Soon the father of a family
Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2025 5:19 am
Chatting with yourself, among others
The wonderful thing about Twitter is that we communicate with everyone and no one. I post my message about the state of my cold, without addressing anyone in particular. I talk a bit for myself, and in fact I mainly talk to myself. My 243 followers do with it what they want.
That I write for myself is nothing new. Even in an ancient medium like the diary, I can direct my writings exclusively to myself. That is typically human. We can distance ourselves from ourselves, enter into conversation with ourselves. Media play an important role in this. They give words and images to what is still diffuse and intangible inside us. Writing in a diary or blog helps to better understand an experience. Just as talking about feelings can have a healing effect. According to some philosophers, media are constitutive of the experience. They mediate between my inner world and the reality outside. But in the same movement, they give shape to both.
Unlike the diary, Twitter is deeply social. For the presence of others stimulates me to talk to myself malaysia phone number list Perhaps my words will be noticed. Perhaps they will provoke new words. In my most vain moments, I write only in the hope that my message will be reproduced and thus immortalized. Once my words spread across the web, they never disappear.
In this way of chatting, not only my experience but also my identity takes shape. In the midst of my followers I become who I am. That too is not new or unique. In the real world too I build my identity by supporting it with that of others. The newspaper I read, the clothes I wear and the empty talk about the weather are part of the continuous conversation about who I am. In everyday life too I play all kinds of roles. Now the professional,
The possibilities of the virtual world are endless. I can stretch my identity further than ever before. As a hyper-individualist, I can experiment with pseudo-personalities and seek digital contact with people who are on the fringes of my identity.
In the meantime, things are not going so well. Most Twitter users select each other based on similarities in profession, interests or political preference. Twitter even gives me suggestions for people with the qualification 'similar to you'. Moreover, new media bring back something of the pre-modern context in which we were always in direct contact with our tribesmen and in which there is always a great deal of insight. Modern times have removed me, like so many others, further from my family and friends than I would like. New media reintroduce the constant proximity of – and casual insight into – each other's lives. In doing so, I tinker with my identity but at the same time embed myself in a community. My privacy is important to a certain extent, but sharing my life is just as important.
The wonderful thing about Twitter is that we communicate with everyone and no one. I post my message about the state of my cold, without addressing anyone in particular. I talk a bit for myself, and in fact I mainly talk to myself. My 243 followers do with it what they want.
That I write for myself is nothing new. Even in an ancient medium like the diary, I can direct my writings exclusively to myself. That is typically human. We can distance ourselves from ourselves, enter into conversation with ourselves. Media play an important role in this. They give words and images to what is still diffuse and intangible inside us. Writing in a diary or blog helps to better understand an experience. Just as talking about feelings can have a healing effect. According to some philosophers, media are constitutive of the experience. They mediate between my inner world and the reality outside. But in the same movement, they give shape to both.
Unlike the diary, Twitter is deeply social. For the presence of others stimulates me to talk to myself malaysia phone number list Perhaps my words will be noticed. Perhaps they will provoke new words. In my most vain moments, I write only in the hope that my message will be reproduced and thus immortalized. Once my words spread across the web, they never disappear.
In this way of chatting, not only my experience but also my identity takes shape. In the midst of my followers I become who I am. That too is not new or unique. In the real world too I build my identity by supporting it with that of others. The newspaper I read, the clothes I wear and the empty talk about the weather are part of the continuous conversation about who I am. In everyday life too I play all kinds of roles. Now the professional,
The possibilities of the virtual world are endless. I can stretch my identity further than ever before. As a hyper-individualist, I can experiment with pseudo-personalities and seek digital contact with people who are on the fringes of my identity.
In the meantime, things are not going so well. Most Twitter users select each other based on similarities in profession, interests or political preference. Twitter even gives me suggestions for people with the qualification 'similar to you'. Moreover, new media bring back something of the pre-modern context in which we were always in direct contact with our tribesmen and in which there is always a great deal of insight. Modern times have removed me, like so many others, further from my family and friends than I would like. New media reintroduce the constant proximity of – and casual insight into – each other's lives. In doing so, I tinker with my identity but at the same time embed myself in a community. My privacy is important to a certain extent, but sharing my life is just as important.