Nihar Sonalkar
WRT 302
Davidson
February 15, 2014
A Culture in the Cloud
As we make strides in our search for an improved technology to reduce miles upon miles of distances to a single click of a button; the effects it has on our culture as a communicative species are both fantastic and scary. In this day and age, our foremost mode of communication is through the internet with websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and the numerous more social networks out there. Needless to say, the way we communicate with each other, tells us a great deal about our cultural norms and the manner in which we interact with our society.
Both interviews concerning Sherry Turkle and danah boyd are skillfully edited and each interview’s surrounding are carefully picked. For instance, the interview with Turkle takes place in a somber and serene room allowing the viewer to focus specifically on her points about privacy and loss of it as such. Whereas, the interview with boyd allows the audience to get a more friendly and satisfied feeling towards the entity composed of the social network; by placing the interview in mall-like environment, the viewer focuses on boyd’s outlook towards how today’s young culture has shifted towards an online society.
In the past, our communications as a community would be on the phone, or in-person. These days, although we still use the phone to communicate, it is in a different manner than it would have been just a few years ago. With the advancement in technology reaching instant messaging, consumers of the culture have no longer to get involved in hour long conversations they are not looking to have, rather they can promptly get a message across through the use of instant messaging, status updates, or tweets. This point can be seen from both perspectives, that being, the loss of privacy and time, as discussed by Turkle, and a change in the way of communication and a gain in efficiency, as talked about by boyd.
Through instant messaging, and the technology of various quick communications available to us in this day and age, something written on the internet could last forever, and therein lies the issue of a loss of privacy. Something that was texted, maybe a year or two ago, can still be assuredly found, or something that was written on a blog, or a comment you made on a certain topic will still exist in the cloud; this leads to anyone with access to the internet to be able to look back through a certain individuals history, if they knew where to look for it. Thus, any sense of privacy that one may have had in the past, is suddenly lost. Another issue Turkle discusses during her interview, is that of a loss of time to respond. The instant message is a being that requires the receiver to reply back immediately; not a day after, not a week later, but immediately. What this process of immediate response does is that it cuts back on conversations to being these little blips of information that some people may put in the category of “small talk”. And for those conversations that are on a more serious note, Turkle states, that there isn’t enough time given for the receiver to effectively and efficiently reply to that given message.
However, on the spectrum of a growing community and culture online, the communications that take place online may be similar to those taking place a few twenty years back, in the mall or a movie theatre. boyd, suggests that, this interaction taking place online amongst people, is no different than what happened before the time of social networks. The only difference is, the conversations are taking place throughout the entire planet. This exchange of dialogue across entire landscapes shows us the efficiency of social networking websites; allowing people from two different time zones to chat about lunch, if they so desired.
Our culture, and society will continue growing through the use and assistance of the internet and social networking websites. This is somewhat similar to a change in language, which in almost every case is unstoppable, and inevitable. The amount of information our culture consumes through the internet will only grow.