Ambient Intimacy

I thought this NYT article on Facebook and Twitter was an interesting read.

Brave New World of Digital Intimacy
Dated 7 Sep 08, By Clive Thompson

I'm not on Facebook or Twitter, but I've been curious about them.
It sounds like Twitter is now more popular than Facebook.
The article brings up some interesting topics for conversation, like privacy issues and relationships being different today and whether that's a good thing or not.

I'll include some snippets/quotes from the article, which is quite long, but very worth the time to read.

But first, a link to a blog post I found when googling on the topic of facebook vs twitter.
Facebook vs Twitter
Dated 19 Nov 08
Quote from blog: "But there is one thing i can say about twitter that is different from facebook, no one i follow or no one who follows me is from my past."

NYT ARTICLE QUOTES/SNIPPETS:

"Social scientists have a name for this sort of incessant online contact. They call it 'ambient awareness.' "

Or "ambient intimacy."

"...each individual bit of social information — is insignificant on its own, even supremely mundane. But taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends’ and family members’ lives, like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting."

"awareness tools aren’t as cognitively demanding as an e-mail message."

“It’s so hard to make plans and have an active social life...
But it’s easy to tweet all the time,"

"unless we spend enough time doing social grooming...
chitchatting, trading gossip...
we won’t really feel that we “know” someone well enough to call him a friend."

"deep relationships are still predicated on face time"

"This rapid growth of weak ties can be a very good thing."

"I outsource my entire life"
"I can solve any problem on Twitter in six minutes."

"though you feel like you know me, you don’t...
They can observe you, but it’s not the same as knowing you."

"She needs to stay on Facebook just to monitor what’s being said about her."

"with more than 90 percent of their peers using Facebook, it is especially difficult for them to opt out."

"It brings back the dynamics of small-town life, where everybody knows your business."

"Young people today are already developing an attitude toward their privacy that is simultaneously vigilant and laissez-faire."

"it’s identity-constraining now...
"Oh, right, ha-ha — I know you, and you’re not into that.' "

"privacy-eroding aspects of awareness tools"

"stopping several times a day to observe what you’re feeling or thinking"

" 'What are you doing?' — can come to seem existentially freighted."

"perhaps the person you see most clearly is yourself."

Image Creation Notes:
Filter Attack, Pfauenfeder (peacock feather)