Technology!

Being back at work, it means that my blog posts will likely get fewer and farther between. My coworker is on vacation this week, which means it's just me - one guy posting jobs and maintaining a website. LAME.

Anyway, enough whining. I wanted to talk about technology today, hence the title. I bring this up because I am sitting at my desk right now, and I have entirely too many windows open. Corp mail, personal mail, facebook, hulu, twitter, linkedin, Google Latitude.

Do you remember when you guys were in Middle School? Elementary School? How did you keep in contact with one another? How did you store information? How did you express yourself?

When I think back to pop references at the time, TV shows were always obsessed with showing teen girls talking to their boyfriends and BFFs over a landline, usually with a frustrated parent or annoying brother predictably inserted into the scene as a humorous distraction. How does tht same scene play out now? The conversations might all be the same, but the media through which interactions take place are much more diverse. There are Facebook, MySpace, Instant Messaging, Blogging, picture sharing websites, Micro-Blogging, Webcams, Skype, and the thing that started it all, Email. (Ironically present day TV shows still use the brother or parent interruption gag.)

It's crazy to think that there is so much information out there, and so many ways to keep track of people and their lives. Sometimes it's super convenient, other times, it's super awkward. At work, I am constantly on gTalk, constantly checking email and facebook, contantly "on."

What's funny is the fact that although there is so much information out there now, is there really THAT much information that you would feel uncomfortable sharing with others? I don't mean sharing with EVERYONE on the internet, because that is just weird. I mean sharing with friends. I don't mind if my friends see hilarious photos of me on facebook, nor do I really care if they know what I'm thinking when I write my blog. I think it has to do with the fact that we are evolving just as quickly as technology. We have learned to be more public, more exhibitive, more accustomed to the level of scrutiny previously endured by only those who were famous. Our private thoughts are now extrememly private, never shared; but the rest of our lives are now spewed out in great fashion over the interwebs, and we have accepted it as reality.

Wanna see what I mean? The Woody show featured this last week. It's pretty good: