T.M.I (Too Much Information)

It seems as though new forms of communication, especially social media and portable communication devices, force us to re-evaluate what a friend is. Traditionally a friend was someone to confide in, someone who will listen to your problems and offer advice, someone you would want to hang out with one-on-one without any other distractions and someone that would do the same for you, among other things. Social dynamics seem to have changed, such that now, people are literally posting their problems online, open for discussion and feedback from any of their 500 Facebook friends. People are writing down personal experiences and posting them online for the world to see, interpret and comment on. They are posting photos of events (no matter how boring, traumatic or embarrassing) that in the past may have only been shared with very VERY close friends for a laugh, cringe or cry. These are now on display for judgement or comment (hopefully a laugh or a compliment!)

“Digital media are becoming increasingly mobile as the internet and mobile phone converge into single devices, meaning that these technologies make communication possible in places where it wasn’t before, but also that they can intrude into face to face conversations where they never could before.” (Baym, Nancy. Personal Connections in the Digital Age, p. 12.)

People talking on their cell phones in public areas are laughing, crying and screaming out loud for all those within ear shot and are still somewhat under the illusion that the conversation is ‘private’ because they are talking into a device that is connected to one other person. As if we can’t all hear you...I have actually seen Facebook statuses asking ‘Has anyone tried ecstasy? Should I do it tonight?’ or ‘don’t know if I should have sex with this new guy or not...such a dilemma!!’ A 2009 study shows our desire as humans to communicate. Given the opportunity, we will talk. Or write. Or Tweet.

“Electronic messages are frequently portrayed as vacuous. A 2009 study by market research firm Pear Analytics, for instance, created a category called ‘pointless babble’ into which they placed 40 percent of Twitter messages, echoing oft-heard complaints that mobile phones lead to empty conversation, sustained for the sake of interacting even when we have nothing to say.” (Baym, Nancy. Personal Connections in the Digital Age, p. 30.)

Does the mobility of communication prompt us to share a constant stream of every thought? People are raising discussions on Facebook over what meds they have been prescribed from their shrinks and what kinds of guys or girls they like to have sex with. Wasn’t this the kind of stuff we used to talk about with close friends?  In private? It seems that there has been a lowering of standards for what it takes to be considered a friend worthy of knowing everything going on in your life. Tweets become reiterations of people’s days; from their morning shower to the exciting act of brushing their teeth at night. I’m not sure whether it’s the use of mobile communication devices that causes this or if it is simply something we do as humans beings and there is just additional outlets for it now, causing us to blame it for our self-obsession. Maybe we just have a drive to communicate and will use anything available to us to do so.