Status: intrigued

I am ashamed to say that Facebook has been taking over my life. 

I find myself checking my news feed between tasks and when I am on the bus… I update my status frequently… I message people… I am generally hooked. 

The reason for this confession is that I have noticed an interesting communication phenomenon whilst engaging in all this social interaction: status conversations.

One of my contacts has subscribed for the Facebook Mobile service, whereby he receives text messages when anyone updates their status.  I don’t need this with the iPhone, but regularly check my friend’s status updates anyway.  This has enabled us to engage in a type of dialogue through our respective statuses.  I say a type of dialogue, because we are not talking to each other directly.  We are broadcasting our state to everyone on our contacts list, whilst effectively making a slanted comment towards each other.  One might say they are “extremely tired and wrecking havoc on the roads” whilst the other might respond that they are “considering the need for caffeine injections for all drivers”.

There is actually more of an art to this than might at first be apparent.  In each case, our status must make sense as a statement of our current position – relevant to all of our contacts, but at the same time making a conversational statement towards one particular person.  Since we share only four mutual contacts, only four people can actually follow the conversation in full, should they choose.  It is like having a public text messaging conversation, in which each side of the conversation must make sense in its own right. 

It strikes me that this is a very odd way to communicate – particularly given that I see the person involved every day at work and rarely speak with him properly in person.  However, we both seem to appreciate the play involved here and have most recently taken to winding each other up via Facebook.  Updating my status to “Kirsty is worried by references to throwing buses around” when sitting unobserved a few rows back on the bus, might get the response: “X has eyes in the back of his head”.  These conversations occasionally spill over into real face-to-face conversations, which equally seem odd to others around in real life, as they appear to start with reference to some invisible factor.  Walking in and asking “so, how many sandwiches does it take?” breaks conversational norms in most contexts, but status updates provide a context for this type of conversation, no matter what Mr Grice says. 

I imagine the same effect must also be created using Twitter and other applications which feature some form of status update mechanism.  I have started conversations with people on MSN before based on the content of their “personal message” statement, but this is usually a private interaction, which triggers a more normal conversation pattern.  The difference being that through Facebook the conversation is public, and broadcast to different people in different ways, depending on their presence on one, other or both friend lists.  This effectively creates three levels of “listening” engagement in the conversation, which have to be considered whether conscientiously or otherwise, by the two people involved.  I have not yet participated in a conversation like this between more than two active parties, but theoretically it would be possible. 

What this demonstrates, for me, is how conversation can be utilised for purely playful reasons.  It is an intriguing type of interaction – but that might just be me!  Has anyone else got any interesting observations about status updates and how they are used?  Don’t bother with the postcard – just comment below.  Or ponder.  Whichever suits.

becoming a feed-addict

I have noticed over the last few weeks that I am slowly turning into a feed-addict.

It all started with the summer slow down of correspondence via our degree notice board… which lead to my subscribing to a number of blog feeds via Bloglines. This started to replace the notice board in my daily ritual. Then I joined Facebook and started popping in each day to update my status. Today, I have subscribed to 11 new podcast feeds via iTunes, including several BBC Radio 4 programmes that I could very easily hear via my good olde wind-up, if I was organised enough. I wouldn’t mind this, except I don’t own any form of mp3 player, much less an iPod!

The reason for all this? Well, I think the more deeply engrossed in t’internet that one becomes, the greater one’s need to “touch base” in familiar locations. It is like any landscape in that respect: you might really enjoy the thrill of seeing new places and exploring, but there is a huge, comforting relief to be found in finding yourself in a familiar one. You just want to keep returning to make sure that it is all still there, exactly as you left it, and you haven’t missed any vital developments there whilst you have been away.

For now, I do not wish to engage in therapy for this addiction. I am happy to kid myself that my new interest in this plethera of podcasts in purely academic – a study of production quality, length, content, update frequency, etc… However, it is interesting to see a routine developing in which I have a set pattern for checking each of my little cubby-holes on the net for updates. It is like seeing yourself becoming woven into a big piece of fabric, with neat little stitches. I wonder what it will be like when there is no longer a seam between us and the ether…