Times, they are a-changin'
It's been a while since my first mobile phone. I remember it well. An ugly blue Nokia 5110. And what a trooper it was. I wish I could show you, but phones didn't have cameras back then, so you'll have to take my word as proof that it had a bit of mains electrical wire soldered in the top for an antenna and it survived being run over by a ute more than once.
One thing that stood out to me as the digital phone era emerged was a word created by Nokia. Connectivity. I doubt it would have come up in any dictionaries back then, save Nokia's.
I also remember the old Windows Messenger, which was similarly aimed at connected-ness.. heck if I really scratch my head I can remember when ICQ came out. Back then coming out meant something new had been released onto the market, not that it had declared it's sexuality to be controversial.
A few years further on and I was in college. Slightly older than half my class-mates and a fair bit younger than the rest. Through college a smattering of other software releases happened, all in the name of connectedness. The big one, of course, was MySpace. Design your own background. Portray yourself the way you truly want to be seen. Portray yourself in a way that can simultaneously win you the praise of friends AND horrify your mother. You can leave messages, send group invited to parties, you can stalk the girl or boy who ignored you through high school - unless their profile is set to private... Even your overseas friends could keep in touch without having to fork out for massive phone expenses. The world got a bit smaller.
Then Facebook emerged. I was pretty anti-FB at first. Mainly because you couldn't engineer your page to the same degree you could with MySpace. Even when I did concede and create an account, I was often frustrated by the applications that wouldn't load properly, and Facebook's relentless efforts to continually modify itself so that the features I enjoy get hidden somewhere to which there is no link, while I am daily reminded of the fact that a bunch of near-strangers that in Cyber-reality are my friends have hung their washing out, or taken the kids to school. And here we are at the present.
Connectivity. What's interesting, and what many have pointed out, is that in this age of connectivity, we seldom actually speak to or see each other. I have instant access to most of the people I've ever met between the various online options, but I don't want that. Wht I long for is to sit down with my friends - my handful of good friends, my wise friends and my strange friends - and enjoy a coffee or a meal or a beer, and talk long, long into the night, like we used to do in the days before my Nokia 5110. That, for me, would be true connectivity.
One thing that stood out to me as the digital phone era emerged was a word created by Nokia. Connectivity. I doubt it would have come up in any dictionaries back then, save Nokia's.
I also remember the old Windows Messenger, which was similarly aimed at connected-ness.. heck if I really scratch my head I can remember when ICQ came out. Back then coming out meant something new had been released onto the market, not that it had declared it's sexuality to be controversial.
A few years further on and I was in college. Slightly older than half my class-mates and a fair bit younger than the rest. Through college a smattering of other software releases happened, all in the name of connectedness. The big one, of course, was MySpace. Design your own background. Portray yourself the way you truly want to be seen. Portray yourself in a way that can simultaneously win you the praise of friends AND horrify your mother. You can leave messages, send group invited to parties, you can stalk the girl or boy who ignored you through high school - unless their profile is set to private... Even your overseas friends could keep in touch without having to fork out for massive phone expenses. The world got a bit smaller.
Then Facebook emerged. I was pretty anti-FB at first. Mainly because you couldn't engineer your page to the same degree you could with MySpace. Even when I did concede and create an account, I was often frustrated by the applications that wouldn't load properly, and Facebook's relentless efforts to continually modify itself so that the features I enjoy get hidden somewhere to which there is no link, while I am daily reminded of the fact that a bunch of near-strangers that in Cyber-reality are my friends have hung their washing out, or taken the kids to school. And here we are at the present.
Connectivity. What's interesting, and what many have pointed out, is that in this age of connectivity, we seldom actually speak to or see each other. I have instant access to most of the people I've ever met between the various online options, but I don't want that. Wht I long for is to sit down with my friends - my handful of good friends, my wise friends and my strange friends - and enjoy a coffee or a meal or a beer, and talk long, long into the night, like we used to do in the days before my Nokia 5110. That, for me, would be true connectivity.
posted by T | 19:54
1 Comments:
i am pleased to see that you are back and i completely understand your persepective on when it comes to 'connecting' with people. i honestly miss having long and sometimes mind numbing conversations face to face rather than waiting to be noticed amongst the 'other important' people and it annoys me that in such places persons can choose to ignore if they want.
glad also to hear that your hand was not damaged, as i know how it feels to have injuries that are horrible at the time but no one believes you cos there is no 'proof'. and you are right, with every good scar comes a good story. :)
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