Thanks to my Kits HIgh School colleague, Maggie Smith, I am sharing this - HOWEVER, I am reacting differently to the video than Margaret. I agree that there is a perception which MAY be true of loneliness and exclusion due to the overwhelming seclusion caused by a no -social social networking interface. Yet, if I look at my wife and myself, my friends and my children, their children - I see little difference between today and yesterday (the historical social past); I see the eye contact, the connection, people going out into the world - I see friends getting together and parties still continuing as before. Book clubs exist where they did once before; birthday parties for children are perhaps even bigger in number of attendees due to the ubiquitous vehicles and well maintained roads/ transportation options and clubbing, sharing of drivers etc. People of today are MORE involved than ever before in MORE. The social networking, like the telephone ADDS to the activities of the day. When a friend sees that another has an event on her/his timeline it can and often does provoke a response, a telephone call and/or a physical visit due to the acquisition of facts and the processing of information about friends and family that was not readily known before especially for those living afar. Social networking connects and causes. This video appears to me to ignore the effects resulting from those connections. When working I did not notice a dearth of meetings, lack of colleagues showing up in TOND (office next door) or a reduction of TOND meetings/chats/good morning how was your weekend - lets meet at coffee/lunch etc.... Today, retired - the neighbors (all on facebook and facetime and email) are Tool Time Tim on the fence with his neighbor constantly (t.v. metaphor). And I could continue with this listing of increased or at least maintained physical or eye-to-eye contact. What do I notice has changed though? Fewer young people going to some movies, plays, stage shows (theater/opera/musicals) etc. BUT, more of the same sitting with friends watching NetFlix or going to a Jazzfest, bluesfest or other outdoor activity which have grown (in some cases) exponentially and in others, extraordinarily, in most Canadian Cities since the mid 20th Century. Where the old folk have continued on with their tennis and golf and perhaps added bolls or lawn bowling, the young have kayaks, camping, outward bound activities, bungie-jumping, para-jumping, caving and geo-caching (the younger generation or 21st century version of scavenger hunting). CONCLUSION: 1. I find life around me is socially boundless for me, my family, friends and neighbors. THAT is fairly inclusive. I believe this video exploits a perception that can be taken out of context for behavioral issues that CAUSES an individual to avoid social situations and to be reclusive. I believe that issue predates social - networking, AND it predates the telephone. What Facebook, hand-held devices and even the telephone have done is to focus and oft exaggerate the negative perceptions WITHOUT presenting the full picture. THAT is a common issue brought to us decades ago by Marshall Mcluhan (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan). Given a negative medium and one receives a negative message - eliminate a voice in a message and one hears only a select portion - etc. 2. I have discovered that social networking has given me access to all that I could not otherwise access: facetime with grandkids across the Provincial border (more than one hour drive away) or across the country (3 time zones to the west) or across the Atlantic (5 time zones to the East). It is used by both Ingrid Waymark, and me. Facebook illuminates my life with the light of the lives of others of which I would not otherwise be able to see. Before the 21st Century and throughout our antiquities we have lived in veritable atmosphere of darkness compared to our options of today. -end- (with a chuckle for those will disagree but know of my polemics)
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 15:15:24 +0000
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