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Dating Software
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| Joined: 30 Jul 2006 |
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Thursday October 23 2008
It's an old joke among web geeks that "the internet is for porn". OK, so it was invented by the department of defence for the sake of communications, but if there's one industry that can commodify a resource faster than the oil industry can waste it, it's porn. It makes sense, too, since sex is both a basic animal (and human) instinct and also something we frown on and obsess over to the extent that it's frightening. When the internet was young and users were still basically anonymous, there was no better way to indulge in a guilty pleasure than from behind the veil of your monitor.
But the internet is maturing, or at least its users seem to be. Porn sites have now been overtaken in popularity by social networking sites like MySpace, Friendster and Facebook. At first blush, this seems like a distinction without a difference. After all, the voyeuristic aspect of being able to peek into other people's personal lives is part of the attraction of social networking sites. But the sites have evolved beyond poorly designed collections of profile pages where teenagers and college students trade photos and gossip. At times, these sites are little more than sophisticated time-wasting devices, but as communities of friends and professional contacts integrate these new resources, the sites become more functional.
It seems we're finally starting to use the internet for its intended purpose: communication and information sharing. If you think of the internet as a model for the collective human brain, it's encouraging to know that slightly more than half of it is occupied by subjects other than sex, and that we are, in fact, still quite interested in forming meaningful connections to one another. Yep, that was the point all along, but at least initially, it was much easier to simply put smutty pictures on a website than facilitate real human interaction.
That's not to say we've reached the pinnacle of communication. We still fail to communicate with the people next to us every day. Devices like mobile phones, PDAs and do-it-all units like the iPhone have tethered us to our bosses, co-workers and friends, but emails and text messages are no substitute for face-to-face contact.
There's something similarly antisocial about social networking sites. An internet connection does not a relationship make. Part of the attraction of sites like Facebok is that we can be on friendly terms with people we don't particularly care to spend much time with. Even with good friends, though, being able to walk away from the keyboard can sometimes be a lifesaver. Maintaining close personal friendships can be exhausting. That long conversation about your friend's breakup of the century is much less of an imposition when you can take a break, grab a cup of coffee and mutter to yourself about how she's better off without that loser anyway.
Facebook and other networking sites may be popular, not because of their potential as avenues for oversharing, but because they have struck upon ways to allow us to stay in touch while minimising the awkwardness of those drawn-out phone calls. All too often, we don't say what we mean, we don't choose the right words and we don't listen and make a sincere effort to understand each other. Unfortunately, the sincerity and compassion required for real communication isn't part of the programming. That's something we still have to develop ourselves.
guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/oct/23/internet-social-networking-facebook
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