Comments on: Emotional Context, The Missing Link in Social Media http://www.rfistudios.com/blogs/right-brain/2009/05/emotional-context-the-missing-link-in-social-media.html Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:51:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Jim Jacoby http://www.rfistudios.com/blogs/right-brain/2009/05/emotional-context-the-missing-link-in-social-media.html/comment-page-1#comment-108 Jim Jacoby Fri, 29 May 2009 13:56:13 +0000 http://www.rfistudios.com/blogs/right-brain/?p=91#comment-108 a terrific post and a topic that has been much on my mind since a visit to the SxSW conference in austin earlier this year. at it, i attended a session titled something to the effect of 'the death of friends.' unfortunately, the panel was very much wrapped up in the friend/follower mythology they'd promoted to that point. when asked midway through the discussion to define a 'friend' both indicated that it couldn't be done; that it was relative. my head nearly burst off my shoulders. thankfully there are people like your friend who have defined in personal terms what a friend is to them. similarly, there are plenty of psychologists, anthropologists and others who can give us empirical definitions... though i'm sure even scientifically these might be debated. regardless, a friend is a friend and one who lives in a physical space, not as a 1 or 0 in the digital world. for my own part i'm working on a project now that endeavors to dig into the meaningful personal interactions we have in various aspects of our lives (cocktail parties, sports coaching, musical direction, etc.) and gleaning the metaphors from those to consider application in the digital world. for the moment, the tail is wagging the dog as our clamor for technology erodes or separates personal connections under the guise of bringing us closer together. thanks for raising the topic. looking forward to exploring more. a terrific post and a topic that has been much on my mind since a visit to the SxSW conference in austin earlier this year. at it, i attended a session titled something to the effect of ‘the death of friends.’ unfortunately, the panel was very much wrapped up in the friend/follower mythology they’d promoted to that point. when asked midway through the discussion to define a ‘friend’ both indicated that it couldn’t be done; that it was relative. my head nearly burst off my shoulders.

thankfully there are people like your friend who have defined in personal terms what a friend is to them. similarly, there are plenty of psychologists, anthropologists and others who can give us empirical definitions… though i’m sure even scientifically these might be debated. regardless, a friend is a friend and one who lives in a physical space, not as a 1 or 0 in the digital world.

for my own part i’m working on a project now that endeavors to dig into the meaningful personal interactions we have in various aspects of our lives (cocktail parties, sports coaching, musical direction, etc.) and gleaning the metaphors from those to consider application in the digital world. for the moment, the tail is wagging the dog as our clamor for technology erodes or separates personal connections under the guise of bringing us closer together.

thanks for raising the topic. looking forward to exploring more.

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