CTA Tattler

Interesting that the demands of computer programming make relationships more formal in this way. On Facebook, you can list yourself as various things: single, married, in a relationship, or even, "it's complicated," but no matter which you choose, you have to make an exclusive choice from a discrete list, and everyone on the site knows that.

Even choosing not to list relationship status seems significant. Imagine going to your spouse's FB page and seeing that they don't mention being married - it would be like finding out that they don't ever wear their wedding ring outside the house. Not quite a smoking gun, but it would make you think.

And this is why I don't use those sites...

Maybe I'm just an old coot who doesn't understand, but whatever happened to keeping your private life well, ya know, private?

I'm trying to imagine the emotional landmine. Is it composed of anger, regret and fear? As with all good landmines, I'm sure there's embedded shrapnel intended to do the most damage possible. Maybe it's retribution, loathing, obsession or some toxic combination of all three.

My overheard cell phone conversation of the weekend: Some stoner young woman talking with her friend who apparently was getting kicked out of her apartment. The stoner chick was giving her "legal" advice, stoner-style. Hilarious.

I wonder if soon people will cease to regard privacy as the default setting for their lives. Used to be that you didn't discuss your personal business where strangers could overhear. Used to be one wasn't expected to post every type of information about themselves in public, but saved it for having one-on-one, in-person discussions with other individuals as a part of the process of getting to know each other better.

Course, I get the view from the other end when I watch movies based on Jane Austen books. How did people live lives you could even recognize, before electricity, plumbing, TV, radio, telephones, planes, cars, etc? Well, apparently they did. They worked, played, lived in their houses, went to sleep at night and got up in the morning and had breakfast, read and wrote books and newspapers, had parties and dances, kept dogs and cats, gossiped, married, had children, went to the store to buy things, and traveled.

therefore technology is useless? It seems your argument is headed in that direction. Tech provides countless benefits. Posting private data is a personal choice. I don't have or want facebook precisly for that reason. No need to condemn those who choose otherwise

Technology is far from useless. I'm happy to be living in the 21st Century! But we have to remember that we are still in charge of how and when we use it, not be bulldozed into thinking we have to do whatever it tells us (that is, what someone hiding behind it has programmed it to tell us). And we should all agree that technology will not excuse people from treating each other with respect. Both these things are easy to forget whenever we are fascinated by the possibilities of something new.

i love my answering machine, it keeps the people i know away from me.

In junior high I used to rank my friends, and wonder how they ranked me. With MySpace and Facebook nearly a quarter of a centrury away, I outgrew that long before finishing high school.

I'll admit that I'm no social butterfly, and in some ways revert to emotional states similar to my puberty years when meeting new people, but it seems to me that technology has made it possible for the default emotional state of young folks to be what used to be expected only in junior high.

Technology doesn't in and of itself solve problems. Technology just allows us to redefine the world, creating new problems as we solve other problems.

Cell phones and the Internet have certainly solved a lot of our problems, but they've created a whole host of new problems along the way. And they've changed the way young people view the world. They don't always see the problems as problems because that's all they've ever known.

Now if you'll excuse me, it's Monday, and I need to go re-rank my friends again.

I'm pretty sure that in the era before plumbing or electricity most people weren't literate.

Lucky Allison. She has people who care about her, and apparently a lovely dog regardless of Chris' whereabouts.

Stephen's "literate" post. Absurd. Pompous and arrogant. No generation has been "smart" until now?....oh yea....Obama - the we're who we;ve been waiting for crap. There is a book out - can't recall the title - civil war letters - from soldiers. Beautiful letters - and literate. So throw on your "book bag" and go "text" someone on your way to class that you'll snooze through anyway.

I just want to say that i think this site is amazing.
I'm actually writing a 20 page paper for a class about the Red Line and how people behave on it. While doing some research i discovered this site and found it really interesting. One thing that i've noticed while doing this study is how people are ignoring everyone else but at the same time trying to find out everything they can about the person sitting next to them, and this site is proof of that. Not only do we listen in on the complete strangers conversations but then we share them to more complete strangers. I mean we are all guilty of it how can you not listen in to a conversation going on right next to you, but i just think its funny looking at the other people listening in too and seeing their reactions, and how they are trying to act like they are ignoring whats going on. Or how can you ignore the crazies that get on, but yet people pretend like they are ignoring them. After starting this project i now wonder how many of the people with headphones on are actually listening to music.
The interaction as a whole on the public transit is just hilarious to me. People are just so awkward in those situations, and its funny how much information people are giving out without even knowing it.