nytimes.com— How News Feed, Twitter and other forms of incessant online contact have created a brave new world of ambient intimacy.
Sep 5, 2008View in Crawl 4
After speaking with my parents and grandparents, I have finally formed an opinion on all this crap: I like it.In their generations, they had to deal with trips, reunions, regular mail (the kind with stamps and envelopes), and generally had very few friends aside from coworkers.Now, why did they have so many more coworker friends than regular friends from high school and college? Because it takes less effort to stay updated with someone you see every single day than someone that requires a car trip or a regular letter.Now extend that to the digital domain and it's pretty evident that you can have many more friends based on the frequency and low cost of communication.Privacy aside, I see nothing wrong with this. So long as there exists a way to explicitly make things private, I don't know what all the fuss is about. If you add personal information to a site that shares only that information with your friends, and then get pissed that your friends can see this, who's really to blame here?* Edit: Holy s**t! That's a rather long article, spread on no less than 6 pages! Much like this very comment, geez, get to the point already.
I honestly don't see much of a difference between twitter and any other social app. It's cumulative. It adds up. In the end, it is like a blog post that is posted one sentence at a time. Something like an IM or SMS. It's the same damn thing!
I f**king hate it when someone tries to talk to me or invite me to something but ONLY communicates via MySpace. I don't use MySpace! My account only exists so I can fap to your super hot female friend.
This was definitely one of the more interesting articles i have come across in regards to blogging and micro blogging. It speaks so many truths about today's generation and the direction our society is heading into. Wonderfully written.
mtheoryxSep 6, 2008
After speaking with my parents and grandparents, I have finally formed an opinion on all this crap: I like it.In their generations, they had to deal with trips, reunions, regular mail (the kind with stamps and envelopes), and generally had very few friends aside from coworkers.Now, why did they have so many more coworker friends than regular friends from high school and college? Because it takes less effort to stay updated with someone you see every single day than someone that requires a car trip or a regular letter.Now extend that to the digital domain and it's pretty evident that you can have many more friends based on the frequency and low cost of communication.Privacy aside, I see nothing wrong with this. So long as there exists a way to explicitly make things private, I don't know what all the fuss is about. If you add personal information to a site that shares only that information with your friends, and then get pissed that your friends can see this, who's really to blame here?* Edit: Holy s**t! That's a rather long article, spread on no less than 6 pages! Much like this very comment, geez, get to the point already.
nafnossebSep 6, 2008
Thats it! I am unfollowing you on twitter!
shiftlessSep 6, 2008
I honestly don't see much of a difference between twitter and any other social app. It's cumulative. It adds up. In the end, it is like a blog post that is posted one sentence at a time. Something like an IM or SMS. It's the same damn thing!
tendonutSep 6, 2008
I f**king hate it when someone tries to talk to me or invite me to something but ONLY communicates via MySpace. I don't use MySpace! My account only exists so I can fap to your super hot female friend.
mstrebeSep 6, 2008
No kidding. Intimacy is when people know the real you, not the facebook you. Social apps are extimacy.
emperorpsibladeSep 6, 2008
Hey! That's not fair!He's an 18 year old emo. ;P
xstephanyxSep 6, 2008
This was definitely one of the more interesting articles i have come across in regards to blogging and micro blogging. It speaks so many truths about today's generation and the direction our society is heading into. Wonderfully written.
kelvlamSep 23, 2008
interesting, I just heard about ambient awareness from ABCNews WorldNews podcast of yesterday