Tuesday, January 11, 2011

I Am Not on "the Twitter" but I Do Love Betty White

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Unlike many of the people that I interact with everyday on campus, I do not Twitter. I find it, as well as constant updating of one's Facebook page, annoying. Why should I be sharing or interested in the minutia of people's lives? Who cares what you are about to eat - unless it's something really amazing? And why are you wasting your time on this when there are other more important things that you could be doing (like blogging)? (That last bit (about blogging) was tongue in cheek. Although this seems more like a diary (especially since I seem to be the only one who ever reads it).

I don't understand why the Millenials have embraced it, but my theory is that it gives them the illusion of connectedness and deep relationships without actually having them. 'I have 5000 friends on Facebook' means I am loved and valued. People follow me on Twitter means that I am interesting. And none of this means that either of these statements is true. Or that you actually have to interact with anyone. Someone offends you, just un-friend them, don't deal with the conflict.

Maybe I'm cynical. I just think about how all this new-fangled technology leads us to 'connect' with people, but never actually connect with them. Case in point: this is what my brother does with his winter vacation.

010911 - How My Brother Spent His Winter Vacation

It's "Call of Duty: Black Ops."

He's got several people that he plays with online that he's never met and probably never will, but they're the people he actively tries to play with. I'm not objecting to his playing the game, because he doesn't neglect other things to do it and only plays it for about 2 hours at a time. I'm merely saying that he's developed this friendship with someone he's likely never to meet and he likes that disconnectedness.

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