I was thinking about social networking the other day, and a thought came to me. I think this might be a bit obvious but, social networking seems to have changed the face of friendship, and how we interpret the meaning of conversation.

With the advent of social networking, for many people conversation seems to have become an asynchronous activity, rather than a synchronous one. Rather than engaging in a conversation, someone will compose a wall post instead, and wait for whatever response happens to come, eventually.

Perhaps I’m reading too much in to this, but hasn’t this changed the face of conversation, and friendship? It seems like more people are now choosing to ‘post’,  rather than to converse. This may not only lead to some kind of connectivity addiction, but doesn’t it have the potential to lead to continuous, empty conversation? Conversation without meaning?

I’m not trying to downplay the benefits. Social networking is a great way to stay in touch. It just seems like there is less of a human connection in an asynchronous conversation. Not really sure if this is good, bad, or whether it’s inconsequential. I really just stumbled on the idea the other day, and wanted to explore it.

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Do we value action rather than deliberation? Do we care more about leadership than representative self government?

If the healthcare debate has been any indication, it would seem so. The growing sentiment seems to be that Congress simply takes too long to do anything. We looked to the President to take action and ‘reform’ a broken system. But, isn’t that Congress’ job? Shouldn’t we value the deliberation that argues each side of an issue, rather than becoming restless while the debate goes on?

How often do we make decisions in our own lives without thinking them through? And when we do, how well do they usually turn out? Doesn’t immediate action without deliberation only lead to mistakes?

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