h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I communicate with people I know via the internet. What's unreal about that? Communicating by letter is real, yes? What about communicating by phone?

Quite obviously I, too, communicate via the 'net. Duh.

I've developed friendships with people I've never met, and with some whose names/sex/age are unknown.

I also use the 'phone, and email as a convenient means of contacting far-off friends/family

But as great and wonderful as our remote communication technology is, none has the depth, warmth, or sheer human-ness of personal, physical, 'real-life' interaction.

And what bugs me about facebuzztwitsocon particularly is they are heavily promoted as primary means of social interaction, instead of an accessory to it.

Sometimes I feel that in a world replete with interconnected gadgets, there is plenty of chatter, but not much real communication...

I completely agree with you, however, I do see that social websites, mytwitface, have some value. Of course you have to consider that I am currently not using any of them,so that value I see isn't great.

Basically what I want out of them is to see what my real life friends are up to or opining on and that's about it. I do not want to know how well they're doing on mafiafarm or what they've recently decided to be fans of.

I'm still hoping that eventually Google Buzz will meet my desires, but I'm not holding my breath.

Hotmail did this some months ago. It's really annoying me for reasons of privacy that I'm sure others have ... Anyway just had a look through and think I worked out how to turn some settings off.

The great advantage that Real Life encounters have over the internet is that you can't have sex online.

Or can you...?

I can't help thinking that BBC news readers / presenters should talk about h2g2 whenever they mention social networking sites. This site has been doing the whole SI thing for years. Another h2g2 idea nicked by the commercial sector

Google Responds To Privacy Concerns With Unsettlingly Specific Apology

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/google_responds_to_privacy?utm_source=onion_rss_daily



az

Good one, az.

Love it.

"So far, Google users across the country have responded cautiously to the company's public admission of wrongdoing, with some claiming they will be careful not to reveal any personal information from now on, and others ripping up their credit cards, unplugging all electronic devices from their outlets, and locking themselves in their bathrooms away from any cameras, keyboards, satellite dishes, or cell phones."

seems this is still rumbling on in the back ground:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8603155.stm

"Google has said that it will begin to roll out a privacy reset for its controversial social network Buzz.
The search giant will ask all its users to confirm or change their privacy settings, starting on 5 April."

Yep, just checked mine. It seems fine. Of course I've got no followers so it's not much of an issue.