Technology and Anthropology

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

Interesting subject.

ITs my feeling that technology has moved the whole dynamics of social life from what used to be people hanging out at coffee shops or the mall in a group or in-person contact situation, to one where everyone goes home and signs onto Yahoo or buries their nose in their laptops, cellphones or whatever. Oddly enough with the technology I would have never met any of you and thanks to message boards and the such, I hope, you have all gotten to know me as more than my "social in-person" status. If you were to take what you know about me from my posts, etc. and then think about how I am in-person, would my acceptance into this "group" really be possible. Use of this technology makes use of a whole other set of social skills. Instead of face, hand gestures, vocal inflections and personal presence, the "technologies" have words and usage of language. Because, as we all know way too well, you could say ANYTHING in this setting and 10 people can read it 10 different ways. That changes the whole playing field socially and it’s all due to the technology. I think it breaks down some of the stereotypical in-person boundaries and unfortunately creates whole new ones in the sense that alot of the people we interact with online could be anyone, unless we’re lucky enough to meet them in person and know how they are. And that’s sort of an exercise in sociology, which I’m sure someone like SCAEagles would know what I’m talking about.. If there were no pictures of me or if no one had met me, what would you think of me? Maybe I was asian, 5’ 4”, black hair, glasses, skinny, mid 40’s? Or maybe I was a female just pretending to be someone else.

That’s my little ramble... I guess...