can you elaborate on your theory of the beard for all us slow old men please? Not sure I understand you there.

Mr. Hawk,
if everyone “seeing” makes the “sociopaths go into hiding,” then I guess everyone commenting anonymously in this blog-forum must be sociopathic in some way, right?

Back when email was a closed loop (AOL clients could only email other AOL clients, same for other networks) it created real barriers to entry – exclusive tribes. When the first interoperable systems came available it levelled everything out and made the Internet truly flat.

Now we’re going back to those closed loops – if MySpace and Facebook and SecondLife and all the rest could inter-communicate then there is less scope for tribe-like behaviour. More importantly, if “everyone” can “see” then the sociopaths go back into hiding.

Today’s kids and young adults don’t have the option of ceremonially burning the paper journals of their youth. Their idealistic and awkward probings into growing up will be around to embarrass them forever- or until the last server crashes. This is one time where I’m glad I’m a bit older, and the Internet didn’t exist.

Right now, networks are fairly minor. Facebook and myspace are fairly disorganized. But people are learning how to change that. Advertising agencies, hate groups, terrorist groups. Look at the porn industry. Maybe even 2nd Life. All of these will, eventually, take on a life of their own, independent of individuals. And then we’ll have some serious fun.

I guess it won’t ALL be bad. Look at the music industry. There’s already a war going on right now between a social network and “realworld” companies, right?

Some tribes get on better with other tribes.

Social can be happy. Community can be good. Network can be good. All can be subverted. All can be corrupted. All can be evil.

Of course, what was left out was that communities have their downsides. Salem, Mass., during the witch-hunts, was an archetypally American community of the first order. The community I grew up in was overrun with idiots and bullies and racists and sexists and people who were fated to learn about the inside of prison life.

We rarely look as critically as some words as we should. Community, social, network – none of these are inherently happy words when you get down the reality of things.

…but we are our memories. You may want and choose to forget (great) but you can always count on someone else remembering…:)

There is honour associated with memories but that is usually formalised, ritualised, established practice often found in national life, in the military etc or in ancestor worship.

…as for being ‘stalked’ by those people from yesteryear. I doubt it is that prevalent. To have contact with someone one lost contact with because of decisions made that were beyond your own control can be wonderful.

Last year the web brought me contact from childhood friends in S.A. but apart from the odd email there is no contact now. We just ran out of things to say once we had caught up and they understood why I had been “wrenched” from their lives to quote the friends concerned. Lovely to catch up and have a few questions answered on both sides but life carries on…

You may not have an emotional connection with people who communicate through the web but I know plenty of people who do, including family members.

Until fairly recently the culture of Britain was, in the main, distrustful of web social networking and it was a big no no even to consider dating someone, or meeting up with an individual. I probably fell into that category big time (for reasons of security, safety etc). I am still conservative and cautious in my approach.

…but I am constantly amazed how many people now talk about meeting partners, making friends etc through the web.

Professionals being the biggest networkers of all…why?