2011년 5월 31일 화요일

Understanding the Catfishes

     Communication is a hard task in the 21st century. I've once read a piece of miscellany where this writer depicts the awkward situation of two girls, each a friend of other, facing each other in a lunch parlor while each talking on their own cell phones. It seems like the real small talks are more and more losing their own values, while more and more people are getting into their own cell phones or Facebook accounts so much that those methods eventually make them pretty numb to the real world situation.
     Let's talk about this TED speech. Okay, I admit that at some points the speaker is trying to make her points seem larger than real. Even students right here in KMLA are some kind of multiplayers: they don't have any problem in associating with others while still enjoying themselves with Facebook or text messages. However, let's think of this peculiar case: the film Catfish. Don't know if it's staged or real by myself, but the film at least addresses some of the major issues of people creating a deceptive identity of themselves. Why would that be so? Internet is a space in which everything is so easy; all you need to do to make a new friend is simply typing some few vain words like "hello" or so and posting some photos of yourself. If you're not very proud of yourself, just pretend you are a cool guy with good appearance. Most of those who talk with you would never even try to guess out where do you really live.
     Simply put, think of what you talk about through text messages or messenger services. Are they really that meaningful? Mostly not, if you and the other are not that close acquaintances. Even though you are the popular one on the Facebook, that's it. In reality you feel that nothing's changed, and that you became isolated because all the others are the same as you - being logged in their own accounts. So you become very anxious whenver the computer is away from you. Cell phones are very similar. They are slowly becoming the only powerful (and also dangerous) means of communication for many.
     I didn't feel that surprised while watching the whole Catfish, since I've heard a similar story from one of my friends before. Now this is a story which can occur to us in everyday lives. I actually sympathize Angela in the story - maybe the Internet was the only space for her where she felt like she was having the privileges that she didn't think of beforehand. People are lonely today, since while the Internet gifted convenience, it also brought away with it our very old kind of communicative mind. So, to sum up (I know my arguments are a bit messy though), I do think that technological development is making people lonlier than before.

댓글 1개:

  1. Good posts, and I'll give you some extra credit because you kind of have an extra one here. You have some nice observations and thoughts on our communication-overload situation, and you are one of the few students I see who doesn't seem too focused on a computer or iphone, and instead reads Crime and Punishment during breaks. Good! But I'm not as disciplined as you. I'll reach for my iPhone and play a game before reading Dostoyevsky.

    Let me know when you finish it:P

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