In his new “dork talk” column, Stephen Fry looks at the “Big New Thing” of online social networks and sees a “made-over old thing”:
What an irony! For what is this much-trumpeted social networking but an escape back into that world of the closed online service of 15 or 20 years ago? Is it part of some deep human instinct that we take an organism as open and wild and free as the internet, and wish then to divide it into citadels, into closed-border republics and independent city states? The systole and diastole of history has us opening and closing like a flower: escaping our fortresses and enclosures into the open fields, and then building hedges, villages and cities in which to imprison ourselves again before repeating the process once more. The internet seems to be following this pattern.
Given that for most of humanity’s history we have lived in tribal groups of around 150, is it really so surprising that we attempt to recreate that group wherever we end up? The Internet is just one more place where this can happen, with social network sites offering the capability of once again reinventing a tribe we can belong to.
Our tools become ever more advanced, but from a genetic standpoint we’re not significantly different to our nomadic ancestors from a few thousand years ago.
If you’re going to continue posting bad poetry built on weak theory, I’m unsubscribing!
Here’s some bad poetry built on solid theory:
The world is a great big place.
Sometimes I like to be outside.
Sometimes I like to be inside.
Sometimes I like to be on the screened porch, both inside and outside.
When I visit my parents at Christmas,
sometimes it’s a mob scene,
sometimes I close my door so that I can be alone.
Sometimes I’m in my room alone but I crack the door so that folks know I’m available.
Do I need to go on pointing out that people have multiple needs and that the open/closed binary is weak because it’s a binary trying to describe human behavior which is anything but?
Those 1’s and 0’s, rights and lefts, etc./etc. are mental killers denying the flexibility of human consciouness and being in the world.
But this ain’t no “on the one hand, on the other hand, but the real truth lies in between” type approach.
That’s a debased, delusional method for solving the binary. No thanks.
Peace!
Looks like I doubled my html line breaks.
Sorry about that but why doesn’t this system add line breaks automatically?
Hey, you can erase these last two comments.
The line breaks don’t show up in the Preview panel on my mac/foxfire combo but they do show up once posted.
Weak programmers were behind this travesty!
Binary freaks.
“The systole and diastole of history has us opening and closing like a flower.” Granted that the unfolding realms of history do follow a process that could be likened to the blossoming flower, but in reality the reverse is truer.
As technology becomes more pervasive in our lives we are brought into an increasingly separated relationship to the realms of nature. Separated by processes and machinery that rob us of first hand experiences in and with nature. From air conditioning to Google, these technologies physically isolate and atrophy our connections and interactions with the world of nature.
As each technological stride forward is manifest we are not “escaping our fortresses and enclosures into the open fields, and then building hedges, villages and cities in which to imprison us again” but in fact are on a one-way path away from first hand nature experiences. Not a “made-over old thing” as much as a decidedly deeper penetration into technological worlds that point to a much darker realm!
This is after all not only about technological/societal/cultural advancement or the adult user of technology but succeeding generations of children!
Alan
Alan,
How does reading fit into this “alienation from nature” thing? Or listening to recorded music?
I’m an avid reader of Sir Steven’s blog, and a big fan — but he is confusing two things: one is walled-garden, which I doubt makes sense anywhere beyond an emerging technology, as a beta-shortcut; and social software that uses social relation as an input for a varied list of tasks. Many elements, including reason and releases from the leading companies let us beleive that the currently emerging social software should be integrated, as soon as the social concerns are resolved. When Mike Arrington declared that his friending Scoble on Facebook doesn’t mean he accepts Plaxo to have his e-mail adress, I beleive we can see remaining questions around the use of social software.
Based on popular etymology, I’d just as soon read a column called “dork talk” as I would “putz talk”…
Nick– you are quoting Fry here. Are you agreeing or disagreeing with his words?
This is a silly column. Facebook could be seen as closed if there were substantial entry and exit costs, which there are not. Yes, there are data portability concerns, but that’s been the same with any other web community since the demise of the commercial online services.
Good question Steve. I would suggest that any activity that enables the development of an active imaginative process is a healthy activity for the developing child.
Free play and reading are archetypal activities that indeed do such. Listening to live rather than recorded music, if possible, also does but I would have to add that “younger” children might derive benefit from a musical household by osmosis.
“The alienation from nature thing” is in my mind rather more than just a superficial thought but one element amongst many as the basis for a balanced developmental and educational process. Introducing technologies such as excessive computer usage, TV viewing, video game playing, lack of unstructured free time and the like are impediments to a wholesome and healthy upbringing for the “younger” child.
These comments are not to be taken as dogmatic rules but common sense indications that, in general, bring some balance to contemporary norms.
Regards, Alan