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October 18, 2002
Disconnected Technologies
I just had a thought. First one of the day... and resulting from the recent intersection of coffee and cookie. That and proofreading something. And chatting on AIM with someone about the fact that my spellchecker is suggesting that the correct spelling, of every mispelled word, is ""Street Kids."" Ask me why and I'll scream. At that point, I realized something. I have many friends online. Some I email. Some I MOO with. Some AIM. Or ICQ. Or Blog. Though many of them are on multiple technologies, I only communicate with them on one. Someone with MOO/ICQ/AIM, I may only know his MOO point of acces. Someone else, her AIM account, even though I know she MOOs. And in a way, this is good. I don't talk to everyone with every technology. If someone doesn't want to talk with me, they know that they can ignore me, by sticking to technologies that I don't know them on. And if they do want to talk to me, they know where to find me. This selective dexterity points to the maturing of online communication where the goal is not to always be in touch, but to be selectively in touch. And often not in touch at all. In the end, that's what friendship is all about."
Posted by jason at October 18, 2002 12:33 PM