one time, the very current idea of \u200b\u200bthe social network was embodied by mail, strongly asynchronous, direct heirs of the letter paper, although without the same romantic charm. Then came the instant messaging services (IM), aided by the natural human propensity for shame, especially if well justified: the voice again was converted into text, but this time with the intriguing possibility of more direct interaction between users, so that brought the discussion to evolve in real time by decreasing response times than regular mail. Text messages are translated in a sense, this paradigm of communication at the level of cellular network, allowing users to be potentially connected and visible 24 hours 24. The strong diffusion of smart phones and calling plans for mobile browsing would suggest a gradual transition of the technology of SMS to the IM, but I fear that it would derive real benefits ...
Other recent successful social network, such as twitter and facebook (e fra breve Google Wave, in un certo senso), hanno infatti di nuovo spostato la struttura della comunicazione da una forma marcatamente sincrona come quella della messaggeria istantanea verso una forma più asincrona, e quindi intrinsecamente meno impegnativa. Il concetto, come forse intuirete, è semplice: in un mondo in cui l’utente ha tempo limitato e al contempo elevata necessità di comunicazione, la soluzione migliore è quella più banale, ossia non comunicare, almeno non direttamente. L’utente posta un messaggio in un ambiente condiviso, la cui valenza può essere più o meno pubblica a seconda delle necessità del momento, e l’onere della comunicazione viene lasciata al sistema, che si occupa di recapitare recipients no longer the immediate desire for contact and communication (sometimes, let's face it, even uncomfortable), but only the information, possibly through push notifications that "disturb" so minimal the other party only when needed.
This, gentlemen, is democracy! Once you have configured your system to your needs, then the user is found to be accessible by anyone (mostly wonderful and almost free form of power), and at the same time can afford to respond in the moment that feels more appropriate without sacrificing their own personal thirst for information, deciding autonomously interact with people (through diverse shapes of reply ) and those who ignore it without interfering too much with your workflow. That's why I hope the death of any form of synchronous communication (except for that voice, which still retains a charm all its own), preferring each alternative that allows me to check more confident with the information overload that I myself have decided to surround me.
