How our world is changing.

It is often written “the good old days”.  Simpler times.  You know when you could leave your door unlocked and you had to walk to school up hill both ways?  Well I’d like to point out something wonderful that is here in the present and wasn’t anything that was even a glimmer in someone’s eye a mere 10 years ago.  Communication!  I’m not talking about the ability to speak with someone across the country, world, or even in outer space.  I mean silly, unimportant, entertainment communication.    

About a year ago I created a Twitter account.  Twitter is a free communications service that allows you to send short messages (140 characters or less) to your Friends.  It was originally designed for phone to phone use, but like most technologies people have found more uses for it.  Basically you have people that “follow” you and you can “follow” them.  When you are a person’s follower you are notified when that person sends a message “tweets”.   You can “tweet” back to them, or you can “tweet” messages to your followers.    

For some strange reason Twitter caught on with celebrities.  Not all mind you, but enough that if you like reading the random celebrity brain farts you can gain in site into a their true persona.  After initially joining Twitter to see what it was all about my first reaction was “this sucks”.  On Facebook, another free communications medium, you could type long text messages and include pictures or videos.  I just saw Twitter as a pale substitute.    

Fast forward about 9 months and while watching one of my favorite shows, Fox New’s Red Eye, I notice that several of the guests have their Twitter information displayed below their names.  Being curious about several of these people, many of whom I have only ever seen on Red Eye, I started to follow them.  So now I see the random brain farts from these people that I watch on Red Eye.    

Some of these “minor” celebrities are very interesting.  I found that the small amount of time they had available on Red Eye gives you very little idea who these people are.  I guess it would be like interviewing someone for a job.  You have an idea who they are, but you do not really know them until you’ve worked with them for a while.  Just like in life some people you follow on Twitter you find you don’t like knowing, so you can “unfollow” them in Twitter.  This is a much cleaner break up than in real life.  In fact they may never even notice you are gone since Twitter doesn’t go out of it’s way to inform you or track who has decided  you just didn’t  cut the mustard.    

 Two celebrities that I started following are Alison Rosen and Anna David.  These have been the most fun.  Alison Rosen is a writer.  I hesitate to call her a comedian but she is certainly funny.  Anna David is also a writer and has published several books.  I started following these two nut jobs (and I mean it in a positive way) when later I found out via people on Twitter and watching YouTube videos that these two know each other.  Funny huh?  Well I thought so.    

Shortly after I started following Alison Rosen I read a tweet from her that she would be broadcasting her show on ustream.tv Wednesday night.  I either remembered it or she sent out another reminder tweet shortly before the show, at any rate I went to the URL and watched my first Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend show.  I was hooked.  It was just hilarious.  A pretty late 20’s, earlier 30’s girl broadcasting a talk/variety show from her apartment in New York.  She had even had guests.  Both Alison and Anna have a “star” quality about them.  When Alison and Anna look into a camera they are looking at you.  It’s more than being pretty, you feel good, you feel that they are happy to be there and to talk to you.    

Alison Rosen is an open book, or she’s the best actress ever.  You learn a lot about her via her show, sometimes to the screaming of her friend Koryn saying “Don’t answer that Alison!”  Not only do guests get to interact with Alison, so does her audience.  You can CHAT with Alison because right next to the video of the person broadcasting is a chat window.  So you can asks questions, get chuckles from the host or earn their wrath in the form of chastisement, brow beating or even a ban from the show!    

I am learning more things about Anna David, but it is a much slower rate.  Anna doesn’t tweet very much but through watching and listening to interviews, her tweets and youtube videos that she has done I’m getting a better idea who she is.  Also I purchased her most recent book  “Reality Matters” which she talks about herself briefly.  She’s really funny (also in a good way).  For example she thinks it is okay to use someone else toothbrush without asking first.  It was very hard for me to write that because I feel I’m giving away a trusted secret, but since it was put up for the public to see on youtube, it must be okay for me to talk about it. 😀  Secretly I’m still hoping that the whole video was a joke on the viewers and she really didn’t do that. {nervous laughter}    

You know how it is when you are learning about someone you find out little quirks they have?  Well Alison can’t tell right from left, and other than the toothbrush thing Anna can be walking along and just forget how to walk.  She falls down.  Normally these are things that you must invest time into someone, you know physically being there with them, to find out.  These are charming, sometimes alarming, tidbits that endear a person to you, or cause you to run away screaming.  But I’ve never met Alison or Anna!  Communications people!  It is this incredible blast of technology that became available to the masses in September 1995 that is changing the way we define knowing someone.    

Why September 1995?  Well that is when Microsoft’s Windows 95 debuted.   This program made it easier for people to get on the Internet.  In fact it was the reason my company got interested in being on the Internet.  They spend time and money allowing me to connect us to the Internet, register a domain, set up e-mail, and a company website.  All that I know about the Internet today began then.    

I am amazed and excited about this technology.  How I can sit a thousand miles away from two people and get to know them, and to a lessor degree them me.  Anna tweets about her life, her book, and gives times when she will be on shows to talk about her book.  I tune in when I can.  I spent 30 minutes trying to get the right software loaded on my phone so I could listen to an interview while driving home from work yesterday.  Got everything loaded and working but then couldn’t find the station in the literal SEA of stations that were broadcasting on the Internet!    

I get to interact with Alison far more, through her show and the sheer volume of her tweets.  I also get to have interesting Twitter conversations with Alison’s Dad, a retired medical doctor that has never met a bad joke he didn’t like, or re-tell.  I’ve learned about and seen Tobey, Dr. and Mrs. Rosen’s beloved pet dog.  I’ve met (watched on the Internet) some of Alison’s friends.  It is so strange.  I know these people but I have never met them.  I could walk up to any of them and start talking to them, and discuss things about their lives.    

It is very much like playing a modern day multi-million dollar video game.  Call of Duty 4 comes to mind.  There is a section of that game where you are in the Russian city Chernobyl.  It is after the radiation leak, so the city is empty.  The modeling of the city is beautifully done and the game was very good.  A year or so after playing the game I was watching a show on one of the science channels.  They were talking about Chernobyl and showing video footage of the city.  I had a very strange sensation that I knew this city.  Momentarily puzzled I tried to understand how I could be remembering this place when I have never been to the Ukraine!  Then I remembered the game!  They had modeled the city so carefully that without a good deal of thought I couldn’t tell it was a virtual memory or a real one!    

My friends this is only the beginning.  As communication technology improves and increases in speed we will see more and more of our lives pass from the real world to one of virtual reality.  Whereas I am having friendships, one sided may they be, in the virtual world I can see a day very soon where there is little distinction between a real or virtual relationship.  Communication devices are becoming smaller, cheaper and faster.  This allows you to “be” with someone their entire “waking” time.  Yes and I suspect someday you’ll even be able to join them in their dreams.    

What is really going to be strange is when artificial intelligence is developed to such a degree that it will be difficult to tell it from a real person.  Then a computer can build a database about you and construct the perfect virtual person for you.  You will have so much in common and share so many interests with this virtual person that everyone and everything else will pale in comparison, at least until then next major release of the software that created your virtual companion.    

I recommend following
Alison http://twitter.com/AlisonRosen,
Anna http://twitter.com/AnnaBDavid, and
Dr. Rosen http://twitter.com/AlisonsParents    

Update:    

 I am very flattered that Ms. David took time out to read my article.