Communication, Content and Cyber Society
Facebook’s focus on the content of light verbal bursts and replies coupled more recently with images of common themes will expand to include more concentrated text exchanges, if the WhatsApp acquisition by Facebook announced today for $19 B comes to pass. Who really knows how FB might expand? The huge price implies big changes should be expected all the same. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/19/us-whatsapp-facebook-idUSBREA1I26B20140219
A subtext runs with this latest business deal, once you pass the sticker shock of multi-billions paid for texting tech. What could possibly be worth mega bucks to Facebook? Apparently a robust market segment vehemently declines participation in the FB fashion of trivial talk, preferring instead mobile texting as the primary method of content exchange, and that’s what FB seeks to include in its social net. The attraction for users: Avoidance of carrier fees to send text. The attraction for FB: More users. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/20/us-whatsapp-facebook-idUSBREA1I26B20140220
Still, the persistent question runs beneath the surface of tech and money: Why do people FB in the first place? Or why do they blog? Why do they text? Why do they bother sending almost meaningless trillions of words and images to each other if they really have almost nothing to say? What is it about the human species that needs to show images of kittens and babies, food and sex, or sunsets and ocean waves to each other? Why do people jabber on and on about how babies smile, lovers hug, and party people drink or smoke so much? http://www.fastcompany.com/3021749/work-smart/10-surprising-social-media-statistics-that-will-make-you-rethink-your-social-stra
Sure, FB tracks the jabber, sells stuff based on the inane exchanges, and calls it good on the bottom line when beans are tallied. That justifies the big ticket for WhatsApp, perhaps, although it remains to be proven with actual returns on such an investment. But why do people act as they do with either FB or WhatsApp? What’s the appeal? http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2011/07/google-facebook-twitter-and-blogs-when.html
Maybe some humans beings feel connected and therefore more secure when they friend, tweet, or poke another human being, or maybe they fill so much time with reading and replying or writing and reading and…replying because they’re fundamentally bored and disconnected. Analysts at http://HamiltonFinanceServices.com hope this blog entry will rise slightly above the shallow chaos to pose a meta-query about the big picture. What is the point of all this chatter? What do you think?
From HamiltonFinanceServices.com, this is hamilton.jerry
One current use of Facebook: Fomenting a political opposition to the current temporary government in Thailand. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/20/us-thailand-protest-idUSBREA1J0BM20140220
Reminds me of Tiananmen Square protests a short while ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square
hamilton.jerry
I essentially asked the same thing when I asked the question: what is the “point” of Vivaldi. We’re social animals, Jerry. We need to communicate. The first two years of my retirement were horrible for me and finally I threw in the towel and found a part-time job in a bookstore of all places. I love it. I absolutely love selling books with all of my ridiculous degrees. And do you know why? I crave the interaction with people. They come into our little store and there I am behind the counter. When you’re behind a counter people feel free to treat you as though you are an expert in anything and everything. And so I’m allowed to ramble on… to pontificate from my little soapbox. Facebook, MyOpera, Vivaldi and such give us such opportunities to make “cyber” connections if you will. In fact, I’m off to Facebook now to connect with some good friends. 🙂
Apparently many agree with you, JamesD; their conduct speaks loudly about their social nature.
That leaves me believing that some people, including myself, don’t relate to social need as most others seem to do. When I retired after a 34 year military career as a US Air Force attorney, I became a university professor for a few years and took up serious painting again from my youth. I left teaching feeling as if I no longer enjoy associating with students.
Now I read news about places where I have served across the globe and occasionally I feel strongly about one matter or another enough to comment. It amounts to my version of knee jerk or arm chair reaction, I guess.
But despite my best efforts, I derive no joy from Facebook or Twitter; they both flood me with drivel that amounts to noise, in my view. And in all candor, I am not fully committed to blogging, although I have committed 12 months to the experiment before deciding whether to continue.
Thanks for letting me ramble. I don’t relate to social need much, so it doesn’t really seem like an answer to my question.
hamilton.jerry
Your words this morning brought to mind something I read on one of my friend’s FB page. There was an image of a dying man lying in his bed with a loved one bent over to hear his words. The caption below read:
[b]”When you are in the final days of your life, what will you want? Will you hug that college degree in the walnut frame? Will you ask to be carried to the garage so you can sit in the car? Will you find comfort in rereading your financial statement? Of course not. What will matter then will be people. If relationships will matter most then, shouldn’t they matter most now?”[/b] ~ Max Lucado
Connecting with people is important to me, Jerry. The “drivel” or “noise” on FB is actually a delight to me as I become acquainted with my friend’s wife’s “monkey bread” story and my grandson’s latest hockey game. In the overall picture of things these events are little more than trivialities but they meet a social need I have to relate to what is happening in their lives and to let them know that I actually care. I have more to say about this but the hour is late and I need to get to work and open the store. 🙂
One never knows until the last moments what the final days of life may bring. Having buried my four grandparents and my two parents, I have observed their last moments, however. They were all unconscious. So I doubt the image portrayed in your story resembles the last moments most of us will experience. To me, relationships can be however we chose to make them to the extent others cooperate, but when they elect to be uncooperative, then relationships are not worth the effort needed. I count on one hand the number of truly close relationships in my life, and I thank God for them. But I don’t need Facebook or Twitter to express love or caring for loved ones. Instead, we spend time talking face to face or by telephone, we spend vacations together, and we hold one another in tender moments. To me, Facebook and Twitter offer only very faint resemblance to expressions of love. We all can do much better than the shallow expressions inherent in those technologies.
I agree regarding talking on the phone or face to face. This sort of communication is far better than the pale offering of social sites. However, social sites can still fill a need (for some of us). It may not be on a deeper level but it still provides that avenue of relating and its convenience is unmatched. As for their providing a shallow expression of what is available elsewhere, you’ve no arguments from me. I accept it for what it is along with its limitations. Sometimes it serves as an impetus to a telephone call and other times simply a quick reminder that we are thinking of them. You might argue the same for this blogging you and I are doing here on Vivaldi. In the final analysis, has it accomplished anything of substance? It may be that simply writing this response is valuable to me since it has helped me to form my thoughts into written expression and then served to impel me to “do something about it.”
I suspect we’re relatively close in age. I’ve also buried my grandparents and parents and yes, they were not conscious (at least to my knowledge). That doesn’t necessarily mean it will be our experience but the odds are that it will. Still… Lucado’s words were meaningful to me and so I shared them for what they were worth (maybe not very much for which I’m sorry).
Lunch hour is just about over. 🙂
Thanks for sharing the valuable time of your lunch hour, and please don’t feel any need to apologize for sharing thoughts, feelings, words, music, etc. that hold meaning for you. None of us interprets or judges in quite the same way, so if I seem not to fully appreciate what you cherish, it is not because I do not appreciate you as another soul in the cosmos struggling to live well.
The message of Lucado’s story reminds me of similar messages from religious leaders I respect and admire who teach the importance of loving those in our midst. Of course, tech today puts nearly anyone on the planet in our midst in some way. But giving a hug, crying with another who’s crying, or sharing a meal with another hungry soul can only be done directly. True, our recent vintage of tech enables more light social contact, and that has its place. My message has been and likely will remain that developing the capacity to love fully, sincerely, and charitably represents a major purpose in mortal life, so whatever works best to that end should be pursued. I just caution myself, and by extension, others, that tweets and likes only barely scratch the surface of expressing love; much more is needed for most human relationships.
I appreciate your thoughtful, heartfelt contributions to our conversation, JamesD.
hamilton.jerry