Comments on: Communication Evolution: Letters to 140 Characters

By: Electronic Cigarette Review

Electronic Cigarette Review — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:27:40 +0000

Green Smoke and V2 CIgs are definetely the best electronic cigarettes, but I’ve never heard of the others.

By: 1661456

1661456 — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:15:53 +0000

1661456 beers on the wall. sck was here

By: NoelDickover

NoelDickover — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 01:34:00 +0000

Hi Len, so the short answer is that similar to hominid evolution, where we weren’t evolving “to” anything per se, the same is true for societal evolution. Instead we are getting an infinite new set of niches that are being filled. In this sense there is no “end game,” just more change.

That said, I think the interesting question is how this changes the enculturation process. How does a world full of an abundance of short, small messages change people? Clearly a good percentage of twitter users are doing the self-aggrandizement thing. The whole notion of personal broadcasting has certainly given those with a propensity to narcissism a far more interesting outlet. Personal issues become grist for discussion among social networks. Then again, I think you have to balance all this stuff against the enormous number of interesting and enriching changes these new messaging options have brought about. As an example, the sense of community which was lost over the course of the 20th century is returning in many ways.

By: Len Sadauskas

Len Sadauskas — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:36:47 +0000

To what end are we co-evolving with this tool? How will it advance the survival of our species? My wife who just got her Kindle, views it as self-agrandizement, quantity of connections rather than quality of connections. Is the end game a society of shallow relationships that can be exploited by less “advanced” societies? If we were to determine that the end game is disaster, how could we turn back the clock? In a manner of speaking, unplugging the coockoo and putting it back into the clock.

By: NoelDickover

NoelDickover — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:11:34 +0000

S.Smith, that’s a great comment on the change from I call having a few tight connections to now having lots of loose connections. In this sense we were really a lot closer back then - so much so that we would await multi-page letters from folks far away.

By: S.Smith

S.Smith — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:15:29 +0000

My emotional reaction is: sadness. Perhaps it’s a reactive bit…but I wonder what it’s like to have someone care enough to send a multi-page letter over the sea just for me?!

Ah well…you can find me on at Twitter.com/RealTaiji!