Last evening a friend exposed me to a new social media tool called Formspring. You may have noticed this if you follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, or read this blog regularly. I apologize for the cascade of stupid questions and short one or two word answers that came down to clog your bandwidth while I messed with this new toy trying to find out what it would be good for.
But I think I've got it now. It seems to me to be a really useful tool for self-discovery much more than for social interaction. I find that 90% of the generic questions that pop up are uninteresting, but now and again, you find something that makes you think, wonder about yourself or the world around you.
Sometimes all it takes to get me writing is a simple question. Questions are odd in that they can often teach us more about ourselves, our assumptions, and culture than the answers we give. That the I ask may tell the world more about me, than the answers will tell me about the person being asked is very interesting. Also, a question out of left field, one I'd never think of asking myself, can send me down a whole new route of self discovery.
In the tab I have open to Formspring now, the question awaiting my answer is "what is your earliest memory?".
That's a very simple question, on the face of it, but when I think about my earliest memories I notice some odd peculiarities. my really old memories seem to be in a third person perspective, as though I'm watching them play out before me. It's also telling that most of these early memories are from periods when I'm at home, often holidays or family gatherings.
This could just be a coincidence, or it could be that I am not remembering the events in my life at all, but my family member's retellings of these events. I for instance can remember quite clearly (despite the peculiarities I mentioned previously) the events that occurred on christmases and birthdays when I was only a very young child, but I have no recollection of my early elementary school lessons, teachers or friends. The difference I think is that the earlier memories were reinforced, perhapse even implanted by retellings by family members, long after I lost track of my elementary teachers and school-yard chums.
But back to questions, a question about what your favorite movie, song, book or video game can tell you as much about how important the particular medium is to the answerer as it tells you about their favorite piece of art in that medium. I find it really hard to write a short answer to for instance what's my favorite book, or favorite song, because writing, and music are both hugely important to me, but I'ts not hard at all for me to knock out a favorite movie, or TV show, because I just don't care as much about movies or television as a whole.
So, Formspring to me is a perfect opportunity to learn a bit about my friends, and a whole lot about myself.
But I think I've got it now. It seems to me to be a really useful tool for self-discovery much more than for social interaction. I find that 90% of the generic questions that pop up are uninteresting, but now and again, you find something that makes you think, wonder about yourself or the world around you.
Sometimes all it takes to get me writing is a simple question. Questions are odd in that they can often teach us more about ourselves, our assumptions, and culture than the answers we give. That the I ask may tell the world more about me, than the answers will tell me about the person being asked is very interesting. Also, a question out of left field, one I'd never think of asking myself, can send me down a whole new route of self discovery.
In the tab I have open to Formspring now, the question awaiting my answer is "what is your earliest memory?".
That's a very simple question, on the face of it, but when I think about my earliest memories I notice some odd peculiarities. my really old memories seem to be in a third person perspective, as though I'm watching them play out before me. It's also telling that most of these early memories are from periods when I'm at home, often holidays or family gatherings.
This could just be a coincidence, or it could be that I am not remembering the events in my life at all, but my family member's retellings of these events. I for instance can remember quite clearly (despite the peculiarities I mentioned previously) the events that occurred on christmases and birthdays when I was only a very young child, but I have no recollection of my early elementary school lessons, teachers or friends. The difference I think is that the earlier memories were reinforced, perhapse even implanted by retellings by family members, long after I lost track of my elementary teachers and school-yard chums.
But back to questions, a question about what your favorite movie, song, book or video game can tell you as much about how important the particular medium is to the answerer as it tells you about their favorite piece of art in that medium. I find it really hard to write a short answer to for instance what's my favorite book, or favorite song, because writing, and music are both hugely important to me, but I'ts not hard at all for me to knock out a favorite movie, or TV show, because I just don't care as much about movies or television as a whole.
So, Formspring to me is a perfect opportunity to learn a bit about my friends, and a whole lot about myself.
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