Facebook, contact, Luddism
Mar. 9th, 2009 10:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kilroySo, I made a younger friend over the last few months-- five or six years younger than me, a little older than the students I see every day. Last week she made a comment to the effect of "So you have a cell phone that you don't use, a facebook account that you don't log in to, and an AIM account that you're never on." To which I responded, "Absolutely," and grinned.
She is, of course, heavily connected with all the technologies. I don't think she groks why I would have access to all these information streams and let them lie dormant. It's not that complicated, really-- I value solitude, and if I'm going to communicate with another human I'd prefer it to be on my terms. Leaving the electronic door open means I don't know what's going to come in or when it will arrive, and recently I haven't been very excited by those possibilities.
It's a trade-off, I know: there are people that wish I would talk to them, and people that I miss. But it's a choice that's simple from where I'm standing. I just don't want the chatter.
Ironically, someone just pinged my facebook account who I haven't seen or heard from in years and would dearly love to talk to again. I genuinely thought she'd disappeared for good, but there she is. This may cause me to have to pay attention to facebook.
Ah well. There are worse fates. And my friend will laugh.
She is, of course, heavily connected with all the technologies. I don't think she groks why I would have access to all these information streams and let them lie dormant. It's not that complicated, really-- I value solitude, and if I'm going to communicate with another human I'd prefer it to be on my terms. Leaving the electronic door open means I don't know what's going to come in or when it will arrive, and recently I haven't been very excited by those possibilities.
It's a trade-off, I know: there are people that wish I would talk to them, and people that I miss. But it's a choice that's simple from where I'm standing. I just don't want the chatter.
Ironically, someone just pinged my facebook account who I haven't seen or heard from in years and would dearly love to talk to again. I genuinely thought she'd disappeared for good, but there she is. This may cause me to have to pay attention to facebook.
Ah well. There are worse fates. And my friend will laugh.