phone conversation -- and phones (or Skype) are now back in vogue.
You can run the same analysis for phones and (finally!) Blackberries. Both made their owners accessible anywhere, any time. The result: people eventually stopped answering every call or responding to every email. Instead of being actually unreachable, they set their own boundaries.
Balance.
But that doesn't mean that each of these technologies hasn't permanently changed our interaction. I can't remember what it was like to set a time and place with a friend and just trust that we could meet there. I can remember being a lot less frustrated at having to wait 5 minutes without knowing their whereabouts. That's long gone.
Email, cell phones, and now Facebook, blogging, RSS feeds, and twitter will change our interaction and we will establish a new balance. Facebookers, I recommend you take a page from us bloggers. We don't use names (by and large), we edit our content so as to avoid conflicts with friends, coworkers, or clients. And you know what? We can still speak our mind. In a room, with friends, over good food and good wine, we can still rant and rave and be outrageous. There is no paper trail, no record, and no colliding social circles.
1 comment:
I was starting to think that I was the only person out there *not* on Facebook. I have problems finishing posts to my blog. In fact, I haven't read my "friends" list in a while (if your not in the circle of ReZ. O Lution-AngelsofSecurity-Thegameiam-xerpentine, or Nationals Journal, forget it). Now you want me to add something else to take up my time but I'll probably ignore after a while? The only reason why it remotely interests me is trying to find old friends from college (or high school) or *might* be there.
One HUGE peeve about it: I had someone say to me "Oh, I was going to invite you to the party but you're not on Facebook." Uh gee babe, what about email or, *gasp*, a phone call? Sorry, I don't take my social invitations from splatter casts (concert announcements not withstanding).
Post a Comment