Just a collection of thoughts on social networking and Information Technology in general. not directed at anyone unless you are a robot or sentient computer program...lol
I watched as the internet became public. I watched as IRC gave way to chat programs. I watched as the very business of doing business became a business unto itself. I watched as chat forums popped up all over the internet before they had a real name, when a "Social Network" was a physical group of friends.
As someone in the industry I eventually try them all. I even have facebook but you may notice I use it differently than most. I use it to hold my pictures. I have a blog but if you notice it is focused on my hobby and there is little to no personal information there to be had. I belong to so many: forums, websites, software sites, hardware sites, blogs, user groups, application test sites, networks, social networking sites, and personal computers that I have a special encrypted program just to hold all the passwords and another encrypted program just to hold the password to the first program...lol It is an accumulation of years spent amusing myself while I am working (at you guessed it the computer..lol) I tinker with these programs, applications and technology. Its also a habit of mines I guess those of you that see my posts know I'm "Hands on " type person so I don't like to talk about and advise on things I have not actually done for myself. I have learned the hard way very early in my career the folly of thinking the Book always knows what it is talking about and just because it is written it MUST be so.
Social networking? Information Technology? With the exception of business applications I personally I don't see much use in any of it...lol I remember when we weren't so "Connected" and IMHO we were much the better off for it. I think man has rushed so quickly into technology not truly understanding the prices we are paying for not respecting it properly. I think man is like a kid that just found a nuclear reactor and thinks its a toy...lol
There was a time when the only portals into your private life was: the door, the window and the telephone. Even then you could lock the doors and windows and turn off the phone and be fairly certain your privacy was secure. Now days marriages, children and our very sanity is under siege by technology and social networking. There are so many portals into your personal life and relationship that who is to know who is coming or going? In moments of weakness (where in the old days you could survive such moments by just not going out) spouses and children are becoming victim to the ever persistent "Public Eye" peering into our lives, seducing us to do and say things we normally might not. Publishing our intimate dreams, thoughts & desires for the world to know and when the world knows every little detail about your life, what is there left to share with those most intimate to you? Is there a such thing as "Intimacy" when you are "Intimate" with the whole world!?!?
In this day and age it is actually possible to run into a complete stranger on the street who knows more about you (because he knows how to use the internet and has also read your "facebook"; than your own spouse (who works all day and doesn't follow your electronic life and only gets to see you for 3-4 hours a day when you are both home and too tired to talk much).
Like I said earlier I'm into tech it is my livelihood but as a hobby I also study philosophy and the above scares me when I think about it...lol
In my household we do our best to keep technology in its proper place:
Meals must be eaten together
All Phones, games and gadgets get turned off during special periods like dinner..etc
We monitor all family members internet presence
Children aren't allowed unsupervised internet activities
there is dedicated communication time as well as individual time
etc...
They say in the new millennium everyone has much more than their 15 minutes of fame. But I ask you when we are ALL famous who among us is actually famous? Honestly if I wasn't there to see these people and it wasn't important enough for me to visit them or at the very least call and check in on them, I don't want to know what Suzie had for lunch or Pauls new camera can do or even see uncle Alberts new appendectomy scar...lol Its JUST TOO MUCH...lol
Then as if we aren't getting the the useless information fast enough we get 'Twitter" which streamlines the information so much that it is really just a different flavor of "SPAM"...lol To me the world seems afflicted with ADHD. Nothing is worth taking your time or doing right anymore. A world where "Quantity" is the new "Quality"...rotfl. Don't get me wrong I have done well from technology and I'm one its harbingers, but I also understand it is a double edged sword and I don't think man as a species is old enough yet to be playing with the sharp knives...lol
