Thanks for this post Ralph. My experience with the platforms mentioned is similar to yours. I have a couple of additional questions though especially reflecting on Holger's reflections people's initial reaction to cell phones. I share your perspective that Twitter and other types of these social networking communications are unsatisfying in building relationship with other people. I can see that they have some benefit as organizing tools where people working on the same puzzle can drop in their piece for everyone else to have instantaneously allowing the picture to emerge more quickly for more people. What I wonder about is whether these types of short kind of bombish kinds of communication make it harder to communicate in silence. I am reflecting on the constant use of cell phones to talk, text and tweet. The need to be hooked up to the internet through cell phones, constantly being buzzed and directed to communications that don't seem important or even very interesting but make us feel like we are not alone. I wonder if these constant superficial communications actually create a need for more intimacy while continuing to drive us down a less intimate road? I wonder if even just the non stop communication makes it more difficult to be comfort in the space of quiet, separation and self? As I read this I read judgement about the media which I actually don't believe I feel because I can see where they have great possibility in particular applications but the constantness of it is a concern for me. When I sit at a dinner table with people who are texting while I sit across form them I wonder.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 8:02 AM, Ralph Copleman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rcopleman@comcast.net">rcopleman@comcast.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word">I signed up for a Twitter account, but apparently I have no need to tweet, so I'm not sure why I did it. The very sound of the word, in English anyway, is enough of a clue to me about the quality of the connection, though I suppose there will always be a place in our lives for the small comings and goings. <div>
<br></div><div>Facebook. Signed up there, too. I check it about every second or third day. I keep waiting for something to happen, something worth sinking teeth into. Even if I say something I hope might result in richer dialogue, little of lasting import transpires. But I must say I like it. It's easy, and some folks I love whom I don't see regularly do post messages there. Have heard from two old college chums, too, but I cannot say we are "re-connected" in any richer sense. Linkedin. Plaxo. Forget them. All I ever get are invitations to "connect" to people. Nothing else. No dialogue at all. None. I suppose I could derive benefit from them if I "worked" them, but I don't feel the need.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Live and let live is my motto, and in my case, intimacy is what I crave, not more ways to skip along your surface. Want me to "follow" you? Write me something about what's really going on with you, and ask questions. Send it to me. I'll answer. Want to follow me? Well, ask me what you want to know. And I'll ask you questions, too. I'm not sure I want to bother the world with what I have for breakfast each day. I understand some fame-soaked celebrities have people who ghost-write their tweets. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Face-to-face. Telephone conversation. Letters and e-mail. Listserves. Everything else. In that order. The farther I go down the list, the less I experience any space being held by anyone, for anyone. And here's a quote that came to mind for me. Seems connected to this, sort of.</div>
<div><br></div><div>
<div><span style="font-size:13.0pt;color:black">"…the more
sensitive and profound are your answers, the more effective the results."</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:13.0pt;color:black"><span style="white-space:pre"> </span>–– Peter Koestenbaum</span></div><div><br></div><div>I'm off to deal with the growing backlash against the need to do a little something about global warming. Who ARE these people!?</div>
<div><br></div><div>Ralph Copleman</div>
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