In the age we live in now, theirs seems to be a difference in who we are as individuals from reality and the digital age. What I mean by this is we communicate in a different fashion. For example in the real world if someone walks up to and says hi, most people responses are "Hello, hi, chilling" or something along that line. However in the digital space we have gotten to the point and pretending we see a comment and we choose to talk or not. There's this thing about timing or when is the right time to respond to them. This has something to do with connectivity that we are always connected in some fashion and don't want to be known as always on even though we are. For example, if you are interested in someone or they have a interest in you and someone sends the first message, people have gotten this idea that they should wait a certain amount of time. Even though they are on their phone and see the message but choose to not respond in a certain amount of hours or even days. I remember talking to a friend of mine who was trying to explain to all his boys about what the "appropriate text back is". Now I wonder why is it that we act in this way? What made us set up these imaginary rules in which to talk back to someone. In the digital world we are these private but open people it seems. Everyone is so quite to put all their information out on the web but when someone reaches out, it seems as if it is a breach of their inner bubble. I wonder if it has to do with the ability to deny and look the other way as for when your in your person, you just respond out of kindness? Most individuals online selves seem to be different from who they are in person. I think everyone wants to be that prize possession and have that same effect of their favorite celebrities to fans. People want to decent themselves from the ordinary. The Baym text talked about hyper personal communication.
I hate the feigned busy-ness that’s so popular these days in the digital sphere. You can’t text back right away or you look too eager. You ask someone something difficult or requiring commitment and they don’t respond for half an hour—even though the two of you were just talking. It would be too rude to do that face-to-face with someone, but through you phone, there’s always a viable excuse as to why you didn’t see someone’s text.
ReplyDeleteYet, there’s something attractive about someone who’s caught up in something. Someone who’s busy. It can make your imagination light up with what they could be doing, or who they could be talking to. It makes me think of that episode of Seinfeld where George pretends to be annoyed all the time and everyone at work thinks he’s stressed out because he’s working so hard—when really, he does nothing all day. It’s even easier when the people you’re talking to can’t see you. Short messages and long response times can make it seem like you’re deep in some interesting project when really you’re just vegging out on Netflix.
Personally, I try my best to avoid that game, if only because juggling a bunch of half-assed conversations can be a pain in the butt.