losing touch

Over at the End of Cyberspace, Alex Soojoung-Kim Pang also comments on Clive Thompson’s NYT article, about which I wrote yesterday.

Alex makes the brilliant observation that ours is the last generation that will lose touch with friends. Social networking sites ensure connectivity in perpetuity. I wonder if Facebook will one day have provisions for a remote (and literal) kill switch on profiles so that if a user dies, a trusted party can let everyone know. It’s a matter of time, I’m sure. After that your profile becomes your virtual tombstone, as danah boyd suggested long ago (in Internet years at least). 

How will this change the way we live? Alex makes the good point that changing lifestyles, careers, and so on may become a problem. What if you want to keep things secret from certain friends? The century of network culture is going to be interesting.   

Over at the End of Cyberspace, Alex Soojoung-Kim Pang also comments on Clive Thompson’s NYT article, about which I wrote yesterday.

Alex makes the brilliant observation that ours is the last generation that will lose touch with friends. Social networking sites ensure connectivity in perpetuity. I wonder if Facebook will one day have provisions for a remote (and literal) kill switch on profiles so that if a user dies, a trusted party can let everyone know. It’s a matter of time, I’m sure. After that your profile becomes your virtual tombstone, as danah boyd suggested long ago (in Internet years at least). 

How will this change the way we live? Alex makes the good point that changing lifestyles, careers, and so on may become a problem. What if you want to keep things secret from certain friends? The century of network culture is going to be interesting.   

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