Class of 2009

Today, I happened to refresh my Twitter page about 5 seconds after someone I am following asked a question. I knew the answer. I mean, I read it in a browser tab that I had just closed, mere moments before. It would have cost me nothing, and yet - as I put my fingers to the keyboard - I immediately stopped myself.

I suddenly flashed back to my high school years. You see, in the 'tworld' - as in any society - the members naturally tend to rank themselves and those around them. My decision not to reply to this particular tweet was simply because this person and I were not ranked equally. They were out of my league and I knew I would have to choose my tweets to them very carefully, lest I embarrass myself.

[Ironically - as a side-effect of high school - I have also been known to slip into bouts of severe social ineptitude, and sometimes present myself as a quivering mass of hand-wringing, guilt and deprecation in public. So, it could have just been me.]

What the experience really prompted me to ask myself was "how similar to high school is Twitter, really?" Now, I can speak only of my own immediate Twitter 'circle', but I'm willing to venture that the principals are universal.

First impressions last
The new kid in school has only a limited amount of time to ingratiate himself with the social powers-that-be. As I remember it, there were only three levels of acceptance at high school: liked, tolerated, or rejected. Everybody was one of these things to somebody.

I'm not sure of the exact figures, but don't you only have something like three weeks to make an impression, before you irreparably assume what will become your official position for the rest of the school year? Ok, I admit I just made that up - but I bet if ever there was a study into it, I wouldn't be too far off.

The same goes for Twitter. You have a limited number of interactions with a specific tweeter before they decide whether they like, tolerate or reject you. I haven't ever blocked a user (other than the autobots - 'robot' users that spam me with marketing messages and repeated follows). But I do know quite a few tweeters who block and unfollow without a moment's hesitation and will tweet about it afterwards too. Brutal. But then, again, so was high school and we all made it through that, right?

One of the cool kids
Remember how complex the high school social structure was? It's the stuff of nature documentaries. There were divisions by grade, by gender, by academic performance, by background, by race. There were overlaps and conflicts. It was dynamic and ever-changing. The beauty of Twitter is that it's just as cliquey and almost as complex - but you get to CHOOSE which clique you wanna be (or at least try to be) a part of! And, best of all, it can literally be any clique in the world. Whatever is cool to you.

It's like a smorgasbord of aspirational and vicarious experiences. I follow poets, writers, bloggers, musicians, other parents, motivational speakers, newsmakers. Witty and intelligent people, successful people, funny people, and some plain-old nice people. Everything I want to be and sometimes think I am.

And the best part? Some of them follow me back. That's another great contrast with high school. Social interaction is the whole point of Twitter - people don't go on there to do something else and incidentally end up having to interact with others. That means that you actually can be one of the cool kids. Why? Because all the cool kids are looking for other kids that are just as cool as they are (or want to be - as the case may be) and that could very well be you.

Of course you get your fair share of loser hangers-on, sometimes you come across a bully or two, people will laugh at your embarrassing moments from time to time, and once in a while you'll get mixed up with the wrong crowd. But, unlike high school, you can live down any of your twitter experiences with a simple click of the right button. And, much like high school, if you're really lucky you might just get out of it actually having learned a thing or two.

Image: Mark Striver (c) 2001

Can information cause stupidity?

As we learn how easy it is to access information through modern technology and the web, and we incorporate it further into our lives, how much are we un-learning about good, old-fashioned thinking? Is all our intelligence becoming artificial?

Getting on the bus

The web is the information superhighway - a constant stream of facts, figures, reports, opinions. You can find out anything you want to know at the click of a mouse. With estimates, at June 2009, of almost 1.7 billion web users worldwide  (a 362% increase from 2000), a quarter of the world's population is already riding in the fastlane and more are on-ramping as we speak.

In the USA, the majority of web users are under the age of 18. They are kids. The same either already applies or will very soon in the rest of the world, I'm sure. These are young people who will probably never spend hours randomly paging through the Oxford Dictionary just for the hell of it. They will seldom, if ever, sit surrounded by a sea of Encyclopaedia Britannica's as they research the next school project. Need to write a book report? Google it. Forget actually reading the silly thing and forming your own opinions.

Getting worse

As if it's not bad enough that, already, most first-year University students in South Africa cannot adequately read, write or comprehend - I predict it will get worse. Don't get me wrong, I would never dream of taking anything away from the stellar achievements of apartheid and its legacy in dumbing down our people by the restriction of access to proper information. That is a real concern, and a big part of our current situation. But, my concern here is for the future.

As more and more of our kids are born deeper into this information age, we will breed whole generations of non-thinkers. Soon the incompetence bred by our not-so-distant past will converge with the incompetence encouraged by our fast-approaching future. Ironically, access to information (and lots of it), will produce virtually the same results as restriction of access to information did.

Disclaimer: Yes, I know that in South Africa only 10% of our population even use the web. I know that we have much bigger fish to fry in sorting out our education system in general, before it is even conceivable to raise a fuss about the possible negative impacts of technology. However, I do request that you humour me here.

Convenience at all costs

Have you been on Facebook lately? Now you tell me that you haven't once wondered whether that one 'friend of a friend' can actually write proper English. You know, the one that can post a whole two-sentence comment exclusively in sms-lingo? When last did you do a three-figure calculation in your head, with out reaching for your cellphone calculator? Quick! What's 65 + 17 + 11? (Almost grabbed that cellphone, didn't you?)

We just don't have the time anymore. It's all about convenience and speed - the less effort it takes from me to get it done, the better. We don't even window-shop anymore. Why spend all that time on little things like speaking to sales people, making comparisons and forming opinions when there's a thousand blogs that will review any product you can think of and provide an online purchase link to boot? It's a copy and paste society we're moving into here. We now compare other people's opinions to figure out our own. We are slowly departing from the practise of interrogating the facts - all the facts.

Time to think

How convenient it is to just sit down and have a good think? Not very much if you've already got 9 emails in your inbox, 15 new posts on your twitstream, 3 Facebook notifications and an incoming sms. Not to mention that podcast that you still haven't listened to yet. You have no time to question things because there are so many things coming at you - all at once. You've got multiple tabs open in your web browser at any point in time, new chat messages are constantly flying in, your boss is hollering on Skype. It's never-ending.

Now, developments like Google Wave are determined to make sure that we just about live our entire lives virtually. And that is merely a taste of things to come. Technology will ensure that more and more of the things that, those of us born pre-1990 were lucky enough to not have taken for granted, are done for us... and that may well include thinking too.

Infa-tw-uation

Let the records reflect that this post marks my first proper attempt at becoming a bonafide 'blogger'. I have yet to discover what that means, exactly - but it is my destination, nonetheless. I know only that I have a few experiences and thoughts I want to share, and a good number of them involve modern technology and life in the information age.

For instance, at the moment, social media (SM) is all the rage. I've dabbled with a few SM platforms but my current infatuation is with Twitter [Read this great introduction to social media by someone I follow on Twitter myself, @khayadlanga]. I was really big on Facebook too until fairly recently. With an embarassingly inordinate amount of time on my hands - owing to my flexible working conditions - I sort of got kinda, slightly hooked on Facebook. Now I hardly go on (when compared to my daily Twitter-time). I need to be on Twitter now. I never want to skip a beat and when I do have to bear down and slog away for the man, I am forced to shut my browser down just so I can focus. So, it follows that I'd have a lot to say on the subject.

I joined Twitter in April - 6 months ago. I'm now at +-850 'tweets' yet, a mere 2 months ago - August 12th to be exact - I had just posted my 50th 'tweet'. Which, coincidentally (or significantly, depending on how you look at it), was also my first real foray into the 'tworld' (Twitter world). You see, from what I've gathered, the whole point of Twitter is not only to be out there but to put yourself out there.

By this, I mean, you have to be willing to interact with total strangers from all corners of the world, to be ready to have them read all of your less-than-informed and ill-thought-out opinions, and your embarrassing moments of overshare. You must be okay with the idea that someone might start a mischievous lie that you could end up sms'ing to your nearest and dearest or (even worse) posting on your Facebook page!

It's exhilarating - like the proverbial bad boy that all we good girls just love (you know you do)! As an intelligent woman, you know that this has the potential to get you into trouble, but it is the danger and sense of exposure that keeps you coming back for more. It's the fast, devil-may-care freedom of it all that sets you alight. Erm, and before this turns into a whole OTHER kind of blog, we'll leave the metaphor there. Thank you.

The point is, this space moves at blistering speeds and, more often than not, there is no time to think through - let alone edit - your tweets. You have information coming at you a mile a minute (well, depending on your 'stats': how many 'tweeps'/'tweople' you follow and who follows you), and the deeper you dive in, the deeper it all pulls you in. Almost like a powerful Atlantic Ocean current - complete with under-tow and stormy seas.

Apt then, that my landmark 50th tweet was a tentative cry for attention (thinly veiled as a plea for help). Attention being the operative word here. Because, of course, that's what Twitter's all about: attention. The people who enjoy Twitter the most are those who receive attention - of any kind. The rest of us splash around in varying proximities from our individual strips of shoreline trying to let the people we 'follow' know that they've got our attention, all the while, trying to create something for our 'followers' to hopefully pay attention to.

Twitter fascinates me. Being a big old softie and a complete sucker for pop-pshychology, I see the metaphor in every moment of my Twitter-time. It's a microcosm of our global society itself and - more importantly - in my opinion, it's advent and growth are significant milestones on the journey that we are travelling as a global society.

I shan't pontificate too much on that point. There's plenty of time, ne pas? Suffice it to say, this isn't the last you'll hear from me on the subject of Twitter. In fact Twitter itself was, in a way, the inspiration for this particular blog. As I was growing as a tweeter, I was growing as a web-user in general. It's basically opened up a new world for me. I am taking in more information than I ever have before and it is all perfectly instantaneous. I'm discovering new places on the net and new uses for it, new thoughts and interactions with it. Twitter has indeed taken my breath away.

Facebook, of course, remains my first social media love. I still appreciate it and it has an (as yet) irreplaceable spot in my heart. It's just that... well, Twitter is simply the new hotness. I cannot get enough. It's just too early to tell yet whether it's true love or simply infatwuation.