I reached a momentous occasion on my Facebook status today: 300 friends! I’m kind of a big deal. Once again it had me thinking about human interaction, dialogue, and community as in a previous post: http://thepetersohns.wordpress.com/tag/facebook/. More than ever in my life I really appreciate and desire authentic relationships. Now excuse me as I go back to my apartment that smells of rich mahogany.
I genuinely like Facebook. I enjoy reconnecting with friends, posting and looking at photos, and maintaining a continual poke battle with certain acquaintances. However, what is the point of most Facebook social groups? Beyond a symbolic social statement such as, “One million strong AGAINST Hillary”, to the specific, “Canadians who support Shane Doan as Captain for Team Canada”, do these groups of like-minded people actually use their Facebook association as a means to discuss, brainstorm, and share opinions? Rarely. This is to be expected when you join a group like “I flip my pillow over to get to the cold side.” What else can you say besides “OMG! I do that too!” And for a brief moment you find comfort in associating yourself with a group of people who share the same quirky habit or opinion. (Thank goodness for “I Hate When Teachers Erase the Board and Leave Half of a Word“. My pet peeve has been acknowledged and I can be at peace with the world.)
( Sidenote: For an interesting lunch hour, browse through Facebook groups that start with the words “I hate”. Interestingly, I have found people who hate all kinds of words: moist (understandably!), panties (agreed), random (never knew there were so many haters), legit, fabulous, dope, banter, copasetic (people use this word?), cute, amazing, giggle, booth, percolate, actually, uber, guesstimate, lol, frat, lurk, asap, whoop, intense, chunk, and the poor fool who started the group “I bet that I can find one million people who hate the word ain’t” and now has 5 other members to share his hate with. I would suggest never starting a Facebook group with the words “I bet I can find 1 million people…”. You’ll only look foolish when you don’t.)
I realize Facebook is a social platform used more for recreational purposes than meaningful dialogue, but with millions of users world-wide it would be valuable if these online gatherings also built constructive community rather than merely social status.
My graduating high school class created a Facebook group. The last time I checked there were 48 members. There isn’t a single wall post on the page. Is it that ten years after graduation we have nothing to say to one other, or is an online community just not quite the same as human interaction?
This lack of meaningful online dialogue got me thinking about a recent conversation with friends regarding Artificial Intelligence and it’s impact on the future. A friend recommended reading Ray Kurzweil’s “The Age of Spiritual Machines.” For a little background information Ray Kurzweil is an extraordinary inventor and also a futurist. He’s made some very accurate predictions regarding the rise and use of technology. For example, ” he correctly forecast the demise of the Soviet Union (1991) as new technologies such as cellular phones and fax machines critically disempowered authoritarian governments by removing state control over the flow of information. Kurzweil also extrapolated preexisting trends in the improvement of computer chess software performance to predict correctly that computers would beat the best human players by 1998, and most likely in that year. In fact, the event occurred in May 1997 when chess World Champion Gary Kasparov was defeated by IBM Deep Blue computer in a well-publicized chess tournament. Perhaps most significantly, Kurzweil foresaw the explosive growth in worldwide Internet use that began in the 1990s.”
Included in Kurzweil’s future predictions are the effect of emerging technologies on human interaction. Such as:
By 2019:
By 2029:
By 2099:
Likley, there are amazing events and developments that will occur as the result of A.I. progression. But these predictions about increasingly limited human interaction scare me! Aren’t we slowly already on our way there? Approximately 30 minutes of my 8 hour work day involve a face-to-face conversation with a real person. In fact, most of my co-workers call or IM one another rather than take 20 steps to a neighboring cubicle! I stay in frequent contact with friends through email, but even this electronic communication lacks the essence of what I experience in human contact. This lack of “soul” is what bothers me about Facebook groups.
I don’t want to block, protest, or fear technology that is bound to happen, but I also don’t want to forget to balance my machine, email, cell phone, Facebook, Linked In, IM, and MySpace interaction with human contact. Although computer intelligence may well reach beyond the boundaries of what I am humanly capable, will a machine really share compassion, love, joy, and empathy on the same level as a human? Because of my faith, I believe God created the trinity and human kind so that there could be community and companionship, and that love would be shared within these communities of believers. How will technology impact God’s intent for us to share, learn, and care with one another?
I sit here and type my thoughts into a computer to share in a blog with an audience of online viewers. Thankfully I will go home to a husband who I share these same thoughts with over dinner, and gather with friends during the week over snacks and coffee to discuss and debate these ideas. I hope all my fellow “I Hate when Teachers Erase the Board and Leave Half of a Word” group members can do the same.
