Like an inordinate amount of their time is spent on Facebook and Skype? Now, many people will claim that this is has caused the current generation to go into a mode where they communicate with people primarily through their phone or online and rarely actually meet up with people in person. Yes, sure, everyone knows you what you had for breakfast because you tweeted or facebook-ed it.
But what about for those of us who don't actually have the opportunity to see people that often? It's so much easier to comment on a status message than it is to send out a lengthy e-mail to an old friend, who's e-mail I probably lost somewhere along the way. Or maybe I don't have much to say to someone, or anything to them, or maybe they're just always so busy I don't want to disrupt? Facebook is so great. I can read what people are up to, what they've been doing, see pictures, etc. All of this is so fantastic for keeping up with my network of friends.
What makes it even better, however, is something I realized tonight, something that I think I should think about for my own research and projects as a PhD student. (I mean this, like, would really help solve my problem of fb'ing at 3AM, too...) I realized that I rarely read newspapers and I never watch TV (especially the news, I hate it). How do I find out about information on what to read? Well, I just go read the FB homepage. I can see what movies, articles, blogposts, books, restaurants, etc people recommend. They're my friends and I trust their judgments way more than (scamming) Yelp! or the Netflix "we have chosen for you" movie algorithm. FB adds that extra human element that is always missing in ANY machine translation, and I'd venture to say that this is what's missing in a lot of Google stuff, too. FB as an application doesn't actually do the important steps I need... it's my own networking, constant commenting, and assembly of really fantastic group of friends (some of whom are also rootless TCKs, endurance runners, or underpaid PhD students like myself) who have, in the space of a few years, basically have transformed the processes by which I interact with the web and people.
So now the big question? What the hell am I going to do when I get back to China and can't blog, facebook, or use Google? Holy. Crap. This gives the "Great Firewall" (GFW) a whole other meaning for someone like me, who basically lives on facebook instead of e-mailing people or calling people on the phone (I hate my cell phone--you tried to call and got my voicemail? Probably not an accident). I text'ed a lot in Taiwan, so I guess that's what I will have to go back to, but that costs money and it's inconvenient. (The speed at which I text is slow.... and frankly it's way lamer than posting a link to another friend's wall, then adding a comment about it in 2 or 3 different languages!) Also, how did people used to organize tons of people for regular events or form social groups? Was it possible to do as quickly as fb now allows??? Is this just a function of American, Taiwan, W European countries that I've been taking for granted? What does that tell us about the current state of nationalism vs globalism?
Oh, I mentioned Skype mostly because it lets me view L for as many hours as I please, for free, and the quality of the connection (audio and video) is quite good actually. (Usually it's me saying "I can't talk right now! I need to read... but please stay online with me so I can finish it... [guiltily] I love you....")
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