Post by Morreion on Aug 26, 2010 9:51:18 GMT -5
Social Anonymity (Broken Toys)
This is a fascinating essay- read the whole thing.
Scott Jennings (AKA Lum the Mad) is an interesting guy.
And I don’t think the Internet, or social media, or any other buzzword, harbors responsibility for this essential alienation. I think our culture in general teaches us that we keep our enemies far and our friends farther. We don’t know our neighbors. (I’ve spoken to mine only a few times; when the police came by to inform us that one was a fugitive and asked if we had any information on him we could only shrug eloquently) We fear revealing too much online, entirely correctly, and then reveal entirely inappropriately too much at random moments (such as myself, one paragraph above this one) that, because of the shock of the reveal, is ignored and perhaps filed away to solve later, like some sort of mystery.
And tales of the sordid everyday lives of others are some of the most popular entertainment that we have. It’s not that we don’t want that connection, it’s just that we don’t particularly know what to do with it when we have it. And this is also why we flock to online worlds, for at least some of us – because it gives us very low-impact and low-danger social connections; communication outside of ourselves and our little packets of worlds.
And which is why ‘guild drama’ are some of the most compelling stories from online worlds – because we want the soap opera. We want that participation in the lives of others, even when – especially when – it all goes sour. Because it’s something outside of ourselves.
And tales of the sordid everyday lives of others are some of the most popular entertainment that we have. It’s not that we don’t want that connection, it’s just that we don’t particularly know what to do with it when we have it. And this is also why we flock to online worlds, for at least some of us – because it gives us very low-impact and low-danger social connections; communication outside of ourselves and our little packets of worlds.
And which is why ‘guild drama’ are some of the most compelling stories from online worlds – because we want the soap opera. We want that participation in the lives of others, even when – especially when – it all goes sour. Because it’s something outside of ourselves.
This is a fascinating essay- read the whole thing.
Scott Jennings (AKA Lum the Mad) is an interesting guy.
