Geneva and the Internet and watching TV

I think that perhaps one of the things that made my stay in Geneva so nice is the fact that for the entire time I watched zero TV.  For one thing, it was mostly in French, and also - come on - who would go through all the trouble to get to Geneva and then spend his/her time watching TV?  Seriously.   I did, however, spend a fair amount of time on the internet, some of it social, and I think that, to me, the topics of watching TV and socializing on the internet are a little related.

If you have read much of this blog you must know by now that I LOVE me some internet.  It is the biggest, baddest, bestest research tool that any academic junkie could ever hope for.  Plus it is GREAT for personal business such as banking and shopping, and also it has more or less paid my salary for many years, so as I said, I LOVE me some internet.  As an aside, did you know CERN was the birthplace of the web?!  No lie!  They started it as a research tool, to help them coordinate work and share results.  I tell you these people really have their act together.  Together, man!!

So I love me some internet, but I have never, until recently, used it for interpersonal human interaction.  At work, my preference is face to face, then email or chat, and then phone, mostly because when I worked globally it was so much easier to communicate technical information remotely via typing.  Imagine trying to _tell_ someone a long URL over the phone?  Then imagine that when you try to do that the listener does not speak your language?  Argg.

Because of all of that I am very comfortable with typing and 'chatting,' or 'sametiming' if you use Lotus products.

Still, my first foray into social networking was kind of a flop.  I've been thinking about why that is, and I think I have put my finger on it, but I am not completely sure.  Please realize these are my personal statements, and not an indictment or criticism of anything or anyone that enjoys social networking on the web, bless their hearts.

For me, in a nutshell, I found social networking to be extremely compelling and yet completely unfulfilling.  I was really getting hooked on it, to the point where I would always check messages the first thing when I signed on, and before I did anything else.  And you know me, if I did get a message I would usually respond with a message two or three times the length, never at a loss for words.  For me getting and responding to the messages was the compelling and the addicting part.

The unfulfilling part, for me, I think, is similar to my experience with watching TV.  Watching TV and internet socializing feel meaningful and yet for me they are lacking so much _here_, and so so _now_.  How can you stay in the moment with someone when you are not even in the same room with him/her?  I am pretty much a reality freak, meaning for me the HERE and NOW are really important, and watching TV or chatting are simply no substitute for the real thing.  I've never been much for watching someone else do something, I've always been a lot bigger on actually doing it, or at least trying it.  So I pretty much suck at internet social networking. 

The worst part of this, dear readers, is that I must make a confession. I think I may have hurt someone, someone I care about, because of my suckitude.  I tried to use social networking to enhance real life, but I found out soon enough that I am bad at it, very bad at it.  It can be a nice way to give brief status, and to stay in superficial touch, but any more than that and my goodness, do I really screw it up.

I had to disconnect for awhile because it is just not my thing, more's the pity.  As I said. my thing is the _here_, my thing is the _now_, and my thing is the full monty, not the shadow world.

Sigh.