Check out Xona Games for more mind benders!
Check out the picture above. Apparently if you are human, you see a
spiral, one continuous, connected line. But alas, it is only an
illusion. There are 9 separate circles, none of them interacting with
the other. This is how I feel about social media. This is how I feel
about technology today. This is how I feel about my generation. We sit
in separate circles thinking that we are connected but are not. An
illusion of connectivity.
A while back, my technology pusher O once again made a tempting offer to
get me into the game. O, the constant supplier of free or heavily
discounted technology that he is no longer using, offered me a Surface
RT + keyboard for $200. I would be propelled into the 21st century!
If you are my age, which teeters on the ledge of 30, you probably have a
smartphone. You probably have a laptop or tablet, and more often than
not it seems, both. Sometimes you have multiple sets of all of
these. 40% of us spend over 11 hours in front of some sort of device. We
are connected to the world 24/7, but how often do you feel a
connection?
You have all the knowledge of the world in your pocket but how often do
you use it for more than a distraction or proof at the dinner table that
you are right (again)? All of your friends are at your fingertips, but
how often do you reach out? We have six different ways to contact one
person and yet, we never use them. It's just an illusion of
connectivity.
Sherry Tukle
elaborates at TED that even when we do bother to reach out, we do so in
140 character snippets. A half read email is half responded. A chat
greeting that never gets answered, and neither party feels slighted
anymore. It has become perfectly acceptable to sign off a chat service
and never say goodbye to those you were conversing with.
Let's pretend this happened in real life. I'm walking down a street and
see a friend so I say, "Hi." If this were gchat (or trillian, or AIM or
whatever your poison), you would not even get a "hi" back. So I stop
saying hi to this friend, and sure enough they become another name on a
list of contacts I never contact.
In the increasingly rare situation where the friend does say "hi" back
in real time they are usually at work, other times they are out, but
either way, nobody sits down to chat anymore. It's a way to distract
ourselves from the task at hand. So I get half your attention, you get
half of mine. In the real world it would be like trying to have a
conversation with somebody watching tv. (Side note, IRL why do
restaurants encourage this kind of behavior by having roughly ONE
THOUSAND big screen tv's with or without the sound blaring?)
You'll never dig deeper than how are you? How's work? You'll never know
that I'm a real human with a thousand different feelings each day. That
I'm compressing my life on Facebook into thoughts and photos that
portray me the best. I recently asked a friend if I should consider
posting when I am lonely. Because you'll passively connect by looking at
my page and I'll passively connect by looking at yours and it'll appear
like we are always 100% happy. You don't need me to talk to you, you
don't need me as friend - your life is perfect already!
In this day of hyper connectivity, where I can reach a friend across the
country- no globe, it's not okay to feel lonely. So you go a little
crazy. When I first connected an inherited smartphone to WIFI, every
minute, no every second, I wanted to touch the phone. Even if the sound
was on for notifications, I thought perhaps somebody was emailing me
this very second. And when it turned out nobody was, I got distracted by
Facebook which was right on my home screen. Once I went down the
Facebook rabbit hole, it was endless. Even if I knew there was no
possibility of new status updates (because I had just checked 2 minutes
before), I still opened Facebook. Then I'd open my email. Then back to
Facebook. I felt this intense dissatisfaction, my entire world was at my
fingertips, but nobody was actually talking to me. Actually listening
to me. Actually conversing with me. Actually responding with more than a
"like."
In 140 characters, how am I suppose to convey all that I feel and do in
day? Of course I'm going to edit out my struggles and challenges. Of
course I'm only going to post pictures of me from the right side, with
my sunglasses on, conquering the world. I'm going to snip snip snip
until all that is left of me can be expressed in four letters. YOLO,
head down, distracted by your phone. LIKE, because forming a sentence
was too much thought. XOXO, even if we'd never touch in person.
So here it is for the world to see. My life is not perfect. Sometimes I
wonder if I will still change the world. Sometimes I dislike my job.
Sometimes I even dislike Fiancee. I get distracted. It can take me weeks
to get a small errand accomplished. I get lazy. I am currently without
wallet because I left it in a friend's car. That's right, I forget
things. I get bored. I get irritated. I get petty. And yes, I get lonely
too.
