Day 18
I am feeling 100% better today then yesterday. I can actually focus for more then 5 minutes. I’m not tired and I only feel dizzy occasionally. Considering that there are glue fumes coming through the vent because the space next door is under construction, I think I am doing pretty well. Not to worry, more angels from upstairs helped me with the ventilation while I hid in the bathroom again.
Emotionally, I feel great. I have been invited to a party tonight. The company upstairs, Emma, is having a launch party and they invited me to chat with people via Skype. I am looking forward to it. So between that and feeling like my brain is working again I am happy and I was able to think of something else to discuss on the blog outside of how I am feeling…
Do you agree with this or this? I have to agree with Newsweek, but you can decide for yourself. The part of the Newsweek article that resonates with me is that facebook makes people who are already lonely feel less connected, not more connected. It can be a reminder of what they are missing. They see the inside jokes they are not included in and the parties they are not invited to. The odd thing here is that people may compare themselves to these personas of their ‘friends’ which in reality maybe skewed.
Social media is a way to constantly promote ourselves in way in which we want others to see us. As someone told me today, “I find the relationship between how interesting one’s life is and how interesting one’s facebook page is to be inversely proportional.”
One of the latest trends is to “check-in” in at various locations. If you aren’t familiar it’s a way to tell people exactly where you are and what you are doing via your GPS location. I haven’t understood the impulse to this, but many of my friends use it. Why do people have the urge to do this? Is this to communicate with others or to prove to ourselves that we are doing something cool? Am I missing something?
A friend of mine text me the other day to tell me she found comfort in knowing where I am at all times. She said, “It’s like social media took the mystery out of everyone in a way. Everyone’s lives are so accessible, but when someone is so visible like you are it’s comforting and then when you are not it’s like the mystery is back and our imagination kicks back in about that person.”
November 19th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
From what I can tell, this project is an expression for you, not so much as an opportunity for others. I sense that you are seeking share something about yourself to the world. However, you have done it in such an ironic way; living in a glass house.
Metaphors abound.
November 19th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
Just saw the project on CNN news. It is a brilliant idea; it is sad but true that there are some people I know – without technology, it is impossible to connect and communicate with them.
Also, aren’t we all somehow living in glass houses; through “social” media, we are all visible, however, alone. So it is not social at all, we are all watching each other behind glasses and we just think that we either “communicate” or “connect”.
Cheers from Istanbul,
Cansu
November 19th, 2010 at 11:01 pm
Cristin,
I am glad that your emotions seem to be plateauing. In my opinion, you are through the worst of what you will face. You’ve passed the halfway point, you are well publicized, and those of us outside the box want to be a part of your experiment.
Keep up the good work; you are doing great!
Cliff
November 20th, 2010 at 1:07 am
That’s a good looking group of guys in that picture! We clean up nice when we want to. Thanks again for hanging with us last night, I had a blast giving you the virtual tour.
Now that you’re wireless, what’s going to be your new favorite computing spot?
November 22nd, 2010 at 4:14 pm
“The part of the Newsweek article that resonates with me is that facebook makes people who are already lonely feel less connected, not more connected. It can be a reminder of what they are missing.”
Agreed. I’m in the last year of a doctoral dissertation, and as anyone who’s gone through the process knows (we were all warned, too), it’s one of the most socially isolating of experiences because of the hours alone reading and writing, and the sad fact that what you are most obsessed with is something you can’t really talk to anyone else about on a regular basis, except perhaps your supervisor (even other scholars in your department are experts in other directions) because your obsession is so so so arcane. The idea of “coworker” slides quite a bit in this case, and extreme degrees of “living in your head” make it harder to snap back into social mode.
Compound this with the fact that I live in the country and work at home, so I go days on days of seeing no one but my husband (who uses our only car to get to work and back in the city). I used to consider myself a happy introvert but I’ve located the limits of isolation and know what the edge looks like. FB and Twitter (which I use several times a day) haven’t made me feel any less isolated at all–in fact, as you and Newsweek say (I’m agreeing with Newsweek???), they make it seem somehow worse thanks to the contrast effect, and our inherent awareness of simulacra. Phone calls, conversely, with friends are panaceas, pretty much as good as hanging out with them in the flesh.
Thanks so much for undertaking this project and, more importantly, commenting on it. Great insights.
November 24th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
@Matt-The couch.