Status Updates & Other Thoughts

‘…Sunny Stuttgart Sunday’ I thought as I jogged through the park during my weekly ‘zone out’, ‘switch off’, 'zen inhalation'. As the words ran through my mind, I realized they were capitalized, in a box preceded by “Eleanor Davies…’.

“Eleanor Davies is...SUNNY STUTTGART SUNDAY!”

How had relaxing Sunday strolls become entangled in the world of Online Social Networking? Was it no longer possible to relate an experience to anything more than a snappy, catchphrase? Online one-liners.

Any element of zen was immediately expelled as I delved into the reasons behind what just happened, whilst coping with the realization that over recent weeks, my previously private thoughts had been slowly but surely replaced with unreleased status updates. Onliners.

Eleanor is… ‘Monday Morning Moaning’ - ‘Lost in Translation’ – ‘Quitting the Queue’ – ‘Globally Warmed’ – ‘Super Sleepy Saturday’ – ‘Waiting for Wrong’ - ‘Possibly Party’ - ‘Blog Ready’ – ‘Definitely Done...with thinking in status updates'.

Attempting to find some explanation for the erosion of my previously normal and even occasionally eloquent internal dialogue, I noticed articles in the press covering the loss of conversation in today’s Facebook society, the inundation of ego statements, strange real-world communication-phenomena and the flow of Facebook statements themselves.

Media articles have been increasingly discussing messaging phenomena such as Text, Facebook and Twitter. This year the Guardian Newspaper held its Activate conference in London. Both the global and local societal effects of communication technology were discussed during an intense day of debate. Draped behind the panel however, was a live Twitter feed of comments coming from audience members, both real and virtual.

Apt, or ironic, to be discussing implications to society caused by recent changes in communications platforms, whilst having to respond to a live-update of reactionary Tweets mid-speech. Though initially thought provoking and topical, my lasting impression, confirmed by the comment – 'Thomas Gensemer (Blue State Digital/Obama Online) looks a lot like Gary Oldman’ - was of disruption more usually caused by hecklers at a Stand-Up comedy night.

It was at this Tweet-conference where The Future of Humanity and Society in the time of the Internet was being discussed, that I heard the phrase ‘Connecting to Disconnect’ – an answer Arianna Huffington (Huffington Post) - gave to the question of what the next big Internet Revolution is to be.

It is a phrase that seemed to ring true with my recent research findings. Whilst investigating Internet use on a recent project we found people increasingly looking to the virtual world as a means to connect with their real world – be that a Bar Camp, Forum or Online Date.

Where has our desire to join Online Social Networks led? Intentions to connecting with ‘real-world’ friends to allow us to share previously separated facets of our lives – have resulted in the progression of text-based communication from letter to fax, email, text, message, tweet and status update. It seems that this has been followed by a regression from conversing to chittering, chattering, nattering, shouting and as the German’s might say ‘Snick-Snack’ing.

‘Snick-Snack’ is a colloquial expression for superfluous decoration of a rather ordinary event. Socially networked people are increasingly swimming through alerts of the mundane, fashioned into snappy updates – at best. Tenuous contacts are delivered as Friend Recommendations and tagged photographs of other peoples’ parties fill our screens.

The form our new communication techniques takes, when translated to the real-word is similar to that of a school playground. Gossip, Chat, Messages, Pokes and Shouts are all equally frowned upon about the time we are told as kids that no one likes a Show Off.

In recent months the potential to connect individuals en mass allow communications between worlds, both real and virtual, has become apparent. We may be able to utilize communications technology to create momentum and catalyze change where it is most needed. Twitter reports coming from Iranian protests, Chinese demonstrations or shaking earthquake zones can release populations from isolation.

Thinking about my own Sunday morning jog, in which my state of solitude was interrupted by thoughts of how to report just that – I wonder if, while communication in a ‘virtual’ world has the potential to help connect the isolated and oppressed, may it simultaneously be isolating and oppressing those previously free to connect in the ‘real’ world?

Or could there be a harsher truth? - That we are all equally isolated and Facebook is simply allowing the real world to ‘Alert’ the virtual and ‘Shout’ about our own individual virtual oppression?

The sheer amount of Online presence and updates contradicts the very content we spend our Online time creating – confirmations via the virtual world that we are busy living in the real.

Not only is the location of our new communication worrying, but the content and format is reducing our previously complex communication skills, which have formed and evolved as we have. The etiquette and elegance with which humans have learnt to interact varies intricately between cultures. The way in which we articulate our thoughts can in turn influence the way we think – and it is this relationship that becomes an ‘Alert’ when projecting the effect of ‘Shout’ culture.

As we lose our established means of communication to ‘Likes’ ‘Dislikes’ and other One Liners, will we lose our ability to converse, convey and debate?

My most recent Status Update incident has led me to reconsider my Online presence all together. Up past midnight in a hotel room with a colleague, I was alerted to the fact it was my birthday via a Notification to her Facebook account. Initially surprised and congratulated, I then found myself in a flurry of Online communication and follow-up posts which were a far cry from the human interaction and welcome greetings from those friends who had actually remembered.

 
Concluding my thoughts after a weekend with real-world friends, who I am, these days, more familiar with meeting in the virtual world, with all Status Update thoughts finally dispelled and my internal monologue returned, I realize I may have just achieved the holy grail of communication – Disconnecting to Connect.