News seems to travel at an exponential rate. Like most people, I found out within minutes that Michael Jackson had died. The traffic that resulted from word of his death almost crippled the Internet on Friday. The barrage of status updates, tweets and searches wreaked havoc everywhere from ABC to Google.
Aside from a sobering wake-up call about the strength of our web infrastructure should some serious disaster occur (we’re screwed), some national security experts feared that the increase in Twitter use, coupled with Americans’ extremely short memory and attention span, could affect the success of the Iranian protests.
These events clearly demonstrate our increasing interdependence on the Internet and social networks. We are in now in a turbulent and chaotic era of interconnectivity, and nobody really knows what the hell is going to come of it. Not a bad time to be alive (I hope).
When parents started getting their own Facebook and Twitter accounts, I knew there was no turning back. Social networking and the Internet were no longer nerdy, elitist or for young people. They are now a part of everyday life.
But the sea of tweets, status updates, video uploads and RSS feeds is easy to drown in. Should I, or anyone, care that one of my friends (and Facebook defines “friend” quite liberally) is bored, going to class or posting pictures of his or her new puppy? OK, maybe I care about the puppy.
My point is that we are all living in a reality TV show. Anybody is a celebrity, and with social networking sites, we are our own publicists. On a slightly more frightening level, we are our own surveillance squad. Everything from our favorite books to the classes we take and the conversations we have (and those with whom we have them) are catalogued for the world (or at least the National Security Agency) to see.
I have friends who often freak out over Facebook and its stalker aspects. Anyone who has been photographed without his or her knowledge or consent only to have it posted on Facebook (I’m assuming most of you) knows this is not a pleasant experience, especially if teachers, parents or prospective employers see them.
Sometimes I find it hard to shake that image of what Facebook used to be, Pictures-of-People-Playing-Beer-Pong-book. But now everyone knows that people can see everything that isn’t specifically blocked so people are, shall we say, a bit more discreet. You can opt out, disconnect yourself and try to fight the future, but resistance is pretty futile and isolation is lonely.
I say we embrace this new super-connected era we find ourselves in. Turn everyday life into a performance through blogs, photos and tweets. At the same time, let’s try and keep it real, keep it honest and use this new technology for a little more than stroking our egos.
From the netroots organization that funded and propelled Obama to victory, to the Iranian resistance and chocolate rain, amazing things can happen at our fingertips. Tweet, little bird, tweet.
