Mein Neues Leben in Deutschland

Saturday, December 11, 2004

Add me to your friendster naman oh

I know I've been sitting in front of a computer for too long if I create 2 posts in one day. Tsk tsk.

But I was looking through blogs (I think I have too much free time) and I browsed through friendster (definitely too much free time today) Then I had several different philosophical insights tonight (WAAAAAYYYY to much free time).

I realized that a lot of people collect...people. We put them in our friendster page, we link them in our blogs, we "My Friends" them in our MyJournal. But how many of these links really mean anything? Some of these people we only hear from when we add them to our "network". From then on they are merely icons. Clickable faces that are never clicked. But then there are people who are so proud that they have 500 friends, or have several accounts since they have achieved the surname "FULL". Or on a lesser scale, when we see the number of links we have, we feel a sense of satisfaction. What does that mean?

As part of my thesis project, we discuss several texts, philosophers and sociologists who deal with the concept of the Modern and Post Modern City. Thats how I came across this:

"Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation."
-Guy Debord, Society of the Spectable (1967)

Our friends, people we once shared real life moments with, have now become "representations" in our cybernetwork. We don't see them anymore, we don't hear from them, but we know we are still friends. Their face and name apprears in our page after all.

3 Comments:

  • A-add kita!

    -Grace

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:22 AM  

  • Well, I'm almost sure I have at least five hundred friends (cough, cough, counting dead ones, of course). Now, if we were to consider acquaintances, the number should easily climb to the five-digit mark. However, since there are 24.01644 hours a day, I can only keep in touch with a limited number of people. Friendster is a tool that facilitates in this regard. How it is used, abused, or misused solely depends on the inspired, bored, or misguided user.

    I hope you're having a great time! Someday, I'll try to visit Europe, too. (^_^)

    =j osef graey

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:25 PM  

  • its true that most people collect "friends" on that particular network but people who joined earlier, like moi, its mostly to reconnect with old classmates and relatives.

    i'm quite proud of the fact that i've met most ('cept for 2, one person i admire for her work and another because she's cute.) of the people in my list and actually try to send them messages at least once a year. (thank god for the birthday thing friendster added.)

    anyway add me dude!

    -JM

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:19 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home