A Millennial's Take on Cybersociality

Cybersociality compromises a huge portion of the modern human experience, or as Tom Boellstorff would say, the Homo cyber experience. One thing I appreciated about the readings for this week’s class is the acknowledgement that the encroachment of technology onto our social lives is not inherently positive or negative, or even that novel. In fact, each reading referenced earlier manifestations of virtual sociality which predate the internet. I feel like the millennial generation, of which I am a member, is often criticized for being antisocial because we live out so much of our lives online. But as each author points out, this move to the virtual is not a new phenomenon.

Boellstorff points to the long history of the virtual in his introduction, and one could imagine how stuff like mail correspondences of the past could be seen as predecessors of the modern relationships he sees in SL. Ilana Gershon points out that new forms of media are always popping up when she cites to the invention of the telephone as another form of communication people had to adjust to. Olivia Banner describes how lifelogging is not a totally new concept but just an expansion of a long held desire to quantify disease.

With all the parallels to earlier innovation, it seems clear to me that millennials are not the first generation to lose their sociability, but rather pioneers exploring further into how relationships can be formed and mediated in an online setting.

The most relevant reading to me personally was Banner’s “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover: Media Ideologies and Idioms of Practice”.  The topic of how to break up with someone in an age where we have an unprecedented number of ways to communicate is one that often surfaces within the college student population. In light of this, I brought up the topic to a number of other college students who I was sitting with this evening. Despite what might be assumed, in part from Banner’s observations on how different generations perceive the formality of different mediums, everyone I asked thought in-person break-ups were the only appropriate method. A few even shared “horror stories” about being broken up with over text message, Facebook, and even SnapChat! Of course this is by no means a scientific study, but I find it intriguing that in this age of social media, face-to-face contact is still valued highly.