Scattered Thoughts on Ambience

A few notes on online intimacy inspired by Clive Thompson's article, "Web Ushers In Age of Ambient Intimacy":

Throughout this project so far, the invisible cloud of weak-linked relationships has become more and more noticeable to me. The way my peers and I keep track of one another in short bursts of detail (from Facebook status to Twitter) simply makes sense at the current pace of university life. Considering this, I decided to format this update of my research as a bullet list of observations rather than an essay, partly in hopes of keeping your attention, and partly because said pace only gives me so much time to think on coherence.

Thompson's article basically serves as a sociological overview of the changing dynamics of webs of relationships due to online social networking. I've often heard the saying, "Social life, good grades, enough sleep. Welcome to college, you can only pick two!" The mastery of all three apparently defies the laws of physics, but many of us seem to have acheived it. Thomson does well to explain how.

-"The ambient information becomes like 'a type of ESP,' as Haley described it to me, an invisible dimension floating over everyday life." This is the basis for the "invisible cloud" comment above. And it's very true. Though I'm currently sitting in my kitchen at 3:30 in the afternoon, I'm just as aware that my best friend is in her fiction writing class as I am that my friend in Chicago is listening to the Wicked soundtrack. I feel connected to them in a way I might not otherwise.

And this is a very good thing: with all of the studying I have to do today, I could get restless and lonely very easily. My ambient web of intimacy pulls me out of that so quickly! I'm able to feed off of others' awareness of what I'm doing. Every project is a group project. (A friend just texted me, "Hey, howz ur researching?")

Thompson says that this, "just sort of lets people know you're aware of them" and that "ambient intimacy becomes a way to 'feel less alone,' as more than one Facebook and Twitter user told me." My point exactly!

On the other hand, as Dr. Wesch has mentioned several times, this forces us all to become our own personal publicists.

"She needs to stay on Facebook just to monitor what's being said about her."

If the world is getting smaller and smaller, we're now down to village size. Everyone can know your business if they just use the right tools.

"So we're going back to a more normal place, historically."

This commentary sent my thoughts to my 1950s film class last semester. Though we idolize that time period and being happy and healthy, further investigation in that class revealed quite the opposite. I'm arguing now that the 1950s were the beginning of this hyperindividualization and increased anonymity that we're now pulling out of via online social networking. (On that subject, watch this.)
Moving on to the '60s, we see the increased popularity of having a personal therapist. The ambient intimacy we experience now may have booted the need for one in terms of self-evaluation.

"Having an audience can make the self-reflection even more acute, since, as my interviewees noted, they're trying to describe their activities in a way that is not only accurate but also interesting to others: the status update as a literary form. [...] In an age of awareness, perhaps the person you see most clearly is yourself."

And surely by now, you have asked, "Katie, what does any of this have to do with your research? Aren't you looking at PostSecret?"

Here is the connection: as Thompson has outlined the effects of ambient intimacy to conclude that we are more self-aware, I believe I have found an answer to one of my initial questions.

Q: What are people willing to reveal about themselves behind a cloak of anonymity?
A: All of the things they have discovered about themselves that would have negative consequences within their social network.

In becoming so aware of ourselves, we have found frightening/regretful/shameful/incriminating things that we fear others will be come aware of too. That is where PostSecret has found its niche in these online social networks. The guaranteed anonymity removes all fear of persecution from those we know, while giving us a common ground assurance that someone understands. It relieves the stress of hiding while we remain hidden.

The anonymous side of this invisible cloud of relationships is sort of omnipresent. While sitting alone in our kitchens, we can maintain a feeling or acknowledgement that "someone" or "people" know, care, and understand what we do not want to reveal. And this is all while making sure that those things are intentionally absent from our Facebook profiles.

This complex view of the "self" would make Polonius second-guess his own advice. On the basis of such a deep self-awareness, I'm now wondering if our unwillingess to share our darkest secrests with those closest to us is a result of what Thompson has described. Are we so drowned in self-presentation that we consider our overall reputation more valuable that honesty with a friend?

This is now tying into the microcelebrity bit we have discussed. I think Emily is looking at that.

Consider it as ironic as you'd like that I toggled tabs between Facebook and Thompson's article while writing this. The deep accuracy of his observations of my generation have already been mentioned on my Twitter.

-Katie