I have never been too surprised with the advancement of technology.
I thought it was pretty cool when my parents bought our first cordless phone and I could talk to my friends ANYWHERE IN THE HOUSE! It was only a natural progression that someday, someone would make a phone, that was cordless, that I could actually be outside and still hold a conversation.
I used to “chat” with a computer program on one of those computers that had a black screen, green writing and super pixilated pictures. It was a program that used word recognition to predict what I was typing and would respond accordingly. I didn’t know better, so I thought I was conversing to an actual person. With that being said, instant messaging wasn’t too earth shattering.
We have all seen those movies set in the “future” where people would talk via video phones, and alas, several years later, we have video conference capability through the internet.
Even the internet itself didn’t come as a surprise. I worked with a program in my 8th grade computer class called “Hyper Studio.” This is a program that replicates the most basic form of what we would know (15 years later) as the present day “World Wide Web.” I always figured it was a matter of time before someone would come up with something bigger and better.
The computer world finally got my head spinning with social networking. Facebook, Twitter, Blogging. Are these even real words? And why is it SO important that I get my own personal piece of these ever growing social networking programs?
I joined Facebook, only because I was invited by one of my hometown friends to do so. I thought it would be rude to “ignore” their request of becoming, my “friend” (even though we have been friends for longer than I can remember.) I was skeptical at first, wondering why I needed an application to keep in touch with my old high school classmates. The way I saw it was, if I wanted to talk to some of those people, I think I would have stayed in touch with them over the past ten years. To become “friends” with people who I see on a daily basis??? Absurd! And what’s up with people telling me (and the rest of their 298 “friends”) that they just got done eating the best spaghetti of their life? I don’t care that they are so excited about the season finale of “24”, or that they will be getting off work in 2 hours.
Twitter….this one, I am still trying to figure out. Is it good to “follow” people? To have people “follow” you? Kind of sounds like a bad memory of my middle school years, when it was the primary goal to be the most popular kid in school and have, shall I say, “followers.” This application allows you to write precisely 140 characters before you are forced to hit the “update” button and announce to the world exactly what you are doing at that exact moment…..kind of like Facebook, but without all the pretty pictures. My first reaction was the same as Facebook… who cares what I am doing right now? If they really want to know, wouldn’t they just call and ask? (or at the very least, write me an e-mail?)
Blogging….. I have a lot to say, everyone has a lot to say, our thoughts and opinions are, after all, what keeps this world spinning. I never thought I would enter the blog realm, thinking that whatever was going on in my head wasn’t profound enough to warrant an entire post about ANY subject. I never read blogs until I found one of my friends who chronicled a weekly update of her recent pregnancy. It was great to read about her daily/weekly life in the nine months she was waiting for her first baby girl. It was then I thought, when I had something as important like a pregnancy to write about, I would get my own personal blog account and record my thoughts and feelings so those close to me could read up on my life as if they were sitting right next to me every day. This realization to blogging is when it all started. I was being sucked in to the social networking world.
As I have played around with these three avenues on the internet, I have let down my guard, softened my approach and opened up to the possibilities that they offer. First off, blogging. I am not sure anyone is interested in what I have to say (and for those who have stuck around thus far, I thank you!) but that is the beauty of the internet. If you aren’t interested in what I am blogging about you can simply click on your web browser and see how the stock market is doing, what the weather will be like tomorrow or submerse yourself in the latest celebrity gossip. I am sure many people have already lost interest and clicked away (this is starting to be a ludicrously long blog anyway) but I am interested in those people who have stuck with me and continue to read, I have struck your fancy somewhere if you are still hanging on. At some point I could offer brilliant information, thoughts or perhaps a recipe that you can take complete advantage of. You never know!
Twitter and Facebook. Like blogging, I never thought I would give it a whole-hearted chance. But I have….and I am hooked. These two programs offer so much more than an update on people’s everyday lives; it reminds me that everyone out there is, in a word, human. It is nice to follow my real estate agent on her twitter page and see that she is attending her son’s graduation today and that she is so proud of him, it is comforting to find out that my financial advisor got a sunburn while mowing his lawn this weekend and the lady from the grocery store finally got a day off and is relaxing with a cup of tea. To top it all off, I have friends in common with all of these people. Who knew it was such a small world.
I finally realized that people out there, no matter how professional they are, are just like me. A real life human being, who works hard to pay the bills, enjoys having a good belly laugh, has to keep up on daily chores around the house and will occasionally lounge around in their sweats on some random Sunday afternoon, just because they can. All of this because of Social Networking. Sure, social networking has its professional place, it’s nice to know that my real estate agent will be listing my “new to the market” house on her Facebook account because she knows her friends and possibly her friends friends might see it, but it is an even better feeling knowing that she can relate to someone like me.
You know what? I am glad someone posted they just got done eating spaghetti, because I’m hungry, and now I have an idea of what to make for dinner tonight!