speechless by serhio
posted 18 Jun ’08, 9.30am MDT PST on flickr
Words are awfully cheap now, they fly around at near light speed (not really, this is metaphor land). They go farther then ever, to unintended places, and thanks to the google-bot, they are out there for a long time.
And we don’t see where, how they land. We are hyper-connected, yet at the same time, rather disconnected.
I was recently part of some online antics that ended up very far from their intended path. People got hurt. There was mis-communication, too much communication, too little.
I have seen friends deeply hurt by snarky banter in blog comments.
I have talked to people physically anguishing over how to blog something they care deeply about and dreading how their naysayers will pick at them like eager starved crows.
These things make those old listserv flame wars seem rather like just warm toast rather then the raging bonfires they felt like back in the day.
For all its virtualosity, the online space generates tangible feelings.
With all the crazy paced word movement of twitter, blogs, comments, IM, SMS, facebook statusing, friending/defriending, it’s easy to miss unintended (or worse, subconsciously intended) consequences.
They are unavoidable, and. I would venture, part of the ecosystem, just as words can zing, zap, zoing in our offline lives.
Lacking any real meaningful conclusion, I am left with my own responsibility to not lose sight that sometimes things just get personal, both in warm fuzzy ways and the opposite.
Great post. And just think… if adults are having these issues, how much consideration should we be giving toward the ‘enlightenment’ of students on these very same issues? We miss the boat a lot on teachable moments with kids, IMHO, and schools who don’t even use these tools within their curricular structure/system are light years behind.
Michelle Baldwin’s latest blog post…Laptops vs Handhelds
This is a great post all right. It resonates very powerfully. I don’t have any meaningful conclusion either. Some things in this brave new world I guess I’ll have to learn to live with. As the man sings, “No easy way to be free.”
But I’m very, very grateful to have your words to help me mull it all over. Thanks.
Dr. Glu’s latest blog post…edu!edu!, or, living in the antechamber of hope
Thinking similar thoughts
http://crankymango.blogspot.com/2009/03/quilting.html