In the most recent issue of The Atlantic, Stephen Marchie asserts: “A considerable part of Facebook’s appeal stems from its miraculous fusion of distance with intimacy, or the illusion of distance with the illusion of intimacy. Our online communities become engines of self-image, and self-image becomes the engine of community. The real danger with Facebook is not that it allows us to isolate ourselves, but that by mixing our appetite for isolation with our vanity, it threatens to alter the very nature of solitude.”
If you know my thinking at all, you know how much I value solitude There is a great deal of thoughtful questions and important things for users of social media to contemplate in this article. The problem that I have set up for you is that you will be looking at the article via computer (unless you go buy the issue). This is a problem because you may be interrupted in your reading this article by this and that alert from your social networking buddies.
If you give this a thorough and fair reading you, like I did, may discover you need to rethink the time you spend looking at this screen. The irony of this statement is not lost to me.
So, here’s my suggestion: Close all other tabs, and once you are no longer going to be chatted on Skype, messaged on Fb, direct messaged on Twitter or whatever, CLICK HERE.
Then close the window and think about what you read and then, get in the actual presence (not virtual) of someone and talk about it.
kingdom travelin' 