Category Archives: Unknowns

Facebook for Kindergardeners

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I was recently pointed to an article about social networking that appeared in the New York Times in September of 2008. The author’s focus was the meaning and effect of the new sorts of relationships built via services such as Facebook and Twitter. The whole article is worth a read, but I was particularly intrigued by some of its concluding thoughts:

Yet Ahan knows that she cannot simply walk away from her online life, because the people she knows online won’t stop talking about her, or posting unflattering photos. She needs to stay on Facebook just to monitor what’s being said about her. This is a common complaint I heard, particularly from people in their 20s who were in college when Facebook appeared and have never lived as adults without online awareness. For them, participation isn’t optional. If you don’t dive in, other people will define who you are.
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This is the ultimate effect of the new awareness: It brings back the dynamics of small-town life, where everybody knows your business… “It’s just like living in a village, where it’s actually hard to lie because everybody knows the truth already,” Tufekci said. “The current generation is never unconnected. They’re never losing touch with their friends. So we’re going back to a more normal place, historically. If you look at human history, the idea that you would drift through life, going from new relation to new relation, that’s very new. It’s just the 20th century.”
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Psychologists and sociologists spent years wondering how humanity would adjust to the anonymity of life in the city, the wrenching upheavals of mobile immigrant labor — a world of lonely people ripped from their social ties. We now have precisely the opposite problem. Indeed, our modern awareness tools reverse the original conceit of the Internet. When cyberspace came along in the early ’90s, it was celebrated as a place where you could reinvent your identity — become someone new.

“If anything, it’s identity-constraining now,” Tufekci told me. “You can’t play with your identity if your audience is always checking up on you… She laughed. “You know that old cartoon? ‘On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog’? On the Internet today, everybody knows you’re a dog! If you don’t want people to know you’re a dog, you’d better stay away from a keyboard.”

Still a dog,
~WD

Change, 140 Characters or Less

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So many interesting things going on in the world.

First, there have been major protests in Chisinau, Moldova. When I was in Romania, I had a good friend from Uzbekistan who was stationed in Chisinau. I was lucky enough to be able to visit him, and I can tell you that Moldova is not a place that has been going in the right direction as of late. Many, if not most Romanians believe that Moldova is rightly a part of Romania. The official language of Moldova (Moldovan) is nearly identical to Romanian. The interesting part about the protests is that word of them was distributed by cell phone, facebook, twitter and other social networking tools. With all the hype about technology and it is good to see it being used to help individuals come together against oppressive regimes. I wonder if this unrest will continue and the people of Moldova might one day be allowed to join their more forward-thinking neighbors, and perhaps even the EU…

FMI/Video: http://tvr.ro/articol.php?id=60799&c=47

Two interesting stories from the Times.

Gays in Iraq are becoming more visible as the levels of violence abate. The article surveys some young gay males, all of whom have seen many of their friends killed. Interestingly, most of the killings appear to be “honor killings” by family members seeking to redress the shame that these gays have brought upon the family name. I was honestly quite surprised to hear that there were individuals who would dare to be so open in Iraq at all. While there are certainly gays in all cultures, including oppressive ones such as Uzbekistan, most keep their private lives strictly private. It will be interesting to see what becomes of this subculture in Iraq.

The Last Jew in Afghanistan is a touching video op-ed. This man’s fate is like the that of Jews in so many parts of the world. I will never forget the small community of older Jews I met in Romania. Most of them were survivors whose children were pursuing lives either in Israel or the United States. Whether those who stayed did so by choice or necessity, it was an honor to celebrate some of the Sacred Jewish traditions with them. As we approach Passover, I’ll think of them as they gather for a communal feast, a bright moment in what is otherwise a rather lonely existence.

Just Another Day in the U.S.A.

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Today I was called on in Contracts. During this, my first summons, I ended up on the hook for three different but related cases which focused on the question of whether an offer had been made (versus just implied) for the purpose of determining whether a contract could be enforced. Exciting? …maybe not as viewed from the eyes of a “reasonable person,” but when you are on the spot in front of your classmates the urge to perform emerges. I didn’t have all the answers, but I had the ideas and fact patterns down pretty well.

This, however, is not a self-congratulatory post; rather, I hope to extrapolate from my humble experience today to those challenges faced by Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee. While I do not expect Gov. Palin or any other one person to have all the answers regarding how to solve our our country’s ills, I do expect those in positions of power, such as herself, to be able to articulate the basic ideas and fact patterns that lay before us.

A good, I dare say competent, leader knows how to take complex issues and give people an in as to their exploration; that is, the process of distillation helps us understand both what is and what one aspires to do about it. In this regard, Gov. Palin is a complete failure. Not only is she unable to tackle questions that she ought to be able to anticipate, but she also fails to lay out a convincing rationale for her own beliefs.

Perhaps I ought not be surprised, given the fact that Palin has been chosen for the express purpose of pandering to the faith-based community. But to that community, I ask, in what do you intend to place your faith? Since the Bible or a “value” can not serve as our leader we are forced to place our trust in humans, whose fallibility is guaranteed. Obama and Biden are fallible, as are McCain and Palin.

A rabbi who recently gave a lunchtime talk to a group of Jewish students here threw out an interesting point: the interpretation of the word of God by his messengers has itself become an ongoing continuation of that word. While one could argue that such a formula was probably fomenting in the mind of the Unabomber, the basic principle is sound; our being is not static and we must strive to make sense of what we are given from all sources.

After three weeks of legal studies I can say that much of what constitutes this human element in our system of justice can be found in decisions of merit as rendered by judges and juries. The Rules (of which there are many) help guide us in reaching just and equitable conclusions; we who chose are asked to find connections, discern intent and apply facts to that for which we ultimately have no guidance. This process, which occurs both with and without volition, a billion (or 700 billion) times a day, forms the lexicon from which new paradigms are promulgated when the times so demand. We are but the random ball rolling from the table; like the enigmatic neutrino, our rare moments of connection prove our very existence…

Governor Palin, who once struck me as a ballsy fighter, has proven herself to be yet another American who seeks to restrict rather than broaden this fundamental lexicon. As evidenced by current events that, if taken to their logical conclusion, may well precipitate the collapse of our society, the last thing we currently need is to narrow our already myopic focus. I do not elevate Obama and Biden to any sort of mythic status; the Democratic ticket’s humility, as opposed to the folksy opprobrium of its opponents, is emblematic of its embrace of the evolving word. In a world that appears to be getting the better of us (literally,) it’s right time we embrace the both.

Crossing the Tracks Twice

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On Sunday afternoon I visited a place called Pineland. It was listed on website of the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, seemed interesting and was close. Upon arrival I realized that the place was some sort of a campus with sprawling grounds. I picked up a trail map at a visitor’s center and got directions to the trail-head. I hiked for about 2 hours on a mix of cross country ski trails, walking paths and the occasional country road. The grounds were full with wondrous areas; the remnants of a simple ski tow on a now wooded slope, pristine barns and greenhouses, rolling pastures and a campus. After this fantastic walk, which by the way I hope to ski this winter, I visited again the visitor’s center where I spoke with the woman on duty. As I had begun to suspect, the grounds were of a former mental hospital, and a storied one at that. I purchased and have begun to read the book called Pineland’s Past, which is a fairly honest look at the history of the institution. Originally called the “Maine School for the Feeble Minded,” the school’s third superintendant, Dr. Stephen E. Vosburgh stated to the Maine Medical Association in 1925:

There is an amazing lack of correct information regarding the subnormal. Occasionally a well-disposed philanthropist believes certain subnormals of pleasing appearance who seem not too dull should never be sent to an institution. In general, the higher types of feeble-minded, such as the morons, are the most dangerous to the community and posterity.”

The book has been gripping as it presents accounts from various perspectives, oft quelled from period newspaper articles. I’m up to the 1950’s and the time line notes that the campus remained open until 1996. Click here for the quick version from the new center’s website – very interesting stuff! Many a treasure to be found if one looks.