Losing touch
In my parents' generation, unless you were prepared to put in extreme effort, people simply lost touch. And, generally, remained out of touch.
In my generation, email helped us stay close to those we were motivated to stay close to, but drifting apart still remained a common enough occurrence. We seem to be going through some sort of generational resurgence of reconnecting with one another en masse via Facebook. "Oh my God, you wouldn't believe who facebooked me!" seems to be the 20-something's standard greeting these days.
Who I really wonder about, though, are the high schooler of today.
Are they ever going to lose touch with anyone?
Are those random reconnections now a thing of the past?
And isn't that a horrendously stifling notion?
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11 comments:
My 19 year old cousin, who im Facebook 'Friends' with has 256 friends. That has to be just about everyone shes ever met in her entire life (well nearly). I agree it is totally, totally different; not just keeping in touch, but seeing all their recent photos, who their friends are and what theyre saying. Great stuff. Or is it.
Good point. Do you really want to stay in touch with just about everyone from your past? Gone is the surprise of meeting up with someone "out of the blue." Or just using your imagination as to where people ended up.
Yes, that is a horrendous notion. I think our generation suffers from a bit too - and the major issue is the inability to distinguish between real friendships and crap ones.
I still am not up on Facebook at all, I haven't even ever put the URL into a browser. So when you say "guess who face-booked" me I think of either violence (like the "Glasgow kiss" = headbutt) or something altogether dirtier (though I guess I'm stretching things a bit there...)
Hmm. Yes. This sort of thing does make one wonder. I too like fantasising about where random people have disappeared too.
However, I think facebook, like myspace, will be usurped by another social networking site of somekind, then everyone will migrate over there.
Everything moves in cycles, and I think a point will come where it become a novelty to bump into people randomly.
Social networking sites, like the housing markets, will see their bubbles burst before long..
Maybe...
I've not joined Facebook. I find the thought of it nausiating. And I really hope that the thing does "burst".
Maybe I'm just too old to appreciate it! Or a grumpy git.
very, hence my refusal to 'facebook'.
I have a love/hate relationship with facebook. Though it has reconnected me with people from highschool, it didn't go further than hey how are you, what are you up to? And honestly, I don't see myself grabbing a coffee with any of them. And not because I'm mean, it's just we drifted apart for a reason and it's clear now that our interests are different. In all honesty, I find myself going through the profiles of the people that I'm close with NOW. Those are the one's I'm most interested in.
Its the intimate distances that are hardest to overcome, methinks.
is there a rivalry between bloggers and facebookers? between anonymity and the desire to find and be found, perhaps? BB wonders.
See, I'm not worried about the idea that my younger cousins won't 'lose touch' with people. I've discovered that being friends with someone on 'facebook' isn't a guarantee that you will have anything to talk to them about, and I think getting to that point- realizing that people change and you can just have nothing left to say to someone is something I think everyone needs to go through. With or without the help of facebook.
Fscebook is really odd that way. People I really didn't care to see, I saw again. It's funny though that you can e-refuse to be their friends though...
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