So, the IR software spazzed out for a couple of minutes, leaving me with some time on my hands. I could do some reading for class, but I’ve got a blog post burning to get out, so I figured, why not set it free, out into the Ether, so that others (all 7 of you :)) might share their thoughts with me.
I figure, it must be a late winter thing, with people cooped up indoors too long and getting cranky and nobody out making real news (OK, not that last one), but it seems like everybody is obsessing about technology and how scary it is. the.effing.librarian points to a study of questionable merit, suggesting that TV watching leads to depression, right around the same time that Techdirt points to an article about an even weaker study (and, by the way, the bulk of this author’s recent studies have samples of 83 adolescent girls–does she just keep testing the same ones, or what?) suggesting that girls who co-ruminate [over social media?] are in danger of depression. (Note: t.e.l and Techdirt were making fun of these articles.) To the study author’s credit, the issue of social media does not come up in the paper’s abstract; maybe the article’s author was stretching to get links?
On top of that, I was sent to look at an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education (who should be posting something more worthwhile, I think), talking about people coming to bad ends on Facebook. Sadly, the article was not written from the standpoint that should concern us–what they and all the various applications do with our personal data–but was, instead, yet another horror story about someone [forgive my casual tone, here] talking smack about their coworkers and getting called on it. It was just a very long way of saying “Use common sense.” Does nobody remember these same articles about e-mail? (I’m not blaming the person who sent it out; reminders to set your privacy settings and keep in mind who might read your stuff are never a bad idea. But shame on the Chronicle for posting something so obvious!)
Folks, it isn’t the technology. Teenagers will be teenagers; adolescence is not a fun or easy time for anyone, but I don’t see how it is made significantly easier or harder by the advent of Web 2.0 technology. On the whole, I suspect it all balances out, being easier in many ways and harder in others. (I could talk a bit, here, about my troubles as a teenager, but you don’t care. Suffice it to say, Web 1.0, such as it was at the time, was generally a positive thing for me–not always, but generally.)
Further, people will be people. I can only imagine, when cave painting was invented, someone drew the chieftain of their cave being chased by a mammoth, or something, and had to go live in another cave as a result. Ditto books–no doubt, there’s a good reason why the book after Look Homeward, Angel was called You Can’t Go Home Again. Seriously, we’ve been talking about people behind their backs since we’ve been able to speak–possibly longer–and while it’s not a good policy, it’s probably human nature. The only difference is, with social media, it gets back to people faster.
So, as always, if you’re going to talk smack, be smart, and don’t do your cave painting, or talking, or typing where it can get back to the person you’re talking about. Better: don’t talk smack about your coworkers, because it will get back to them eventually.
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