If you were here on Friday (12/10), you'll probably remember that Mr. G showed us a comic strip with a stick figure who wishes for a human-sized hamster ball. And, if you can remember the first day of class, there was a "map" of the internet (http://xkcd.com/256/) on the board. Both of these are from a webcomic: xkcd. xkcd usually offers humorous (and nerdy) takes on situations that relate to our modern, technology-filled lives.
I found one that seemed good to share on this blog, entitled "Seismic Waves." (http://xkcd.com/723/)
While I agree that it is a bit extreme to make it more humorous, I think that the point it's trying to make is relevant. People become so involved with "living online" that it becomes a higher priority than focusing on what's happening in real life right now. Twitter and Facebook alter the meaning of "living" and how we're doing it. They're not necessarily terrible things, but they are undeniably changing the way people go about their lives.
Why else would the xkcd updated version (2010) of the map of online communities have an extremely large landmass labeled "Facebook"? The land areas were based on "volume of daily social activity" on the internet.
(This is better viewed in a larger size: http://xkcd.com/802_large/)
It's also difficult to ignore the fact that in the land of Facebook, there's a relatively large region separated and labeled "Farmville." I don't know if it's just me, but I think that craze seems to have died down a bit. However, it's still alarming to see that people spend so much time playing pointless (sorry any Farmville fans out there) games on their computers. As a society, it seems as if we've been gravitating towards the trivial, frequent status updates, tweets, pretend farming, etc. instead of real life. People get sucked in by the mechanics of Twitter and Facebook, posting to post (because that's what they're for, right?) instead of using them to augment and improve their real lives.
On a side note, since we're focusing on White Noise in class, and we're on "Waves and Radiation," it seems natural to point out the connection with "Seismic Waves." Other than the obvious reference to waves in the title, there are also the waves transmitted by the humans to communicate with each other. It's interesting to note that the human-made ones outstrip the natural, earth-made waves. Artificiality is clearly winning the battle and affecting the characters, probably less than they realize, if they realize at all, since they turn first to twitter when they feel the earthquake, suggesting that it's an integral part of "living" to them now.
