Disproving Science

Text message conversation (as if I'd communicate any other way):

Marc: It's baffling how, according to my neuro/bonding class, we shouldn't be close friends (because of distance and propinquity)... but we are. We're defying science

Me: Technology.

Enough said.

Ok I'll add this little bit. That isn't your run-of-the-mill community college psych or bio class (It's taught by her). It's pretty "neat" (Marc's word, not mine. I'm not taking the nerd points here.) to see technology's affect on our social lives manifested.

I'm not getting into all the sciency jargon here, mostly because I don't know it, but I'll leave you to your own devices in thinking about how technology just isn't changing how we communicate, but how it is challenging the science behind everything, and will be forcing a rethinking of, well, everything.

Science is something non-scientists take for granted all the time. It is probably more important than anything else in our lives (especially human bonding), but we, as lay peoples, don't understand a thing about it. Weird how tech will reshape not just how science is practiced (with all those newfangled superfabulous microscopes and xray machines) but its scholarship and pedagogy as well.

Weirder is that we still haven't, as a whole, accepted this fact that technology is pushing us into a totally new Age. As if we haven't seen the impact of technology on business enough already (music industry, publishing industry, journalism industry, movie industry, advertising industry, fill in the blank), we're still playing dumb to the coming techxaflood.

Maybe I just have a problem seeing things in the macro instead of the micro, but if we're planning on getting out of this better off than we were going into it, we need to start looking at the big picture. Because even though tweets are only 160 characters, they have a lot bigger impact than their short and sweet existence implies.

Plan Shman

*No links this entry. and no pictures or videos. Just good ol' fashioned writing.*

Hi, Blog. Welcome back to me. It's good to see you again, especially after a rough weekend, you know, with the breakup and all.

Despite that looming feeling that something wasn't right in the relationship, I thought we could work through it. I always said, "if we're having issues you need to tell me what's on your mind. Especially after some of the things you let slip. Because I want it to work out, and I like you."

"I like you, too" was the response.

Well either someone is a great actor, or someone is really confused. And the whole having the break up talk while I'm blackout drunk was NOT part of the plan. Even if I may have kind of sort of maybe initiated the conversation by trying to drag out whether or not things were okay between us. Still...not part of the plan. At all.

I remember before we met and starting the whole dating thing I didn't want a relationship at all. In fact, I even told all my friends after we starting seeing each other pretty frequently that it's not going farther than just casually dating or whatever. It wasn't exclusive, and we hadn't even talked about anything.

But that went on for two months...and by two months it was time to talk. Someone wanted more, but I wanted to keep things open. That was the plan. A week later I wanted a relationship, but lo and behold, those feelings weren't mutual anymore. Fine.
And then a few days later, a relationship was born. Talk about going against the plans.

In total, we we unofficial for 3 months and official for about 3 weeks. I never planned on anything that happened in the course of that 4 month time span.

Which I suppose makes perfect sense.

Nothing ever goes according to plan; it seems that is just the way of the world. This, naturally, is true for new media technology as well. I know, me tying my life drama into new media academia is a bit of a stretch, but the metaphor is constant. New technologies are invented, and unfathomable uses for said technologies become fathomed. No one ever expects certain things to become fads. Take Facebook, and Twitter for examples. Social networking has spiraled almost out of control. With the micro-details of everyones personal life flying through the Internet free as birds (my details, obviously, included) there's been so many developments that no one could have predicted upon the introduction of such technologies.

We all know that things will change. But knowing how they will change is the variable. It is the challenge that we have to deal with, and maybe even part of the fun. But just like everything in life, change is complicated. Especially with relationships, and especially with how new media technology is impacting our everyday lives. Our technologies are practically as day-to-day as our relationships are, and the drama that follows is just as natural.

But, in this time, the best advice is that, we can't control what happens, we can only control our reaction to it. The music industry is struggling to learn these lessons, from how it has acted in the past decade in response to MP3s and file sharing and new media technology that involves digital music.

Hard work and good intentions will go far, and some general intelligent oversight will go a long way -- in relationships and in developing a new technology--but nothing protects us from what we don't know.

Does that mean eventually we will succumb to our technological advancements and that machines will finally rule the world? I don't think so. But it means that, while we will probably end up okay, we're always going to be developing, advancing, expanding, and learning. Maybe it is the big picture we need to focus on, and just keep on taking new and unforeseen innovations and making the best of them. Controlling our reactions instead of trying to control what we can't control. That is the only way we won't fall victim to our "plans."