Digital Intimacy

ST: New Literacies in Practice

Brave New World of Digital Intimacy (2008)

Clive Thompson

This article was very interesting because it pointed out some of the subtle positives of what we generally take as negatives of the digital communication around us.

The article begins with how Zuckerberg changed Facebook so that people could be more connected through the use of a newsfeed. At first there was concern about privacy, but Zuckerberg knew that with time people would enjoy using the newsfeed to keep track of their 200+ friends.

 “Facebook has always tried to push the envelope,” he said. “And at times that means stretching people and getting them to be comfortable with things they aren’t yet comfortable with. A lot of this is just social norms catching up with what technology is capable of.”

This quote says a lot about technology in general. Technology often challenges us to become comfortable with something that we've always done, but now done in a different way. Technology can challenge us to see how flexible we are with adjusting how we have always done things to what we are capable of.

I had an interesting experience with "ambient awareness" this year. Several of my staff members on are Facebook. I don't post anything personal on my Facebook, but I had made a comment about the weather or something that I was looking forward to. The secretary at school asked me, as a friend might, about that event I posted on Facebook. At first, I was trying to figure out how she knew about it, and then I realized that while I posted something and didn't receive any comments on it, people did still read it and use it as a conversation starter.

Another way "ambient awareness" is a benefit, is that it allows one to communicate with friends swiftly. When my close friend twisted her foot, she posted it Facebook. I don't talk to her daily, but caught her update on Facebook. I called her up to see how she was. While updates are interesting reading, you tend to scan those who are part of your network but not your close friends. For close friends and family, the updates are nice ways to truly keep in touch without emailing or calling.

I do think that some of the constant updating borders on narcissism or perhaps status to imply that they are important and need to create constant "news" about themself. 

However, while the article stated that close ties didn't increase from online communication "deep relationships are still predicated on face time, and there are only so many hours in the day for that", weak ties grew. Friends of friends (and it is amazing to see how you are connected to other people sometimes!) become valuable parts of your network. This article supports another article I read (attached to a Tweet no less!) concerning business and weak ties. Often our friends have the same interests and outlooks as we do. The business article equated this with grouping all of the smart people in one program. No new ideas surface because the group is too homogenous. When we mix with people who are different from us, we can sometimes find unique solutions to problems.

I liked that this article pointed out some of the issues concerned with social networking online: privacy, bombardment, false intimacy, playing with a person's image or emotions as well as the subtle benefits of talking to people we don't know, growing, keeping in touch, and documenting our lives.