I’m beginning to wonder whether our new communication technologies are actually too good for us to use properly; like taking your first driving lesson in a 4 litre highly tuned rear wheel drive sports car that you’re just bound to crash.
“The Medium is the Massage” was the title of a book by Marshall McLuhan, in which he said that any medium is, in a way, more important than the content in terms of how it affects it’s audience. He illustrates his point by talking about a lightbulb; which might not have any information or “content”, but it’s still a medium; it creates a space that would otherwise be empty, and it shapes how it is used. (The title actually arose from a misprint, but deciding that it was supportive of his point; after all, the title wouldn’t have been changed in such a way in an aural medium, or one without typography, so McLuhan let it stick.)
McLuhan’s point was that any information that a medium contains is secondary to the effect of the medium itself; in the case of the light bulb, as a light source in the darkness which creates a space. People can do whatever they want with that space, but whatever they choose to do with it won’t be as significant as the fact that the space exists in the first place.
Well, the medium of a “poke” on Facebook seems to be for human beings pretty much what a ‘ping’ is to IT nerds. ‘Pinging’ is sending a tiny message over a network to a computer, and asking for an echo- the same response back again to check that a computer is there and reachable on the network. But there are other ways to do essentially the same pointless action as a Poke- it’s essentially the same driving force behind the zombies, werewolves and vampires games that seem to be rife. (At least, it’s the only driving force behind them that I can get my head around…) Whether you’re poking, biting, attacking, throwing snowballs or whatever the wording around the action is, it’s really secondary to the fact that you’re “touching” a friend in a way that doesn’t demand any of their time or make them feel obliged to compose a response, or feel guilty if they put it aside to look at later and then never get round to it. You’re just letting them know that you’re there, and that you’re thinking of them.
Status updates operate on a similar level- a short, simple message, but still heavily limited in terms of content and context. But, as “pull” rather than a “push” message (in that it’s one which doesn’t demand attention or acknowledgement, and can be perfectly politely ignored), it’s effectively a different medium to an email-like message. Like McLuhan’s lightbulb, the nature of the message is more significant in how it affects your behaviour than the content.
The problem is- like I said, that these communications tools are almost too powerful as methods of communication— and that’s something that can be a bad thing. It’s a strange quirk of the way the human brain is wired that it’s hard to get your head around how things can grow exponentially (how thick do you think a piece of paper would be if it were folded in half 60 times?), so when presented with a powerful means of communication that we are totally unprepared to deal with, it’s likely that we’ll hit trouble.
On one hand, you could find a friend you didn’t know was nearby dropping in to say hello because you put the bar you’re drinking at in your latest status update. Or you might find more happy birthday wishes coming in through Facebook than any other medium.
But on the other hand there are Facebook horror stories around; from finding out that your friends went out without you, to tasteless fancy dress photos that lead to outrage, or the office worker who unwittingly told his boss what he was really up to when “something came up” and he couldn’t come to work. (And that’s not even touching on the plethora of nightmare stories that the new Beacon scheme has caused…)
Outside of the bigger headline-friendly stories that the news channels and bloggers have got hold of, there’s anecdotal evidence of the power of social networking websites. I know of at least two people who have been so bombarded with supportive messages and comments after hearing through Facebook that relationships had ended (not just from close friends, but from acquaintances on their friends lists) that it became uncomfortable. I suppose the message is— like anything on the internet— if you wouldn’t be happy shouting it out to a crowded room, don’t post it on the internet. On one hand, unlike the internet in general, only your friends can see what you post on Facebook (assuming that’s how you’ve set your privacy filters.) On the other hand, it’s a safe bet that your friends will see what you post on Facebook…
Perhaps we’ll see a new generation of games supplanting the likes of Vampire and Zombie bites as people look for something new to take their place (surely they will get bored of them soon…); apparently most gamers use video games as a kind of social media; a way to connect to family and friends, with over 63% of the US population now playing computer games, and the demographics that play and spend money on gaming is expanding, and the value of games developments companies is rapidly increasing.
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