Are you an information technology optimist or skeptic? Chances are, if you are a regular blog reader or poster, you fall in the former category. Yet ever feel like all that time you spend online might be displacing time spent in more meaningful face-to-face interactions? Are the social relationships forged via Web 2.0 and various mobile phone innovations really as quality as real world conversations? At American University, it's a question I ask my sophomore-level class on Communication & Society to research and debate every semester. (This past semester's debate is available here.)
On Saturday, the NY Times spotlighted similar questions in a front page Business section feature on cell phone use and networks. The article argues that the free minutes that mobile carriers allow for calls within their network is dividing the people who share informal bonds and bringing together those who have formal networks of cellphone "friends."
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"Are the social relationships forged via Web 2.0 and various mobile phone innovations really as quality as real world conversations? "
IMHO, the answer is...sorta yes and absolutely freakin' no.
Although I absolutely F***ING hate cell phones, for reasons I'll explain in a bit, I think that the relationships one has with various cellular providers' "circle of friends" members are closer to real than those derived on the social networking sites--after all, you talk to these circle members, and get all the nuances of inflection, emotion, etc. by voice that you can't get by looking at words on a screen. And presumably, if one is included in another's "circle", that means some conversation has already taken place.
(Why do I hate cell phones? O, let me count the ways! Mostly for two reasons:
1. People have lost ALL sense of privacy in what they will talk about on a cell phone. I had once had the pleasure (? BLEAH !!) of standing in an airport security line, trapped and unable to leave, as the fellow in front of me discussed in detail (MORE THAN I NEEDED TO KNOW, PAL) the um, technique variations his sex therapist had suggested he and his girlfriend try. And then there are those morons who somehow feel that it's OK to sit on the can in a public restroom and discuss business. Jesus tap-dancing Christ--can't it wait five minutes? I mean isn't that why you pay for voice mail? Which brings me to point #2...
2. What is it about 24/7 availability that people feel they need? I mean, sure, if you're on call in some capacity, or need to be reachable by your kid's babysitter, sure. But please--couldn't the majority of conversations wait until the person who feels the need to answer the phone isn't going to short-change someone else--who's often sitting across the table at a restaurant, for example--by saying "Oh--sorry--gotta take this one. It will just be a minute."? OK, end of sermon.)
As for the "relationships" "forged", if you can even use the latter word in this context, by the various social networking sites, please. What a total waste of time. If I were a college student in the current time, knowing what I know now about life, I would run as far from the MySpace, etc. world as I could. I've talked with the younger crowd quite a bit, and they just shrug it off when I ask "How can you call this person a 'friend' when you've never met him or her in person? When he sends you an x-rated post on a publicly visible social networking site and tells you what he'd like to do to you--is this what you call a 'friend'? What would you do if some guy walked up to you on the street and said the same thing? Would you smile and say 'Let's be friends!'?"
ARRGHHHH. I feel better now. Gracias.