In the olden days, back when photographs came sepia-toned as standard and motorcars were rarer than rainbows, back in the unimaginable days before mobiles and mobile internet, people used to talk. Everything was done face-to-face, or in the written (not typed) word. Confrontations were probably held in private as well, over meaningful things that would impact life and worth.
Fast forward to the not-too-distant past, when everyone spent days fantasizing about the future. There were phonelines and mobiles. You could be so much more impersonal, and life was frivolous enough to allow anger over small problems.
And now we are back in the present day, in a world ruled by facebook where petty diatribes can run riot over statuses in the public eye, sparked by trivial matters and ending in friendships breaking and mass annoyance.
I recently experienced one of these: my friend, to be known as L, asked me if I could buy a ticket for a gig for her, as I was buying mine that day too. I agreed, and she thanked me in a status. Then another of her friends (J) commented and started ranting about what an awful friend L was. Having read the whole debacle, i am still unsure of her reasoning... was she annoyed that L had bought a ticket without her? Anyway, the whole sordid business has spiralled wildly out of control. The fact that this is also written predominantly in online text-talk only worsens matters.
I love technology, and I would go mad without internet access, but sometimes I do wonder if it is abused. Not by what webpages are viewed, but how it can be used - as another medium for contact, with all the connotations and consequences as such.
Plectrum status: I can't say it's changed at all.
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