Ghost world?

[Parallel Guy]

OK, I'm old. So I'm trying to figure out what this all means. The myspace, facebook, connectivity is altering the perception of "friends." Even the FL kind of reminds me of roaming around a ghost world. Disconnected voices floating around a mental bar. Don't get me wrong, I obviously see some worth in it but I don't quite get how it relates to traditional communication. In a sense, it feels almost like a tribal reaching out. There's a part of me that sees it as a backlash against the isolation that has been growing since the fifties (a la Bowling Alone). There's another part of me that believes it creates isolation as we all huddle around our computers rather than interact with the people we can see.


Is it a hobby? A new reality? A fad? Positive? Negative? Or is my brain just mushy tonight?

 

[beaucaillou]

Well, I think it is in essence a result of the current age -- The Information Age, and no, I don't think it is a fad or that it will ever cease. As is the result of any 'Age', the world is entirely altered as a result.

I have mixed, but mostly good feelings about it, largely for the reason that more communication with people at greater distances means more awareness and education for the World society at large. Of course, there is good and bad education, but by and large, learning is only positive, even if the knowledge gets mis-used at certain points, or poorly wielded.

I think a major drawback is that suddenly people can 'craft' who they are: write and rewrite their personas that don't necessarily translate in the physical. I think that social skills were already greatly lacking and will continue to atrophy because of 'virtual communities.'

I think eventually there will be a backlash and there will be a greater effort to organize and communicate in the physical again, but I think most people already temper their on-line lives with their daily ones. There is just no substitute for going to a friend's bar-b-que, or to a dinner party, and that won't change.

 

[John in Covina]

The "real world" and the "cyber world" are in competition for our time. Each when utilized wisely are good things, but like many things too much of a good thing can be bad. One thing is that while we are here we get to share passions and that is quite nice. The thing is to try to connect with others and get to share our passions in the real world.

My suggestion is start saving to go to the Queen Mary in Long Beach sometime in November 2007 as that is that is:

"When Worlds Collide!"

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Good advice John.
I was dead set against the internet and all this new-fangled technical stuff for the longest time. Then I got into it big-time about 3 years ago, and I haven't looked back. Now people that always had the PCs and the tech look to me for answers!
My infatuation with the technical is wearing off, but I am very glad that I did finally dive in because it has enabled me to make many friends all over the world that I would not have known otherwise.

 

[Pink Dahlia]

I fear for this generation. This is the generation who only knows how to communicate electronically whether it be through their computer or phone.

I remember AOL being the big thing in my latter high school years. But despite that if I wanted to talk to someone I called them or went over. I didn't have a cell phone through four years of high school. But today take away a kid's cell phone and it's like you just cut off their arm!

I don't think I found myspace until 2004. Yet I am constantly amazed how people's lives revolve around it. "Why didn't you leave me a comment?" Etc.

It's just a different time.

 

[Joie DeVive]

Ghost World....

What a fascinating and apt description.

It is a bit like wandering through a party where you can't see anyone and you're just overhearing conversation, isn't it?

I would say the internet is here to stay. I think the question is, how will it impact societal development?
Currently, I think we aren't adapting as well as we might. The internet offers broad possibilites for communication, but we still need interaction. I think too many people are lacking that interaction with others these days. Interaction is pretty necessary for human survival. We are in essence a pack animal (in the wolf sense, not the donkey lol ). Having human contact has been shown to prolong life and health, and to improve healing time in the injured. I think we will have to work on this balance a little more.

While most of us don't have this problem, many of us are a bit retro or "old fashioned". I think this is a challenge for the younger generations.

 

[Diamondback]

Speaking for myself as someone who doesn't deal with cold-contacts in RL well, I actually think the internet has some use in this area. Many individuals with certain conditions can't deal with people at all in-person, but do very well over message boards. I'll admit it helps me in face-to-faces if I've used the Net to get around the "first contact" problem.

But that's just my thoughts. Your actual results may vary, of course.

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

With everything good, comes the bad, and vise versa.
We have seen it with every kind of technology that has come into the world. The train, the automobile, electric appliances, microwaves, self opening doors, television, etc. There has always been this breaking point when new technology enters the world, where reality is suddenly shaken up. There hasn't been one advance in technology that hasn't had a positive and negative side. The internet is here to stay, but I believe that something much more advanced is in our future, perhaps for the better, but with everything good, comes the bad, and vise versa.

 

[scotrace]

We're a ghost world, yes.

But it's really, really neat when you meet the ghosts face-to-face!

 

[Joie DeVive]

We're a ghost world, yes.

But it's really, really neat when you meet the ghosts face-to-face!

lol lol
I look forward to getting the chance!
It may be a while, landlocked as I am. Coastal visits are few these days.

I hope my comments on the internet didn't come across as condemning it. My feelings are far from that. I was just commenting on a problematic side effect.

And as for advances....

That can make me a little nervous..
I will not become Borg! It is not futile! I will not be assimilated!! lol
(Sorry, Star Trek humor.....)

 

[pretty faythe]

For some one with anti-social tendancies, when the tendancies come upon me, the internet is some place for me to still have social contact with the outside world when I dont wanna. lol

And I agree, I will not be assimalated. lol

 

[TheKitschGoth]

I've met (and actually spole to) more people face to face via the internet than I ever do without it. I'm a fairly shy girl, so the internet has actually enabled me to have a social life.

Also for my generation it has a few distinct advantages, mainly the fact that this way I can find people I actually get on with and have stuff in common with.. as opposed to going down the pub and making do with people who I cannot relate to. It's like travelling for us that can't afford to actuallly go anywhere.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I actually met my best friend online -- we were both members of a radio discussion group -- and even though we get together in person whenever we can, we live 160 miles apart, so the computer is still our main mode of communication. She's deaf and has no telephone, so the net is, quite literally, her lifeline to the rest of the world.

I've got other friends I've spent time with in person where the friendship started with online contact, and I'm perfectly comfortable with that as long as we've gotten to know each other well enough before the meeting.

Where the problem comes in, I think, is when the net becomes a substitute for all other social interaction. I think face-to-face contact helps keep relationships much more grounded in reality, if that makes sense.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

I fear for this generation. This is the generation who only knows how to communicate electronically whether it be through their computer or phone.

I remember AOL being the big thing in my latter high school years. But despite that if I wanted to talk to someone I called them or went over. I didn't have a cell phone through four years of high school. But today take away a kid's cell phone and it's like you just cut off their arm!

I don't think I found myspace until 2004. Yet I am constantly amazed how people's lives revolve around it. "Why didn't you leave me a comment?" Etc.

It's just a different time.

Gosh, when I was in high school there weren't little cell phones that everyone had. My friend and I got numerical pagers, and those were ridiculously expensive and at the time usually only other people who carried a beeper were doctors or drug dealers I couldn't imagine todays high school world where kids all have cells and are constantly texting each other. I do think that the old ways of communication are out the window now. I feel badly for younger generations. Young girls today don't know what it's like when you really really need to talk to your best friend and you keep calling but the line is busy. For those of you younger loungers a "busy" line is this funny noise that happens when you call someone and they are already using the phone. This is what happened in the days before call waiting. In the days before the internet, or when I was a kid, and I had a school report to write, I had to go to this place called "the library" and spend hours researching the topic of the report. Due to the internet revolution, kids can get all the information they need for any school work from the internet. This bothers me a lot. On the one hand I think it's great that there is so much information that is easily accessible. But, on the other hand, how much is a kid really putting into his school work if all he has to do is sit in front of his computer and print out pages of info from the web? It just seems that kids today don't have to work nearly as hard for their school work. Also there is the problem with all of the ready made reports that one can buy off of the internet for not a lot of money. So, I think that the internet's wealth of data and information is great. But I think that all of this technology has forever changed our young.

I'm quite happy with the access technology gives me to a whole slew of things from news to random facts and information. In regards to friends I've met over the internet, well I just think this is wonderful. So many people I never would have known I now know, thanks to modern technology. I think that all of this newer technology and the easy access we all have to it has both ups and downs. I do hope though that people will still continue to socialize face to face. Maybe I'm an optimist, but I don't think there will be a time when technology leaves to complete isolation. Although I must admit I don't go out nearly as much as I used to. I thought this was because I had gotten a bit older, but maybe it's all my computers fault!

 

[Parallel Guy]

I've met (and actually spole to) more people face to face via the internet than I ever do without it. I'm a fairly shy girl, so the internet has actually enabled me to have a social life.

Also for my generation it has a few distinct advantages, mainly the fact that this way I can find people I actually get on with and have stuff in common with.. as opposed to going down the pub and making do with people who I cannot relate to. It's like travelling for us that can't afford to actuallly go anywhere.

Ok, this is one of my problems but I'm not quite sure how to phrase it.

I get the sense that this generation is more tolerant, but I suppose that could be said of every succeeding generation for the last couple hundred years. However, how does that work if we can limit yourself to those who are like us? Up til now we've been forced to bump up against others that we would just as soon miss and so find a way to deal with the differences. This is sort of the tribal sense I refered to.

 

[dhermann1]

It's important to learn how much we have in common with people who are DIFFERENT from us in order to be a civilized human being. The more we isolate ourselves into little homogeneous groups of virtually identical people, the more the old Bob Dylan line becomes true:" Ain't no use talkin' to me, it's just like talkin' to you!"
Then again, maybe our individual cells had conversations like this a few million years ago when they were starting to differentiate into separate tissues and organs. Maybe it's all part of some vast biological scheme that's too big for us even to imagine.

 

[Twitch]

With the advent of the internet it has become possible to communicate with the WORLD not just your neighborhood. The sharing of ideas and interests with those of like minds is without parallel in the brick and mortar world. Where perhaps a few individuals would be able to physically get together and share interests in any given locale we can find a myriad of those around the globe who share our intersts and can exchange insights into our particular niches.

As far as the seeking and obtaining of goods the web again surpasses the "real" world where is necessitates burning expensive gasoline and using percious time to meander about in search of that "thing" we want. Then we are confronted by retail personnel with little knowledge or intersts in our needs if we can find one at all not socalizing with their cohorts in the corner.

And those that we do find "out there" are plugged into a tune player or cell phone seemingly oblivious to the actual world surrounding them acting as though they wish they were elsewhere as they bumble about in their electronics-induced autism.

We simply have to balance our time usage from the cyber world to the real. Moderation is the key to everything.

 

[skwerl-hat]

ghost world indeed :
O do any of you ever go into a public place where everybody is on a cell phone off in their own world. Theres been times where ive wanted to talk to people i meet out in these places who are just mentally not there thus i am forced to ignore them. To me it seems as though theres a lot more communication going on but not a lot of quality just trivia.