Conversation

IMAGE: Go ahead, click on it. You know you want to.

For all the means of communication open to us, especially in the last decade (well, just in the last five years), it may only increase the exposure of those with nothing to say.

In the 1990s, I belonged to several Catholic e-mail lists. I was the irreverent apologist, undefeated by my adversaries (with the possible exception of a few obnoxious twits on a Feeneyite list, mostly guys in their thirties living in their parents' basements, but I digress ...). "Karen" was on one of those lists. She was prone to prattling on and on and on, without breaking for a paragraph. She said she couldn't help it, it just came out that way. I could tell.

Our list was named after Saint Peter. I told the moderator it should be named after Karen.

Today, for the most part, e-mail discussion lists are more or less obsolete, except for a few diehards who prefer the medium. People are more inclined toward social networking services like Facebook, where "friends" who you wouldn't know from Adam, and who suggest other "friends" who you know even less well, all pretend to build community. I confess to having an account myself, mostly in the context of my overall plan of promoting the work here at mwbh, which includes the use of Twitter.

And all this requires less of an attention span than any e-mail list.

My son became disgusted with the increasingly "Orwellian" privacy measures undertaken by Facebook, never mind constantly changing the rules, so he closed his account. He still uses Twitter, though. It's one way to follow him around without being obvious.

He also has a lot to say, obviously taking after his Dad.
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