Thursday, April 07, 2005
internet identification
i was wasting time on facebook yesterday and happened to notice that when i view my own profile a little box tells me "this is you." and yes, fine, it is in the space labeled "connection" that usually shows who you know the person through, but it could just say "you are (insert your name here)." instead it insists that you are the information that is posted alongside your picture. and i suppose that, in a certain sense, you are. as far as a lot of your "friends" who haven't even seen you, let alone had a conversation with you in years are concerned, you are who you say you are on the internet. apparantly i am a collection of my preferences in movies, music, books, and a handful of stated interests. and of course, my list of people who are willing to list themselves as my friends (even if they haven't had any interaction with me in ages) largely in order to boost their own number of friends. and i buy into it completely. i try to pretend that i'm reconnecting with people that i lost track of, but that almost never happens. it's just another way to make me feel like i have more contact with the rest of humanity than i actually do. just like checking people's AIM away messages and profiles. just like writing in this blog.
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1 comment:
based on your observations , which I can empathize with, it would seem that the problem is one of quanity vs. quality. With each addition to the friend list one feels better about themselves? We feel the need to meet the social expectations of our friends perhaps? So as not to offend. You don't want to add 'one who disappoints and alienates said list of peeps' under those movie preferences ;-) But, I wonder... what if we all dropped the courtesy bullshit, and the need for that long listjust? Do what we do, and enjoy the connections we make without attaching labels, structure or expectations to them? As well as ditching the labels and expectations that we place upon our own self worth/image. I don't often get to see you, Val, and we don't really keep in touch like 'friends should' but when we do get together I enjoy our connection and time shared immensely :-) Quality connection with humanity even if in small doses... wonderful, pressure lacking, stuff! Maybe we should all give ourselves a break and not try so hard?
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