Joseph's a-ha moment #3

Watching the Alexis Ohanian talk about the poll to choose the name for the Greenpeace whale movement is something that I find interesting. The video just shows how popular it is to vote and rank things on the internet. I must admit that I love polls and top ten lists, and often take part in them. Why do you think our culture loves to rank and order things? Does are democratic society somehow create this phenomenon? Is there a downside to this kind of need to judge things?

Family in the digital age

More and more stories similar to the one presented in this video seem to be happening lately. For many years the only way families could be reunited is through the use of expensive private investigators. Now a simple search through Facebook and people who have not seen each other for years are being reunited. It is not just families that are being reunited but causal relationships being reconnected after years of silence.

These stories support the theory put forth by Stefana Boadbent about the intimacy and the internet. Before the widespread use of the internet many relationships suffered from long distances. We have all heard about doomed long distance relationships, now many relationships start from long distances. Social networks and genealogy sites help people connect to sides of families they never knew about.

One thing to ask is how family is affected by the digital age. With TV, video games, and computers there are many distractions that interfere with family life. The importance of family interaction has many hurdles in the digital age but family can also keep in touch with each other in locations that they couldn't before. As children leave the home social networks may provide more interaction with parents than the hour weekly call used to.