I loved this local news story I saw a couple nights ago. If you live in the Portland, OR area (or even if you don't) and love books, you may have heard of Broadway Books, but if you haven't you need to go here It's a story about a family and a neighborhood and a community, and how easy it is to do something good.
An amazing tale of what social networking media can do. THIS is how to grow the economy right.
Showing posts with label big thoughts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label big thoughts. Show all posts
Saturday, January 10, 2009
And This Is Your Brain On Facebook.
My name is Anne and I'm addicted to Facebook.
"Hi, Anne."
In the last month or so since I joined, I've found friends that have been lost for years. Friends I'd wondered about. A few, I'm ashamed to admit, I'd forgotten about. Not because they were bad friends, but because my brain just couldn't hold it all in.
It's not that I want to relive the past - I don't. It's that I want to bring those dear friends from the past into my present. Somehow. Though it's not physically possible, (in most cases, the exception being one of my best friends from high school that I found on Facebook and lives UP THE STREET), I'm glad to be able to "poke" them and say hi. And to share the present of the present with them.
Which leaves me to ponder: How will social networking media affect our brains? In terms of things like senile dementia and alzheimers? I remember my father, who had senile dementia for probably the last two years of his life (although he managed to hide it pretty well by using notes, etc.) having a hard time remember the near past, but no problem at all remembering the far past. He would get on the phone with a friend from his childhood and it would bring him into the present in ways that calendars and visits with his grown children couldn't.
I wonder if all these new ways to keep track of our lives and the way we have spent our time here on earth will help us stay focused on the present while remembering old times with long lost pals? Or will it just make us more sedentary and prone to the plaque build-up that leads to brain wasting?
In any case, I've really enjoyed getting back in touch with old friends and catching up. And now I really need to stretch my legs and get some exercise!
"Hi, Anne."
In the last month or so since I joined, I've found friends that have been lost for years. Friends I'd wondered about. A few, I'm ashamed to admit, I'd forgotten about. Not because they were bad friends, but because my brain just couldn't hold it all in.
It's not that I want to relive the past - I don't. It's that I want to bring those dear friends from the past into my present. Somehow. Though it's not physically possible, (in most cases, the exception being one of my best friends from high school that I found on Facebook and lives UP THE STREET), I'm glad to be able to "poke" them and say hi. And to share the present of the present with them.
Which leaves me to ponder: How will social networking media affect our brains? In terms of things like senile dementia and alzheimers? I remember my father, who had senile dementia for probably the last two years of his life (although he managed to hide it pretty well by using notes, etc.) having a hard time remember the near past, but no problem at all remembering the far past. He would get on the phone with a friend from his childhood and it would bring him into the present in ways that calendars and visits with his grown children couldn't.
I wonder if all these new ways to keep track of our lives and the way we have spent our time here on earth will help us stay focused on the present while remembering old times with long lost pals? Or will it just make us more sedentary and prone to the plaque build-up that leads to brain wasting?
In any case, I've really enjoyed getting back in touch with old friends and catching up. And now I really need to stretch my legs and get some exercise!
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