In his kickoff post, Florian talks about well-connected societies using a “range of different media types available to them to exchange news, establish and maintain connections and establish history.” The last word, history, made me think about connectedness across time through your personal history.
I use new media in so many different ways to stay connected to people and places from my past.
My childhood home is pinned on Google Maps. I’ve visited the web sites of my grade school and high school. I’ve bookmarked pictures of snow in Michigan so I can play “you think this is a blizzard, check out what winter was like when >I< was a kid!" with my friends in New York. I like staying connected to my midwestern roots so I listen to webcasts from radio stations in Detroit, visit the Freep and am on the Pistons' e-mail list.
I stay in touch with my grade school best friend and two of my high school roommates via email. Of course, I’ve Googled old boyfriends and found out that the boy I went steady with in sixth grade ended up being a state attorney general who resigned after being accused of ethics violations. Good thing we broke up before summer vacation.
I belong to classmates.com. I’m on MySpace, too, and have added several acquaintances that I’ve lost touch with over the years by finding them on other people’s pages. I’m just getting started with LinkedIn and hope to find some former co-workers there, too.
I recently started using my AOL Instant Messenger again and reconnected with some old friends there as well. My new job’s messaging standard is AOL, but I stay connected to my pals at the previous job via Yahoo, and at the job before that via Hotmail. Thank you, Trillian!
I wonder if the Next Big Thing will be a tool to make it easier to keep your own personal history and stay connected to the places you’ve been and the people who’ve been in your life. Of course, privacy would be a big concern, but it would be interesting to see your own personal history all in one place.
TAG: wemedia
As a person who is outside her own country – I am particularly amazed by how much social software and the net can dissolve borders.
Despite being out of my country – I don’t feel like diaspora. As long as I have a computer on me – I feel intricately connected with India. Aware of every bit of news. Random chats with friends back home.
It would be interesting to see what the internet does in terms of identity-politics in the life of diaspora.