As much as there is a sometimes a seedy and a down right illegal aspect to the internet, tell me when there hasn’t been one in real life?

Yet for the first time in the history of this planet we have an awesome opportunity to actually start functioning/sharing/actioning as a -global community- and the internet is a major contributor to that. It’s not just a throw away statement anymore, or strictly a financial thing either. The good the bad and the ugly, it’s no different from any other community in history, every era has used whatever “technology” was available to it, this is ours.

Places like this cyber corner store remind me so much of Uni. I spent so much of my school life not fitting in in the slightest, and not in todays version where not fitting in is cool (a fairly new concept) but in the getting oranges pelted at your back kind of not fitting in. The last two years of high school our grade had dwindled so much that I officially had no one to spend time with so (thanks to an awesome teacher) I got to while away my lunch times in an art room.

I went to Uni, a fine arts degree, and it was like being allowed to breathe for the first time. I could not only just be me, but I was celebrated for doing so. Finally being somewhere where everyone was there for the same reason, a love of and for art was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Like we come here due to a love of and for what harper.com is about.

I have so much to add but have said so much already. I do have to say, re privacy. I guess I’m a bit of a hippy, bare feet and flowers etc, I am an open book and don’t feel I have anything much I need to hide so I’m sure I don’t SENSOR myself as much as my mum did or (definitely) as much as her mother did. I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing but I know I wouldn’t be me doing it any other way.

Awesom topics CJ,
Celia

Thanks for the great comments; insightful, intelligent and encouraging as usual.

‘Procreative tingling’, Little John? What a beautiful euphemism. Well done.

See you guys at the Cyber Corner Store next week.

CJ xox

Perhaps you’ve heard this quote: “No matter where you go, there you are”?

Now before you purse your lips and stamp your foot like a petulant child, please look back over your comments for the past few months. Have a really close look and see if you can determine how much genuine, positive, wanting-to-change thinking is going on there. If you are honest, maybe you’ll find your answer.

Maybe it’s not your (ex) friends.
Maybe it’s not Facebook or Twitter.
Maybe it’s not the ‘others’ you so often refer to
Maybe it’s not food

Maybe it’s …

You.

And your biggest problem will continue to be you until the golden moment when you acknowledge that fact.

You can get angry with me. You can post a scathing comment in response.

Or you can take some honest advice and use it to change your attitude. The choice is yours.

Allan

Like everything, social networking and the internet require ‘balance’.

I love technology but I use it rather than allowing it to use me.

As a very busy person with a family who also works fulltime, my time for social networking (both on and offline) is limited.

I use Facebook (more) and Twitter (less).

FB is strictly for friends and relatives. I don’t have any ‘friends’ on FB that I don’t personally know and I don’t accept acquaintances that I don’t want to communicate with IRL. I’m listed under my real name – my profile picture is private. I post photos of my family and have the strictest privacy parameters for my profile and photos. I love the ability to communicate with friends and relatives from all over the world with ease. If it was left to face-to-face meetings, phone calls or emails or letters I’d probably only communicate once a year with a lot of them. This way we maintain a connection through FB – even if it is a fairly superficial one it is still fun – and we are able to have deeper conversations when we meet face to face or talk on the phone. I probably visit FB almost every day because I get a level of enjoyment out of it through being connected (even if superficially) with friends.

Twitter is a bizarre beast. I enjoy it when I have time but find that it can be a huge time waster and the connection is not there because most of my ‘followers’ and people I follow are strangers. I mainly follow people that tweet upbeat, interesting and topical info. I also use it as a news source ie I follow ABC, SBS etc and see headlines as they occur (if I’m on twitter). I find it hard to adhere to 140 characters and find that limits my ability to connect with people. Also I’m not particularly interested in connecting with strangers because I am still a bit paranoid about the ‘net. So I lurk on the edge of Twitter rather than immerse myself in it – I don’t have the time and don’t see the benefit in spending more time than I do on it.

I see how Michael would see them as negative. I notice that some people have ‘protected’ their tweets on Twitter which to me means they are hiding something and I block those people right away. I also know that lots of people accept anyone who asks to be a friend on FB and post photos of themselves in provocative poses – those people are probably on FB and Twitter for purposes other than just social networking online

When my children were small I connected with other mothers on the ‘net (via parenting sites) and found their friendship and advice to be invaluable. Some of them are still friends many years later. We’ve met IRL across the globe. It is a real and lasting connection.

I think that the internet per se has made it easier for people to connect – people who have similar interests, people who are connecting with their friends overseas but also people who are on the lookout to cheat on their partners (or worse). I don’t think the internet or social networking sites are to blame for that – they just provide a vehicle for it.

I am though still amazed at some of the information that bloggers share about themselves. Some will remain anonymous of course but the majority seem to have identifiable photos up on their blogs.

I guess it is no different though to the woman in the cafe that a previous poster mentioned, or the person on the plane behind you who raves on about every aspect of their lives so that there are no secrets between them and half the plane by the time we arrive at our destination. I’m not sure of why some people have the need to discuss the intimate details of their private lives loudly in public any more than blog about it or have a reality TV show about it.

As for these sites being responsible for lower literacy, what a load of crap! Last time I looked literacy was the role of parents and teachers, not internet sites.

Neil

I would like to hear your positive experiences of Social Networking because mine were not.

Privacy is about protection…..protection from what?
Ridicule?
Is a desire for privacy a reflection of my inability to accept complete and total responsibility for my quirks…or kinks?
Or the inability for me to lay out my shameful past…through actions I initiated, or those that were initiated upon me?

Does honesty in my present moment require dissolution of any pretense of me being something I am not? Is that why I honor privacy? To maintain the charade of me?

“Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”
Albert Camus

Being normal could equate to being private.
Attempting to appear normal is my smokescreen for the non-showing of Who-I-Really-Am.
So perhaps leading an authentic ‘non-private’ life is the fast track to personal evolution and growth.
I recommend anyone, if they feel curious, to attend an AA meet and see privacy stripped bare. It is through the utmost and brutal unveiling of past behaviour with total honesty, that powers and enables the breaking of addiction, with the subsequent embracing of life.
Bringing the deep and covered out into light releases that clamp of darkness. Honesty provides that power to light.
Perhaps cyberspace allows some greater honesty in my expression, as I don’t have to face the challenge of witnessing instantaneous disapproval with the honesty of body language. We focus on so much when we are in face to face contact….physical attractiveness/pheromones/subconscious past life association/societal status etc….that honest and open communication does face extraneous roadblocks.

But honesty flows when there is exploration and nothing is held back. There comes a tremendous uplift that does way surpass any procreative tingling that comes from ogling biceps and triceps!

Thanks for being not so ‘private’ CJ!