sindre-almost

my existential crisis on the web, as I commented in my previous post I have many ideas about things I could write about. My problem is that most of these seem self evident to me. While reading other blogs, news articles I get ideas, I should comment on them. However when formulating a response or a comment, my brain goes something like this “bah, pathoey this is just regurgitated ideas already written about”

There are several original blogs out there, some comment on personal experience and are well written and liked by many, so how do I distinguish myself, what can I do that is different or original if you like, and the only answer I have come up with is that I don’t, I might ideas I like to share, but they are not original and does not warrant time spent writing about them, I can use that time to do other stuff. But I don’t. I kill my brain with sitcoms, drama-series and other entertainment.

This is the curse of the web for me, I want to express myself, I want to exist in an online world. Even if it only represents a fraction of me. Today we have more ways of communicating and educating ourselves than ever (I presume) we can participate in a strangers life, get more involved in our friends life’s, so why I am I left with less social satisfaction today  than before, I spend some time on facebook to keep a tally of what my friends are up to, and follow those who use twitter there. This should make me able to communicate with them on a whole new level, but I still feel that it is not enough. To quote a song;

How on earth did I get so jaded 
Life’s mystery seems so faded 

(Soul Asylum – Runaway Train)

Have we reached a level where communication with others on the web is so removed for the actual individual we are trying to communcate with that it seems impersonal. Or are we contempt with passive updates such as “well I know what he/she are up to today, no need to call or speak to them”

Do we spend more time managing our social life online rather than actually participating in it, there are a multitude of tools for sharing our online experience I have mentioned facebook and twitter, then you have services like delicious and a plethora of others. All aimed at somehow sharing our own online experience with others perpetuating the circle.

The counter argument is of course that these services allows us to stay in touch with people regardless of geographical distances, this however have already been accomplished by e-mail, texting. Facebook et.al. however makes it easier to communicate with several people at the same time with out personalizing the message to much thus bringing me back to the argument that in order to communicate with everyone we remove any specific individual meaning other than our own from the message. Typically illustrated by generic status updates on facebook or twitter.

These services have the mechanics of sending messages to a specific person but in using such a service which we associate with mass-communication are we as comfortable with sending personal messages at the same level as say a phone call. Ignoring the fact that while text in all it’s splendor can convey emotions and meaning, is still considered inferior to speaking to someone. Shakespear and Poe can convey meaning, emotions and experience in the individual reading it, but speaking to someone is “there and then” exchange of feeling, emotions and the whole specter of human communication.

Limits of IM communication

(stolen from xkcd)

So what does all this add up to, to be honest I have no idea. All i know is that for better or worse I use the tools available to me, and whether I like it or not it is the reality of the all encompassing communication world that we have today. We choose to participate, we choose how to use these tools. A wise man once said that you cannot speak or try to communicate with everyone, facing one way you will invariably turn your back to half the world. 

I seem to have strayed from my orginal thoughts here, apologies, but there it is.