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...

[alphabassettgrrl]

I have a love-hate relationship with technology. On the one hand, I can chat with all of you and that's wonderful. I enjoy Disney more now that I have people to hang with on occasion.

On the other hand, it's easy to pretend to be someone else and it's not easy to know who to trust on-line. It's easy to disappear. I tend to keep my virtual circles somewhat separate from each other- a few people know multiple ways to contact me but most of you do not. I'm not one of those people who has everything in my sig line. Personal choice.

I do like that on-line one can present different faces; we do this in real life as well but on-line it's easy to keep them separated. For the most part, I try to present a united face to everybody but it's natural that some of it sifts out. On the whole, my identity as a stagehand doesn't apply much to our discussions of Disney. My identity as a student sometimes has validity. My identity as wife rarely does. My identity as a gay girl sometimes comes up.

I'm a chatty girl, which is generally clear. I can on occasion have a good eye for detail- which is something on which this group thrives.

Technology has enabled us to widen our contact pool, but I think in some ways that pool has become more shallow with the occasional deeper well. We can pursue the appearance of intimacy without actually risking ourselves.

It's fascinating.