Sunday, January 22, 2012

Too Many Choices Indeed

To Ms. Rosenbloom,

     The more I continued to scroll down on the PDF of your article, "For the Plugged-In, Too Many Choices", I found myself agreeing with or relating to almost every aspect of social networking that you discussed. Admittedly, I'm one of those sad people who are literally addicted to some forms of technology, with social networking being one of the main proponents in my life. At first, Facebook consumed way too much of my life, with my constant refreshing of the news feed, or checking to see if I have any new notifications to respond to. More recently however, it seems as if Twitter has stolen my attention due to the fact that everyone is finally adopting an account and using Twitter as much as they do any other networking site. No matter which website will occupy my time in the future, it's pretty much a guarantee that I'll always be addicted.
     Throughout this article I related to the many different practices of social networking that were described. When Google+ was released, I also had to make the decision to completely ignore it because of the shear amount of social networking I already do on a daily basis. One practice that was discussed that I most directly relate to is the fact that Mr. Kaufman "keeps his social networking dashboards on his computer all day". There's never a time where I don't have a browser open with at least 4-5 tabs on my laptop. It allows me to keep my most visited websites open at all times for the most convenient and efficient access.
     "'The in-between times are important,' he said, referring to life’s idle moments, like standing in
line at the bank or taking a taxi, 'times when you should be checking in with yourself instead of
trying to be somewhere you’re not.'" I believe that Graham Hill's statements are only half right in that the "in-between times" are important, but not for checking in with yourself. Those exact in-between times, like when you're bored out of your mind stuck standing in line, are the perfect moments to have something like Twitter. Being able to check your Twitter when you're at the mercy of a long line at the bank gives you something to occupy that time and make it a little less miserable. If someone feels the need to do some serious "checking in" with themselves, they clearly shouldn't be doing it in the short time that they're taking a taxi or something random like that.



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