In the chapter entitled “Growing Up Tethered”,  Turkle’s descriptions of teenagers and college students and their “working out” of  identity issues and social pressures on Social Networks cause me to realize that ,  as a guy over 50,  I am still very much “working out” my profile and style of relating on Facebook as well as other Social Networks.  Turkle’s new book appeared to me as an opportunity to dive into what is  happening to us (good and bad) as we become more “tethered” to online relationships and online culture.

I have been struggling with some initial disappointment in Turkle’s approach in part 2  (I have skipped over,  for the time  being,  after a brief skim)  the Part I attention to Social Robots,  feeling that this is a bit over-analyzed and over-stated.  I don’t see a great deal of activity or experience with such things YET.  I have to understand, though,  that Turkle IS at MIT,  where they have labs devoted to studying computer culture,  and this is a large emphasis in the various studies of “cyborg-ism”.  I decided to return to Part I after jumping right in to the Second Part “Networked:  In Intimacy, New Solitudes”.

You see,  I have  been keenly aware over this past year of how different the online culture has become over the past couple of years.  I have had a slow  and disturbing dawning of realizations that this online culture,  particularly since the “Social Media” raving commenced a couple years  ago,  has seen a “thinning out” or “dumbing down” as we transition into micro-blogging and short bursts or “updates”.  The interaction seems to have been honed down into “manageable” bursts. 

However, This is not the only criteria I use for determining the significance or advantages of Twitter and other tools.  I have found that Twitter has practically replaced my RSS feed reading. Twitter is like RSS with the element of recommendation (of those I follow). So I use Twitter constantly.  It has become a social RSS and a constant stream.  (And of course,  there are iterations and pieces of the “RSS-like” feed technology that are still working in the background of many of the Social Media tools and platforms).

But to return to the “downgrading” or “thinning out” (and I do think it is more of a “thinning out” than a “dumbing  down”):  Something  has happened.  I am still hoping  that Turkle might address some of that.  The first 30 pages (2 chapters) of Part 2: Networked have not gotten me that far.  So far,  she has been offering what seems to me like a litany of cases that she is casting as evidence for the rapid acceleration of loneliness occasioned by the the hyper-connectedness of the Social Media age.

I DO feel there  is a problem of OVER-CONNECTEDNESS or “hyperconnectedness”,  but the preaching is too strong up front thus far.  I’m afraid many are going to put this down with a sigh as I have (but I continue to pick it  up and anticipate or hold out hope in finding some interesting points amongst the dystopian rants.  I am reminded of Cliff Stoll’s Silicon Snake  Oil from the 90’s,  which bordered on silly when I read it.  Alone Together is not nearly so “snarky” as Silicon Snake Oil,  but there is simply too much of a sense of pining  for earlier days of relationships and experiences).  That solace that  I can identify with any of these to some degree is hampered by the preachy tone and the “near-Luddite” tone. 

As much as I might nod in agreement about the change in relating,  and even ceding that this is not so much of a good thing,  the question for me is how to deal with this and explore the remedies that would enhance the relational aspects of technology and provide an avenue for navigating it.  It’s here to stay,  yes,  but are there attenuations that allow for us to inject and maintain a healthier sense  of the person?

I pick on Facebook in my title for this post because Facebook has become the model and synonymous with Social  Networking (evidenced by the title of Sorkin’s “portrayal” of Facebook or as they put it last night on the Golden Globes “”metaphor for Social Networks”).  More coming up