William Deresiewicz has an interesting essay about “The End of Solitude” (in our fast-paced, hyper-networked digital world) in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Section: The Chronicle Review Volume 55, Issue 21, Page B6. You can find it online at http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i21/21b00601.htm
Here is a sampling:
“Ten years ago we were writing e-mail messages on desktop computers and transmitting them over dial-up connections. Now we are sending text messages on our cellphones, posting pictures on our Facebook pages, and following complete strangers on Twitter. A constant stream of mediated contact, virtual, notional, or simulated, keeps us wired in to the electronic hive — though contact, or at least two-way contact, seems increasingly beside the point. The goal now, it seems, is simply to become known, to turn oneself into a sort of miniature celebrity. How many friends do I have on Facebook? How many people are reading my blog? How many Google hits does my name generate? Visibility secures our self-esteem, becoming a substitute, twice removed, for genuine connection. Not long ago, it was easy to feel lonely. Now, it is impossible to be alone.”
By the way, I love solitude.
Friday, January 30, 2009
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"The goal now, it seems, is simply to become known, to turn oneself into a sort of miniature celebrity. How many friends do I have on Facebook? How many people are reading my blog? How many Google hits does my name generate? Visibility secures our self-esteem, becoming a substitute, twice removed, for genuine connection. Not long ago, it was easy to feel lonely. Now, it is impossible to be alone.”
This is interesting because many parents of young kids middle schoolers and high schoolers esp have experienced perhaps a different view of what the overall "positive spin" may be.
Side by side are the reports of bullying online which has become rampant in schools before kids even hit college. It's been esp. prominent amongst younger girls being pretty vicious in their need to be seen as "popular" and likewise attack other girls online and through text messaging etc. There have been several cases in the news in recent years about youtube videos made of kids getting beat up, other acts of violence in schools, to the point where schools have had to set strict policies on having any electronic device on the kids during the school day. This is happening at middle school levels.
High schoolers applying to colleges have also had to tame back their online "presence" as more and more college admissions people are looking at what they do in their "down time". Employer also do the same these days and it does have an impact in the archives, library & information fields today with hiring as well of adults. I recently attended at another college, a presentation of alumni who was supposed to be giving a talk about career advice for new students in the field, and it was just shocking to me, all he talked about was not his duties as a new director of a public library in NJ, but rather about how he got himself there through networking on a blog of people who were unemployed but blogging about "the field" instead of actually living it. It's important to get the important stuff out there not just the chatter in between.
Is it really a "generational" thing?
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