Asynchronous Socializing
One of the things that I really like about the Internet is the possibility of asynchronous socializing.
Some mechanisms of collaboration, sharing and interacting such as telephone, MSN are often used in a way that requires both parties attention at the same time.
This can cause two problems. It can be bottlenecked by the fact that people’s available time for that communication may not occur at the same time. So the communication has to wait for that condition. Or, a person can become inundated with requests to communicate or need to temporarily leave the face to face world to carry out communications.
Obviously short communications are not as disruptive to face to face activities but this is definitely an expensive communication mechanism from that point of view.
I once arrived at a social that was to have six people. Four of us had arrived on time. For the next 30m there was a massive influx of cell calls from the other two to get directions for driving, parking and to the venue. Also for reporting of their position. What happened was that the first 30m of the social was not about the planned activity but the logistics of getting the rest of the people there. In the old world before cell phones this disruption would not have happened. We would have just socialized until everyone showed up.
I was a little irritated about this myself because the meeting had been set up by email. Venue address, driving and parking directions and all were given. But people become lazy and depend on their phones in a way that eats up the most precious face to face time.
The same is a little true about MSN. People communicate synchronously and that can get a little clingy. This used to be one of the things that people thought was very cool about the internet. The fact that you could interact online in real time.
Now I’m seeing the need for the use of asynchronous communication.
Facebook is a great example. Pretty well everything in there is asynchronous and can use up your spare time slices. Not to say that people don’t overdo being online but it’s actually possible to communicate in an economical way because of this feature.
How much value there is in AC isn’t really clear to everyone right now.
Recently with my Salsa hobby and business activities, I’ve been doing a lot of socials. There was a lady that I wanted to partner with in the Salsa community. We danced together a lot whenever we bumped into each other. We discussed exchanging contact information but when we bumped into each other we were always very busy with dancing, dancing with our friends and usually one of us will have left the venue before the other can think to get after the other for contact info. This went on for a month or so. We eventually exchanged emails and were able to connect that way.
Hmmmm. One month is a long while. After I started to use my Facebook account more, this whole drama started again. Another great candidate for dancing came forward. When I returned home that evening, I noticed that one of my friends had the new lady in her photos and she was tagged. I typed her name in the find box and added her as a friend. I had the connection within 24h.
This has also worked at business activities.
I believe that the possibility of use of asynchronous means removes some of the load from face to face activities.
Darcy Whyte