I have been thinking. That happens to me from time to time.
The world has become a global village. We know what is happening somewhere immediately. And if we want to go somewhere far away from our homes, we can do that. Most of the time travelling (by air) has become relatively cheap.
And to communicate has become easy too. When I was in Rwanda in the mid sixties it took a letter from Switzerland 6 weeks to reach me. To phone home to tell my people that I was OK was impossible.
But things have changed with the coming of the internet and mobile telephony. Communication is now instant. And we have great tools to do so.
Like facebook. It is amazing how this thing has become so big, spanning the whole world in just a few years. And you can communicate anything, make your network of friends. Whereby I though wonder if it is possible to have 764 friends. Here, I am afraid, that the word "friend" is diluted, loosing the real sense of the word. And then, some people complain about the privacy. To me that is not a problem. You have the choice of what you want to put. And then, Big Brother is watching us anyway. He can watch me, I have nothing to hide.
facebook has made me find people that were dear to me and just a few days ago, people to whom I was dear found me. After more than 30 years.
Mobile phones are now a basic equipment for a majority of people. With somehow sometimes funny things. A few month ago I saw a TV show on mobile phones and their use. At a certain moment, they showed a 7 year old girl holding a mobile phone. They asked her watch she was doing with it. The girl said not much. Why did she then have a phone. Her mother wanted her to have one so that she can call the girl in an emergency. Then the girl was asked since when she had the phone. 6 month. And how often did the mother call? Never.
Mobile phone are great to call. Except when you are away from your home network. And overseas. It is still easy to call home. But it will bleed you to death. Like when I call home through my (excellent) Swiss provider, I have to pay 4 dollars per minute. There are solutions (like Skype, VoIP, but that will be a different post). One solution is to buy a "world" SIM card. It is cheaper but often not very reliable. I tried several of them.
So we have the sms to communicate. It is great, specially now were one can write 3 kilometer long sms. It is an easy way to tell home that you are OK and that you love them. Of course, if a guy terminates his relationship with his girlfriend or wife by sending an sms saying "Bye, that's it" or something like that, then this is utterly stupid and enormous low class.
Now, all those social networks and sms and other, will it drive people to be lonely? Perhaps. But I am not so convinced. Because if you are a "loner", you will remain one. But I know of people who felt lonely and thanks to those means of communication came out of solitude. And who from, in some cases (probably there many worldwide), had their virtual communication changed into real face to face communication with their online buddies.
Well, if you send me an sms I will answer. And perhaps one day stand at your door.
The world has become a global village. We know what is happening somewhere immediately. And if we want to go somewhere far away from our homes, we can do that. Most of the time travelling (by air) has become relatively cheap.
And to communicate has become easy too. When I was in Rwanda in the mid sixties it took a letter from Switzerland 6 weeks to reach me. To phone home to tell my people that I was OK was impossible.
Like facebook. It is amazing how this thing has become so big, spanning the whole world in just a few years. And you can communicate anything, make your network of friends. Whereby I though wonder if it is possible to have 764 friends. Here, I am afraid, that the word "friend" is diluted, loosing the real sense of the word. And then, some people complain about the privacy. To me that is not a problem. You have the choice of what you want to put. And then, Big Brother is watching us anyway. He can watch me, I have nothing to hide.
facebook has made me find people that were dear to me and just a few days ago, people to whom I was dear found me. After more than 30 years.
Mobile phone are great to call. Except when you are away from your home network. And overseas. It is still easy to call home. But it will bleed you to death. Like when I call home through my (excellent) Swiss provider, I have to pay 4 dollars per minute. There are solutions (like Skype, VoIP, but that will be a different post). One solution is to buy a "world" SIM card. It is cheaper but often not very reliable. I tried several of them.
So we have the sms to communicate. It is great, specially now were one can write 3 kilometer long sms. It is an easy way to tell home that you are OK and that you love them. Of course, if a guy terminates his relationship with his girlfriend or wife by sending an sms saying "Bye, that's it" or something like that, then this is utterly stupid and enormous low class.
Now, all those social networks and sms and other, will it drive people to be lonely? Perhaps. But I am not so convinced. Because if you are a "loner", you will remain one. But I know of people who felt lonely and thanks to those means of communication came out of solitude. And who from, in some cases (probably there many worldwide), had their virtual communication changed into real face to face communication with their online buddies.
Well, if you send me an sms I will answer. And perhaps one day stand at your door.
