Monday 20 June 2011

Communication?

Many years ago a girlfriend of mine had an uncle visiting from England.  At the time (late 1960’s or early 1970’s) he was totally amazed by the fact that even though we lived on the same street we would call each other on the telephone.  The cost of using a phone in England then was more expensive than in North America and he thought we were hopelessly extravagant and lazy.  What would he think now if he were to see people in the same room texting each other?  He would probably think that we are out of our minds and he would be somewhat right.

If we aren’t out of our minds or hopelessly lazy we are at the very least disconnected from community by our eagerness to feel connected.  The so-called on-line community, can it really be a community when it’s very nature creates isolation?  Yes we can now easily connect with someone half way across the world or across the room but what do we lose by reducing the number of personal encounters?  Face to face has been replaced by Facebook and quick friendly chats are now tweets or texts. 

A community by definition is a group of people living in the same locality, and/or having similar interests.  When you are on-line you may or may not be living in the same area as those you communicate with and the common interests can be easily faked. You are a persona that you have created and want others to view.  This isn’t necessarily the real you or anything remotely close to you.  Some people must have an awfully hard time living up to the image they create of themselves.  Makes me wonder if they create the person they want to be or become the person they have created.  Of course in some instances you can just create a new fake name and leave the old creation behind.  If only life were that easy. 

There is a Cardigans song that finishes with the lyrics "But I don't know how to connect so I disconnct."  and to me that is pretty much what is going on.  Are we really communicating with each other or are we just caught up in the technology and fooling ourselves?