More on Social Networks
Nov 12, 11:54 PM by Jonathan CamenischCan anything more be said about this subject without drawing a yawn?
Well, everybody’s talking about it, so we’ll probably have to put up with that for a while. But a few statements from Ken Myers regarding author Christine Rosen gave me pause:
”...In investing so much energy into improving how we present ourselves online, are we missing chances to genuinely improve ourselves?” [Rosen]
A friend of mine who teaches at the University of Virginia has been doing some research on the new mode of friendship, and in conversation with students raised the question as to whether giving so much attention to creating one’s online image wouldn’t lead to vanity. The students stared blankly back, not sure what this “vanity” word meant, though they knew that a magazine title used the word. When my friend defined the vice in question, they continued to be baffled, not certain why this vanity thing was regarded as a problem. Their response may be evidence of the ways in which what is common in our experience is all too easily regarded as normal, and then as good.
So is that an indictment of social networking or of our culture overall? I suppose it’s one of those chicken-egg circles without a clear starting point.
A "Macro" for Google Spreadsheets The Virtue of Non-conformity
One thing that social networking tells us is that people are relational. We need friends. Apparently, in the world today, we need them desperately enough that we are willing to spend hours marketing ourselves. In return, we receive a shallow shadow of what our hearts long for.
— Kay Camenisch Nov 14, 12:12 AM #so very true
— Jonathan Camenisch Nov 14, 11:14 AM #