We here at Blogagaard have been pondering the problem of communication. Communication between humans and non-humans has always been a difficult, arduous process (I’m thinking of shrubbery, raccoons, and jellyfish). But is the state of communication between humans and humans that much better off? We have cell phones, the Internet, and fine postal systems, yet we here at Blogagaard can’t help but notice communication breakdowns continue to occur, despite the work Led Zeppelin did in regard to the subject. On one hand, the Internet seems great for instantaneous interaction, but on the other hand something seems to be lost, misunderstandings abound as some crucial bits of data vanish into the machine. This void in the human conversation is always there (perhaps except with identical twins or with those elderly couples who’ve been in love for sixty years) and I for one, to paraphrase Bright Eyes, have often found myself completely alone at a table full of friends. Does the Internet make this void grow larger, or does it simply make it seem larger, because it’s more obvious?
12 comments:
This is a very important topic in today's workplace. Communications or lack thereof can cost corporations billions, thereby affecting the economy as a whole, which would in turn cause a potential government crisis and thus trigger a global meltdown that would ultimately force each of us, on an individual level, to be forced to forage through the dumpsters of abandoned fast food restaurants for scraps of sustenance.
Indeed, without an enhanced interpersonal communications system, such as telepathy, we're destined to dumpster dive to eternity.
I vote for telepathy.
Writing is communications. All of the arts are communications. We should try harder to instill in younger generations the idea that art is not just a representation of something, but a very personal message being sent directly to you by another person. I think that's also how we should look at the internet; not as impersonal machinery generating words, but as people using writing as the means to send you their own message.
Did that make sense?
I vote for telepathy also.
If the only means of communication you have with other humans is via e-mail or your blog, then I can easily see where there would be a void. For one thing, you'd be missing the nonverbal part of communication. For instance, the delight of actually hearing someone laugh when you've said something funny or seeing a face light up when you've said something kind. These instances become concrete in our memories- I remember something nice you said to me at dinner a few months back & how you said it, but ask me to quote something I read in your blog & I most likely can't do it.
Phones, cell or otherwise, are nice because you can at least hear the tone of someone's voice and their laughter, but still, all I remember from various past phone conversations is me sitting there on the other end laughing, or going into shock after receiving bad news; there is no sense of a togetherness in these memories- I am alone.
Overall, I think that we can use these various forms of technology to communicate & have fun with them, but they can't be in place of that live and in person communication. We need to make time to be in the presence of each other, too.
If I had telepathy, I'd scour St. Paul looking for sexy single ladies who shared my interests in writing and robbing liqour stores. I could do this with on-line dating, but it would be much cooler with telepathy.
Viney, I love the Internet because it is so text-based. If it really involved video phones and crap like that, I'd be out of here.
Yes, it's hard to recall incidents of dialogue from a blog post two months ago, but the experience is a little stronger when you're the creator and not just participant in the blog. Every post that goes up is exciting to me, even that one I made a while back that was just a white space of Zen-magic.
Anonymous, you little vixen, I think you're trying to talk me into coming back to dinner soon...
great comments, Asura. I don't think it's even a question, actually; I don't think we can truly relate to each other in the same way without face-to-face interaction. So what are we left with? What is this? what are these relationships? When I started blogging, I knew everybody who commented on my blog from my "real" life. Now that's changing, and how does that change me? I must be getting something from all this I'm not getting from my everyday life, or I wouldn't have thrown so much energy into it. Should I be sad about that? Is this unnatural? Is the internet haunted by a sea of lonely ghosts? Are we all lonely ghosts? When I get drunk, I have a nearly uncontrolable urge to e-mail someone, anyone.
That explains it.
Dave, forgive me if I'm repeating anything that's been stated in the previous comments, but we both know I'm far too lazy for that. Actually, I hope you don't think that, because it's not true and I actually love reading, it's just very late this side of the Atlantic ;)
A while ago, a Japanese videogame designer, Toshihiro Nagoshi (a delightfully pensive character) had a monthly slot talking about whatever in EDGE magazine (he's since moved on, but I miss his reflections greatly). In one particular issue, he talks about the Age of Ubiquity - that is to say, we are living in a world where it is possible to be all places at once... through technology.
It's very interesting to consider whether our ability to communicate effectively is inhibited by the illimitable access we have to umpteen-point-five channels of communication. Has the PlayStation generation's communication skills been stunted by the very things that are meant to aid the process?
I personally don't carry a cellphone, and I get bored with most types of [social] internet interaction very, very quickly. I like emailing people consistently if they can keep up the correspondence though. Then again, I might also be a victim of the Age of Ubiquity.
I was the first kid on the block to laud Skype's potential for international phone sex to various parties on the WWW. Is it natural to have disembodied conversations with someone for over 10 hours at a time, though? What is lost in the communicable currency that is gestures and glances?
Do people think as much as they used to? Or, more importantly, do they need to think as much as they used to? Memory is practically a thing of the past. In a couple of years we're going to have Google implanted in our brains to save us the trouble - and have a strange urge to purchase AOL's reduced monthly broadband package.
Why bother to make important decisions on your own when anyone, anywhere is a call away? Are these bad things?
As is my style, I've commented with more questions than answers. I can say one thing though: Blogging *is* another human folly. I believe there should be a Blogging License, received only upon successful completion of your Blogger's Test.
Ciao dude.
Constrained columns make my paragraphs smaller. Weird. I wonder why I do that? Probably to get the word:white space ratio the same as it is in a word processor.
Well, it's less inconvenient for the recipient than drunk dialing.
As regards internet communication: I don't do awesome with people in general; one might've thought I would do better on the internet. Sadly this is not the case. Context and nuance are important, I guess. Blogging has been the most social internet experience I've had. Instant messaging is especially
I have to go google 'skyping' now.
Jimi, I don't think you're lazy, just crazy. I think the idea that we can be in all places at once is an illusion; it's hard enough to live in the now, in a Zen way, in merely one place. As for being everywhere at once, let me use those point and click video games as an example:
you build up a little village, start an army, and begin to explore the landscape beyond your village. Gradually you take over other little villages, gain more population and food and army. Soon (three, four gaming hours later, which seems like about 5 minutes to your avergae hardcore, totally absorbed gamer) your numbners are legion, and your fighting battles on several fronts. At about this point, I always stop enjoying the game as much as I had before. Any hint of the personal is gone, now all your doing is moving numbers around, time is scarce so none of your warriors can be properly trained, etc. If you're not careful, your life can become like this game, and in the end the rewards are about as hollow as conquering computer hordes and adding another six hours to your game's time log. I see parents, especially in the burbs, doing this to their children. After awhile so much activity, as Asura found, becomes sort of meaningless, at least more meaningless than normal. I have only a handful of friends, only two or three I ever, ever, call on the phone, and many more that I e-mail on occasion, though I often feel sad having to settle for such an impersonal communication. Offer me a vid phone, though, and I'd reject that even more vehmently. I don't want no damn video trans-Atlantic phone system stealing my damn time, my few fleeting hours of life on this planet. I guess that would be where I'd draw my line in the technological sand.
Okay, this post and subsequent discussion has inspired me to go out drinking with two old friends I haven't seen in four months. Goodnight everybody!
oh. man. I just got back. Whew. What a night.
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