Text is not Dead

As I join the blogosphere, I imagine myself to be an ant, carrying 10 to 15 times my own weight, scrambling with others to build the impossibly large anthill. Am I important in some way? Probably not that important. Am I special? To me, a few others, and hopefully my readers I am. Am I contributing? Absolutely! I am a part of one of the most modern and accessible discourses in current culture (culture being a very flexible and intangible term because what is relevant now may not be so in a month, a week, or a few hours).

I came of age in a time of adaptation and electronic evolution. One year, I was typing papers on what my friends and I thought was an advanced word-processor, and with much talk but little warning, we welcomed a computer into the home like a new pet. And the Internet 1.0 became an overwhelming phenomenon when I was an adolescent. The mere existence of the Internet was something about which people heatedly debated.  I frequented chat rooms (yes, I was one of those- but I was young and therefore cannot be blamed). This new medium was perfect for a quiet but verbal person. Shortly after the computer joined my family, my parents learned the magnificence of shopping online. Isolation was a dark shadow creeping over our existence. Why leave the house when, like never before, everything was home?

I further pondered this social effect on people while in college. I lived on campus with people who all were within four years of my age, and the dorms were segregated by gender. The IM opener, age/sex/location, took on a slightly twisted element. If I wanted to get to know people based on those trivial commonalities, I was already living in a social utopia. If I wanted to meet a guy, I could always take the long, lonely walk to the next building over. However, people sat in their shoebox-sized rooms typing away to someone with whom they imagined a connection. I was afraid for my friends, lost in some false matrix-like world held together by machines and unreliable, sometimes slow connections.

I am no longer afraid. For years, I have boldly gone where everyone else has gone before, Facebook, Linkedin, and yes, even Twitter. I’m cured! Well, more accurately, I have seen the unlimited potential of Web 2.0. It’s no longer about isolating oneself and communicating in abbreviated sentences with someone whose identity is as fluid as conversation. Now, we live in an almost too personal time. Not only can I reconnect with an old college friend, but also, now I can know when she’s doing her laundry, when she changes her relationship status, and anything else she cares to share. We are not quieted, isolated, unchallenged beings having relationships with the computer screen. No- we can be connected to new and old friends and long distance family. Making friends is not necessarily about being in the right place and in the right mood. It’s as uncomplicated as going to MeetUp and finding a group of people who share one’s interests and meet in real 3-dimensional life.  At the MeetUp site, a person can find a group sharing one or any combination of commonalities (movies, wine, hobbies, book genres, and dogs – little shout out to my doggy playgroup). And, the best part is that we can still shop from home.