Despite the fact that we now have the potential to tweet about ourselves ad-infinitum, we seem to have reached a point when the "wow" factor has dissipated, and many are now either just getting lost in the exponentially increasing masses of online users, or they're busy trying to claw their way to the top of the popularity charts by pulling every stunt in the 'book' in order to increase their online presence.
In this respect, online culture is now difficult to distinguish from offline culture: they're progressively merging (as we knew they would), and now we're swapping online and offline discussions in a more organic fashion, as opposed to running two parallel forms of existences. Several weeks ago I was reminded of the old "CB radio culture" by a colleague of mine, and I realized that truckers and cars equipped with CB radios were actually an early form of IMing, and "tweeting" - although be it in a niche culture. Twitter has now gone mainstream, Facebook is mainstream... all of it is now mainstream.
My students 'add' their perception of me on Facebook and Twitter to their perception of me in the 'corporeal' world. It has all merged. However, the difference between these phenomena and the CB culture is that they have much higher market penetration, and now we're literally all traveling down the same 'highway'. The concepts that Ray Kurzweil has outlined in his books, and in particular, "The Singularity" are coming to fruition. We have reached the knee of the curve: we have observed exponential growth and now we're moving toward the next "jump" or movement in technology and its existence within our lives and our consciousness.
So what's next? Personally, I'm getting a little tired of observing the obvious: the 'technology', the applications, and a synthesis of what everybody else is already talking about en masse. There's something new afoot. Maybe it's time to compare some old words from William Blake to some new ideas?
Tyger, Tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger, Tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
