Preview

I’m So Totally Digitally Close To You

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2095 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
I’m So Totally Digitally Close To You
The Impact of Social Networking in Life

The article “I’m So Totally, Digitally, Close To You (Brave New World of Digital Intimacy)” (2002) is written by Clive Thompson, who is also a blogger and columnist. The author aims to explain the users’ attraction of Facebook, Twitter and other forms of “incessant online contact” through his text. Since social networking has become a nearly ubiquitous aspect of human contemporary life, Thomson has effectively illustrated the invasion of the social media into human daily lives, how people are commanded by it. He later goes on to explore the benefits of social networking sites and a few challenges of the usage assumptions.
Facebook is great because it is a way for people to keep in contact with their friends, see what others are up to, and show people all the new updates, without having to constantly call them every day. Additionally, people lose phones, change numbers, etc., so if you don't keep in close contact you might lose touch, but with Facebook, and you always have the same profile. It is also fairly easy to find more information about someone since one has access to their page. After had my own profile on Facebook in 2008, and the new feature New Feeds was introduced, I have never really felt socially unconnected from anyone. I feel like I have been forced not to be. Moreover, Facebook maybe is the only way I know how to interact with some people. People from classes I barely know but need as a friend to keep me reminded of homework assignments; that awkward first in-person meeting is completely rooted out when I can just post on their wall, or better yet send them a private message. I have to admit that Facebook has saved my education quite a few times.
Even though Facebook may have brought us many benefits and the convenience for establishing or maintaining connections with others, we may have leave out the scary true behind the usage of these social networking sites. Mark Zuckerberg may have helped my college


Cited: Thompson, C. (2002). I’m So Totally, Digitally, Close To You (Brave New World of Digital Intimacy). In Comley, N., Hamilton, D., Klaus, C.H., Scholes, R., Somers, N., Tougaw, J. (Eds), Fields of Reading (pp.543-553). Boston; Bedford/St. Martins.
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Brave New World Of Digital Intimacy Rhetorical Analysis
    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Brave New World Of Digital Intimacy Rhetorical Analysis

    In the article, “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy”, Clive Thompson explains to thethat users of Twitter and FacebookFacebook , that Social sites are giving such a detailed glimpses into other people’stheir lives that “ambient awareness”, has become part of almost every person on planet earthonline interaction. According to Thompson, aAmbient awareness is the feeling of being with someone, or in someone’s life, without physically being there; and every facebook and twitter user is feeling it, (whether they realize it or not). Thompson then goes on, to talk about a Boston Globe columnistthe experiences of Ben Haley?, who, when first introduced to twitter. At first Haley, stated “Who really cares…

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Can You Hear Me Now Summary
    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Can You Hear Me Now Summary

    “Can You Hear Me Now” by Sherry Turkles is an examination of increasing technology use in everyday life and how it has become a crutch for daily human life. Turkles, who is a professor of social studies of science and technology at MIT, elaborates immensely on her views of what technology is doing and has done to society since its arrival. She states, people have begun to be caught up completely in technology and social media. The goal of social media was to initially connect individuals across long, or even short, distances but, has created, in her words, “alienation”, and causes individuals to become more separated. In her opening argument, she explicates that people only want to be in public is to be alone in their personal space.…

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary on Waiting for Superman
    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Summary on Waiting for Superman

    A significant social trend in our generation’s youth was the explosion of the social networking sites. From the first social networking site started back in 1995 social networking was introduced by AOL (America Online). Shortly after it was followed by Classmates.com in 1997; moreover, social networking had began it 's peak with Blackplanet.com bring in 3 million users then Friendster was born in 2002, not long after Linkedin was created in 2003 bring in 30 million members. Meanwhile MySpace.com hit the networking in 2003 tripling Linkedin 's users. Finally Facebook.com was created in 2004 but only for Harvard college students then two years later Facebook was launched to the public and today Facebook has 150 million members. Facebooks model is to promote honesty and openness. Christopher Nickson inaaccurately states in his article that “It seems people really enjoy beings themselves, and throwing that openness out there for all to see” (Nickson1). Nickson does not see that online people are allowed to put whatever they want other to see and think about their life. Such sites allow people to be…

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Kailum GormanWeek1Assignment
    • 977 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Kailum GormanWeek1Assignment

    One major change that has occurred within the last fifty years is the uprising popularity of social media. Many people have accounts on Facebook and can communicate with people all over the world easily. While this is great for those who wish to keep in contact with friends, family, old classmates, etc. it has been shown that Facebook has been one of the leading causes of…

    • 977 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Digital Media Users Recreate Some Aspects of Face-to-Face Communication
    • 856 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How Digital Media Users Recreate Some Aspects of Face-to-Face Communication

    Explore the ways that users of digital media re-create some aspects of face to face communication.…

    • 856 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Basiccomp
    • 1364 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Basiccomp

    Today, new generations have adapted to a lifestyle where we invest the majority of our time in technology. Technology has allowed social medias such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter to control who our friends are. Malcolm Gladwell highlights whether or not these friendships are truly genuine, or inauthentic ones just kept over social media. In his essay, “Small Changes: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, Gladwell distinguishes between these two types of friendships as either “strong ties” or “weak ties”. He defines weak ties as a group of friends that we keep over social media, but don’t really exist in real life. Although weak ties come off as a negative thing, Gladwell sees strength in weak ties. Sherry Turkle, the author of the essay “Alone Together”, would disagree with Gladwell’s views on friendships kept through social media. Turkle believes very strongly in authentic relationships, and she therefore does not see technology as something that will benefit us. Turkle believes that technology makes us unable to hold authentic relationships. Personally, I disagree with Gladwell and agree with Turkle. Technology and social media have made us loose focus on who our real friends are, and people will continue down this path of inauthenticity until fake relationships, or weak ties, are all that we have left. New generations have begun to invest all of their time in the friends that they make over social media, leaving little to no time for their real friends. Weak ties, in the long run, will completely take over the time we invest in our strong ties, thus diminishing authentic relationships.…

    • 1364 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Is facbook making us lonely analysis
    • 610 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Is facbook making us lonely analysis

    This article discusses the disadvantages of speaking with people through technology rather than speaking with them face to face. He brings up the story of Yvette Vickers who was a Playboy playmate as well as a B- movie star. She was best known for her role in Attack of the 50-Foot Women, Yvette died and no one knew how old she was when she died. According to the Los Angeles coroner’s report she was dead for about a year until her neighbor, who was a fellow actress named Susan Savage, realized there was cobwebs on the mailbox and went in to find the body mummified on the floor with the computer open next to her. She became very popular after she died and was portrayed as the icon for loneliness. Even though Vickers was very devoted to her fans she interacted with them through social network rather than meeting them face to face. That’s what Marche feels has happened to us, we now think social media is the best way to communicate with people rather than going out and seeing them. He feels people who spend most of their time on devices and social media lack confidence to talk to people in person. Facebook is a huge reason for all of this. Last year Facebook had about 845 million users and had revenue of 3.7 billion dollars. Some estimates say that Facebook’s potential could reach as high as 100 billion dollars, which would make it larger than the coffee industry. So in a way you’re switching one addiction with another. We get so caught up that we can stare at the screen for hours hungering for a response or a like. Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist at NYU, wrote: “Reams of published research show that it’s the quality, not the quantity of social interaction that predicts loneliness. Loneliness in society is at an all-time high, people would rather tweet and text than meet up with friends and hang out. Many people think…

    • 610 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Electronic Intimacy Analysis
    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Electronic Intimacy Analysis

    In the Electronic Intimacy by Christine Rosen she discusses the idea that using electronic devices can change how we communicate. She explains how she formed this weird bond with a friend they only used letters nothing else deepening their friendship without facebook or a cellphone, she also discusses the difference between the two, with email or texting encourages as she said “more efficient and instantaneous affirmation or rejection of our feelings” which cause a new form of anxiety, created from a more modern form of communication. Through her essay not only has she done research on this specific subject but she has first hand experience living in between the old times of letters and the modern facebook and texting. Through her research…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Sherry Turgle Social Technology
    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Sherry Turgle Social Technology

    With social technology’s advanced development, I believe social technology is evolving the ways in which people communicate. Many years ago, the ways people communicate were limited to face-to-face, letter or telephone. However, emails, text’s and internet (Facebook, chat rooms, etc), which are dominant in the technological medians have changed human lifestyles tremendously. People rather text than talk; use social technology to communicate with the loved ones whenever it is. In Sherry Turkle’s essay: “” she worries about human connection with social technology might have negative impacts to human intimacy. Naomi Klein, author of “” talks about both beneficial and destructive “fences” that are existed to keep people isolated from things that…

    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Online and Offline and Professor William Facebook
    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Online and Offline and Professor William Facebook

    Moira Burke, until recently a graduate student at the Human-Computer Institute at Carnegie Mellon, used to run a longitudinal study of 1,200 Facebook users. That study, which is ongoing, is one of the first to step outside the realm of self-selected college students and examine the effects of Facebook…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Kohl's Concept Of Third Places
    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Kohl's Concept Of Third Places

    Social media constantly surrounds us, whether we are at work, home or out with friends, social media plays a role. Our increased use of social media has revealed the many ways in which its affordances have changed the nature of relationships, both private and public by blurring the lines between them. This will be demonstrated through the ways in which social media enables us to share moments experienced in more private relationships, with your more public relationships, how people consider their audiences and publics when posting content on social media and finally, through investigating Kohl’s concept of third places. The ways in which the affordances of social media have changed the nature of relationships, both private and public, can…

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Social Media: Facebook
    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Social Media: Facebook

    There are countless numbers of social sites around but the biggest most popular site is Facebook. Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with more than 900 million users. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004 while he was attending Harvard University. He intended Facebook for college students attending Harvard University but was such a success that it became an epidemic to other universities in different states to everywhere around the world. (The Guardian 2007)…

    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Social Sites Becoming
    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Social Sites Becoming

    In the article “Social Sites Becoming too Much of a Good Thing,” the author explains how social networking sites have become what they are now. Since 2002 social networking has become an addiction between all age groups. These sites are used to keep in touch with friends, to express oneself online, to make new friends, and in some cases to write about an animal.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    How social Media Affects Society
    • 1774 Words
    • 8 Pages

    How social Media Affects Society

    Social media nowadays plays a huge part in society. We use it to blog, wiki, listen to podcasts, communicate, share photos, and we use it for entertainment. Facebook is one of the largest and most popular social networking sites on the internet with over 604 million active users as of September 30,2012 (Olanoff). In other words, it’s gotten pretty huge since its launch in 2004. Overall, Facebook and social media influence cyber bullying, lack of productivity, addiction, isolation, an absence of privacy, and a false sense of connection.…

    • 1774 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    the negative effects of social media on teenagers
    • 648 Words
    • 2 Pages

    the negative effects of social media on teenagers

    Many teenagers love social media because of its wide connectivity and function that people can receive it for free; it does not require money to make an account and use it. Facebook is the most visible among various social media. What’s impressive about this site is that you can easily connect with your long lost friends and see how they’re doing, or vice versa. You can also make new friends in Facebook. Though this could get addictive and may divert our attention away from the real world. Like what Cornell University’s Steven Strogatz said; “Social media sites can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media.” I strongly agree with this statement. Also, people become a whole new person, because it’s the Internet. People can be anything or anyone in the Internet.…

    • 648 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics