Every now and then, I find the need to veer off the largely musical course we take on this blog and venture into what I call the "High Rant District", where I get something off my chest before said chest explodes. Today is one of those days...so brace yourself for the tirade that follows...
When I started my business, A Web of Fine Music (www.finemusic.ca) just over six years ago, I bought my first computer. Yes, I was a late starter in this game. At the time, I thought with the phone and email, fax machine and talking in person, my communication needs were pretty well met. Then, a well-meaning friend set me up for MSN, which, you may remember, means you can 'talk' back and forth online....like with email. Only different. Okay, I gave it a try, but I found the distraction just too much, so I eventually disabled it.
About a year later I found myself in possession of my very first cell phone. Not that I wanted one, but with Dad aging at the time, I thought it best to have one so he could reach me if he needed to. I still have it, a bare-bones pay-as-you-go model from Bell that looks like it should have a hand crank to keep it going. Again, I thought I was set for any eventuality.
Then came texting, which I have never gotton on to, and likely never will. Why would I want to write short-form messages on a tiny phone keypad when I have...email? Or push (dial?) a number to actually talk to someone over the phone? But I am told there are people, mostly less than half my age who run up tremendous bills texting friends for no apparent reason other than to try to top the world record set earlier this month by someone who only started texting a few months ago. Do we really have that much to say? One suspects not.
So that brings me to the true object of my rant today: Facebook. Let me get this straight. I can have a page with pictures and a profile and when the mood strikes me, I can let the world know what I am doing at any given moment, should I wish to? So I can, say, let the world know that last bowel movement was a good one...or the one in the stall next to me was. Hope I remembered to wash my hands first before I sent that posting...
I know I am taking it to the extreme here, but really, is that not what it really amounts to? Every time I check my Facebook home page, which I got when people invited me to become a friend on Facebook, there is something inane written there, like "I am sitting here looking at the rain..." Good for you! But do I really need to know about it? What I find particularly annoying is I also receive the responses sent to this person who sent me the initial message. And they are not any better than the original comment! It's like someone responding to a general-circulation email and sending it to all the people who received the original email. You don't have to do that! Just send a specific email back to the person you are responding to, silly!
I started thinking about all this about a month ago when in the space of one week, I was invited to become a friend of someone on Facebook no less than five times, which means I have to log on to Facebook each time and accept their invitation. I am afraid not to, since I don't want anyone to feel slighted. But the whole operation seems to me to be a waste of time that could be used to do other things...like work.
Do we really need all this added communication between 'friends'? Do people need to be on their cell phones constantly, even when avoiding human contact while dealing with an in person sale in a store somewhere, for example? How about the idiots who drive with one hand with the other holding a cell phone to their ear. Are they really paying attention to either, or neither? And let's not get going about people who are walking down the street, talking on their cell phone, and everyone cannot help but here the conversation going on. That, in my mind, is noise pollution.
What this all boils down to is this: in a society that needs mass communication every hour of every day to stay in touch with people and what's going on in the world, are we really all that better off? Are they really communicating, or filling the space with empty words and talk? We use all these words, but what do they really mean? Very little, I find. But we have this seemingly incurable need to answer every phone call, respond to every email or text message, and accept that Facebook and MySpace are here to stay. Can we get on without them? Of course we can.
It is like the salesperson who can't survive without his cell phone for doing business. They did before cell phones became widespread, so why is it so vital now? Or is it simply that it is more convenient? Perhaps, but I doubt the world would end if all these so-called 'communication' tools somehow ceased to exist. What did our parents do with such little contact as a party line on a rotary dial telephone and a pen and paper and envelope? The managed quite nicely thank you.
I know, I know, I will not change the world here, and that is fine. I just wanted to say my piece, through another communication tool, namely my blog, and let the world know we could get on without all these communication tools if we really wanted to. Oh, and I am told Twitter is the next big thing. Good! Another way to communicate in even shorter spurts without saying anything much at all! Just what the world needs...
Don't let it all overtake you and start to run your life. That, I fear, is what is happening. Let's not lose the age-old tradition of actually communicating verbally face to face or at least over the phone and actually say something worth hearing. Life wouldn't stop if that's all we did!
June 20th, 2009.
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