Issues

I've seen a lot of people with issues lately, particularly on twitter. I'm not sure whether thats actually true - to some extent I probably project my own experience and feelings onto other people, but none the less I notice a lot of people crying out for attention and care.

It raises a some questions for me.

• How do you express your care for people via social media?

Its quite hard to express how you feel about something in a short message such as a tweet. Even in longer message formats, its harder to encode emotion/feeling/context/emphasis/etc in instant messages. 

It's also hard to pick those things up from those electronic messages on the receiving end. It leaves a lot up to interpretation and, if one is not clever about it, can leave out the feedback loops - ie the loops for confirming and clarifying intention. 

• What/Where are the boundaries for strangers? 

One of my own challenges is seeing people who have issues (projection or otherwise) and feeling the need to give them advice. Where are the boundaries for that? Should you never but into someone elses life? Is the fact they're on twitter an indication that they are looking for people, even strangers, to give them help. 

That makes me think of a video interview I saw of one of the creators of twitter talking about how Twitter enables you to feel a part of someone elses life. The thing is that it can also make you feel close to complete strangers - you're seeing what they're up to and perhaps some of their inner thoughts and feelings, after all. 

In this new world of connectedness and openness do we embrace the intimacy that is scrolling in front of us, or do we stick to the constructs of personal privacy and protocol that we observe in other human interaction? 

I think I shall contemplate these things.