Where We Live: Losing Connectivity
Connections between the systems that shape our existence are frayed and eroded
Despite social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, some argue that today’s world is more disconnected than ever.
So, what to do about this disconnect? Today we’ll talk to several artists who are trying to make deeper connections with the world around them.
We’ll hear about an exhibit, Connectivity Lost, opening this weekend at Wesleyan’s Zilkha Gallery, which examines our estrangement from each other and our natural surroundings through painting, installation, video, and other mixed media. We’ll talk to some of the artists involved in this group show about how this tension has inspired and influenced them, and how their art might provide a way to bridge those divides.
Connectivity Lost will be on view in Wesleyan University’s Zilkha Gallery from September 11–December 6, 2010. The public is invited to attend the opening reception on Friday, September 10 from 5–7pm, with a gallery talk at 5:30pm. Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Sunday, noon–4pm; Friday noon–8pm. The Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery is located at 283 Washington Terrace in Middletown, Connecticut. For more information visit www.wesleyan.edu/cfa or call 860-685-3355.
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Emotional connectivity
Ms. Fox's characterization of social networking, while perhaps not entirely offensive, seems willfully ignorant. The idea that people are unable to connect with each other emotionally over over sites such as twitter or facebook flies in the face of centuries of human relations over various forms of communication. History is flush with examples of people maintaining powerful relations with nothing more than pen and paper, in many ways a medium even more limited than twitter, especially prior to the establishment of postal systems.
The word games played with this idea of connectivity can create terribly misleading lines of thought. Take the word "friend" for instance. Inside and outside of the internet it can have many connotations, but anyone that thinks that every "friend" on facebook is a true friend is sadly confused. Ms. Fox's example of 7000 friends, but no one for dinner highlights this problem in a way that I can't be certain she intended. The number 7000 creates a false sense of perceived significance of 7000 "friends" and at the same time trivializes the idea of a friendship over similar media, all the while providing a huge perceived significance of even a single person to have dinner with. This ignores the reality that life outside of social media is also rife with triviality and meaningless relations.
Even if all that is discounted, the real question that needs to be asked is whether or not people were ever any more significantly connected prior to the increased communicative connectivity they've experienced with new media. Much of this idea of lost connection seems very similar to people wishing for the "good old days" or preaching about the loss of "traditional family values." It is a vaguery that assumes much and ignores the simple fact that while new media may be changing the way we relate to each other, they are also reflecting it. Great care needs to taken before deciding which is happening in any given situation.
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