taylor@hplabs (Dave Taylor) (11/22/87)
An interesting thing has been happening to our telephones throughout the world - they've been transitioning from being a person-to-person communications device to being a full-blown information provider. Consider, without leaving my chair I can not only call up people I know (the easy part) but I can also track down people through dealing with information (obtaining their addresses as well as their phone numbers), can get stock quotes, my horoscope, the racing results, summaries of the latest installments of various popular television series but, much more interestingly, can actually meet NEW people too. The phone has been extended to be the ultimate in safe social interaction systems -- with the rallying cry of "profit" the phone company and the FCC has been licensing not just 976 numbers, but also is now offering 900 service with a vengence. [976 numbers, for those that don't know, are a special class of phone numbers leased to individuals for just about any legal purpose. The person calling is charged typically a connect cost (usually about $1.75) and then a per-minute charge too. The phone company pockets a significant percentage of this revenue, and the owner of the specific service gets the rest. A 900 number is similar to an 800 number (e.g. the toll free phone number area code) but the caller is charged a flat $.50 per call to access it. The numbers operate throughout the continental US and the person who owns the equipment pockets 5 cents for each call placed.] Somewhat suprisingly, though, I was in England and France a while back and noticed that they're catching on there too! There are big colourful adverts all over the Tube in London advertising a teen party line, for example. What's also interesting is that not only do they have 'call a recording' systems (also known by the name 'dial-a-porn' due to the prevalence of that type of recording being available) and systems where you can call up and leave a 'personal ad', also hearing someone elses (randomly), but it's been extended to party lines, like they had in the early days of telephones. A friend of mine runs a 976 'chat' line where he leases 12 phone lines from the phone company and people calling can connect to up to five other people all in one big conference call. (there are some built in limitations on the system - by law they all must terminate within 3 minutes of connect, and by technology - boosting the signal to go to more than four or five other telephones makes it sound awful). I think that this development is significant for a number of different reasons above and beyond the further utilization of the telephone, however. It's also an excellent example of the sometimes insidious growth and encroachment of technology on our everyday lives. But most of all, it's rather a sobering statement on the social lives of people in our fast paced society. I've sat with my friend when he listens to his own line, or calls other lines to hear how they sound, and most of all I'm struck with the tones of despair and loneliness that all the callers seem to have. Underneath their babble (and indeed it's suprising that people pay so much to say so little) is a group of people who are fundamentally unable to succeed socially in our society. I know of a woman, quite attractive, personable, and fun to spend time with, who has used the 976 personals recording numbers to meet men. She's actually enjoyed spending time with the people she's ultimately met in person, but they all seem to vanish within a week or two. Yet another person I know claims that I'm the only friend he has that he hasn't met through 'phone conferencing', and that he finds it quite difficult to make friends at parties and such. So, in a rather circuitous way, I wonder if we're not seeing the usage of these new phone services (and they are used an astounding amount, in excess of a billion dollars worth of phone revenue per year in the US) as indicative of the gradual changes that are transforming our culture and society. In some sense, they're a direct parallel to computer 'BBS' machines (BBS = Bulletin Board System) where a few years ago when they started to become popular a group of people sprung up that used them as their primary place for making new friends. The parallels are really quite striking. (and the current computer conference systems, like the USENET, are an outgrowth of these early BBSs too, with similar demographics). The other question that arises, and I believe is the crux of all of this, is *where did this clique come from*? Is it a new group of people, these that use technology as a vehicle for social interaction, or is it a natural outgrowth of other factors? My suspicion is that it's an unsuprising result of the expansion of media and the consequent strengthening of the media's 'perfect person'. The expectations in society really have changed quite dramatically in the last few years, I believe. One must either be part of the popular culture (e.g. the so-called media stereotypes) or will have a difficult time succeeding socially. As Clive Barker (director of the new film "Hellraiser") says in the magazine "Sight and Sound"; [a minor character in the original has been turned into the second lead in the adaptation and polished up as a more or less conventional heroine] ``I liked the fact that in the novella the girl was a total loser. You can live with someone like that for the length of a novella. You can't for a movie.'' What exactly is this saying about our culture? I've strayed a bit off the beaten path, but I would be most interested in hearing about other peoples thoughts on this, especially those outside of the United States. -- Dave Taylor
jack@fabien.UUCP (Jack Waugh) (11/24/87)
A possiblity is that many of those who use the methods of making social contact you cite do so because those methods are newly available and the people had social difficulties anyway before the methods were available. Jack Waugh
taylor@hplabsz.UUCP (11/28/87)
Agree with your observations. It's too easy in some ways to access such power. The numerous handicapped people attest to the power of this form of communications. One thing which disturbs me are all the quotations out of context: the posting without permissions. Of this latter, I think this has to stop, not because of copyright, but because the interaction gives a better picture in some cases. But getting back to people. It is also notable that pictures are not so desireable to transmit. This also says something, perhaps, our reaction to television working with our communications with the phone. --eugene
shane@deepthot.UWO.CDN (Shane Dunne) (12/06/87)
Dave Taylor writes: >[...discussion of phone services such as 900 & 976 profit-making > ventures, leading into discussion of BBS's and net-news...] >The other question that arises, and I believe is the crux of all >of this, is *where did this clique [of users -sd] come from*? >Is it a new group of people, these that use technology as a vehicle >for social interaction, or is it a natural outgrowth of other factors? > >My suspicion is that it's an unsuprising result of the expansion >of media and the consequent strengthening of the media's 'perfect >person'. >[...] >What exactly is this saying about our culture? The "perfect person" notion hits it right on the head. People in TV shows, movies and plays are bound to be perfect; their every utterance has been carefully scripted. How can "ordinary" people compete with that? By using media such as the phone services, CB radio, BBS's and net-news, which allow them to conceal their own "imperfect" identity and, in the latter two cases, spend nearly unlimited "scripting" their contributions. Where did this clique come from? They're just ordinary folks, grabbing onto an opportunity to be like their media heroes. Well, nobody's perfect, as the saying goes, and so to become perfect I must become someone other than myself. The most obvious way is to use a false name, or at least withhold my real one. BBS's and similar systems facilitate this by presenting new users with a prompt like "Enter name:". It disturbs me somewhat that this net-news/mail facility is inconsistent about including users' real names with news postings. It seems that although my local system automatically includes my real name, some distant systems will remove it. A popular argument against using real names is that anonymous media can help shy people reach out to others in a "safe" way. I cannot believe that sitting in front of a terminal engaging in such "safe" anonymous interaction can help anyone learn real social intercourse skills. (It might be of value in pathological cases, but then the situation should be much better controlled.) If our goal is to help the shy ones, we must not force them to hide behind assumed identities for protection against a hostile social environment; rather we must strive to make the environment gentler. This means, primarily, giving up the childish practice of flaming, and remembering the little things we used to call "politeness". - Shane Dunne, UWO Computer Science, Canada