On Social Networking and the Resurgence of IRL
Having just purchased my first data device, I’ve been observing a curious phenomenon.
I’ve followed the evolution of internet social networking since what I’d consider the fledgling days of the modern, social internet (1995 or so.) In that time, I’ve noticed that people have become less and less likely to interact personally, preferring instead to communicate through text, e-mail, and mostly anonymous networks that have required little in the way of face to face interaction. Relatively recently, though, the trend seems to be reversing. Rather than use the vast social network to avoid personal communication, we’ve been devising ways to use that network to reconnect with our localities.
I, too… antisocial as I tend to be… have fallen prey to this trend. I find myself relying on my “neighbors” when choosing restaurants, I shoot one liners to people I “pass” in the street, and I trade gossip with my fellow locals. Perhaps these “social” networks are really becoming… you know… social.
