"My friends had become billboard advertisements of themselves. Is that all people were anymore? An advertisement of a person that catches our attention because we like the layout, the copy, the font? Had people become that easy to define? I used to think so. But now I realized all of my digital friendships hovered on the surface. There was never any depth. We didn't discuss ourselves because we didn't take the time to know ourselves. We were too busy being shown who we should be, what we should wear, what groups we should join. Who we should mimic. We didn't have time to form our own thoughts or opinions so we quoted others." From Awaken, by Katie Kacvinsky
Definitely worth a read. And no one provided a book so that I would say so. But in this age of bloggies and facebook and email and texting, in this age of info sharing and less privacy, I'm discovering how isolated we are becoming.
I do love me some online friends. I do. There are a handfull that I'd say know me far better than anyone I see on a regular basis. HOWEVER, some days I think we've taken our online personnas too far and if people met us on the street, they wouldn't recognize our actual personality. Only the one we've cultivated and shared.
Am I wrong?
What do you think?
2 comments:
This post really made me think. It, also, prodded me to download "Awaken" to my kindle. I see your point, but I don't think anyone is likely to not recognize me in person from what they read on my blog. I'm pretty much what you see/read is what you get. However, I have read some blogs (and stopped) that were just too perfect that I knew I wasn't getting the reality of that person. I love connecting in person with humanity too much to ever just become on online junkie.
Too funny! I was just getting ready to comment here when I saw your FB message to me. So, yes. I'm obviously not putting the fake persona on the internet. I let the ugliness hang out there. BUT....I certainly do a good job of acting like I have it together when I'm at work. "How was your Thanksgiving?" "Oh, it was nice." Hahahaha! Thanks for keeping it real, Jamie. Wanna live in a bunker together until January??
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