Comments on: Heathers

By: Things I Liked – week 4

Things I Liked – week 4 — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:10:23 +0000

[...] is Good Last August I wrote a post defending the role of the web and social media as a functional component of peoples social [...]

By: Celena

Celena — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:49:29 +0000

Nice post. Agree with all that social web shortens the distance. Recently at a conference where I knew no one I was able to connect with people and break the ice over twitter. Those of us who were online gravitated to each other and had a better experience because of it. Also noticed that there was far less awkward small talk in our group — we were already immersed in a conversation before we ever met face to face.

By: Dave Allen

Dave Allen — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 02:07:42 +0000

Well I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – technology only shortens the distance between us, it allows us to do more quickly and easily what we are geared to do – socialize. If one is an extroverted introvert then the social web tools or platforms out there are of huge importance in helping people reach out, speak up and be heard.

Archbishop Nichols conveniently avoids a simple truth – he was unable and perhaps even unwilling, to help Megan Gillan, and in turn she did not see the church as a place to turn to for help. His speaking out as he did is sheer hypocrisy; just as the church called for the burning of heretics in the past the new bogeymen are now inanimate technological platforms. He probably still thinks the world is flat.

Here’s an expansion of these thoughts that I wrote over a year ago – http://www.social-cache.com/2008/06/on-social-media-blogs-and-advertising

By: Justin Spohn

Justin Spohn — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:47:10 +0000

Gary – I saw the guy that runs postsecret.com speak at SXSW 07 and hearing him talk about the number of letters he gets every day, along with the number of people that got on a mic at the event and told stories about how that project had helped them, was sort of mind bending.

By: Gary Franz

Gary Franz — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:39:14 +0000

By way of example, an “old” social medium – a simple web page – has, anecdotally, saved many lives by its mere existence: postsecret.com

I like your description of the “extroverted introvert” since it helps clarify the spectrum, since we rarely fit into the extremes. The idea that different forms of communication offer different levels of emotional challenge and direct involvement ties directly to that idea of desiring intimacy, which is arguably the base human desire.

Thank you most of all for calling out the use of social media as the straw-man of this era. From older technologies, to music, to video games, now a single element of a constantly-connected society gets its turn holding the bag.

By: Justin Spohn

Justin Spohn — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:04:52 +0000

I think I might be an extroverted introvert. Either way, I’m in the same boat you are: the web has enabled me to find a voice and a way of communicating that often failed me in other venues.

To your second point, and related to the first, I think there might be an entire post about the role the web has played in redesigning society by bringing the point of view of the introvert to the fore. Humanity has been based on systems that favor the extrovert largely because it’s the extroverts that speak up, get heard, and end up doing the system design. The web has changed a lot of that. I think about the photographers I know who would never have taken their work to a gallery, but on Flickr they’re fully engaged and successful in the community. There are tons of examples of these types of things, and it’s fascinating to me.

By: Nancy King

Nancy King — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:52:27 +0000

I’m an introverted extrovert. I’ve built better, real life relationships faster with Social Media.

There will always be a group that demonizes the change because they stand to lose control of the message and control of the relationships.

No more country club…. now it’s twitter.

By: Justin Spohn

Justin Spohn — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:30:11 +0000

“*People* dehumanize other people, and that’s the behavior that needs to change.” Thats a really great statement Stacy. I think you said in 12 words what it took me about 1000.

By: Stacy Westbrook

Stacy Westbrook — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:25:44 +0000

I suspect that similar things were said about the advent of reliable mail correspondence and the telephone, when in fact those technologies have brought distant people closer together. Like you, I’ve met more people in the last year of using Twitter than I have since the olden days of dialing local BBSes and meeting up with other online nerds. I feel more connected to my professional community via Twitter and reconnected with friends from the past via Facebook than I would be without the social web.

The problem isn’t technology, it’s that people are people – and that means sometimes they’re total jerks who bully people online or in person. *People* dehumanize other people, and that’s the behavior that needs to change.