Star Trek as a purely symbolic artifact of past times

[golakers]

Hey folks,

Check out this very interesting blog post (and discussion that follows) about two observations that many of us notice about the franchise - especially DS9/TNG era:

1) Nobody wastes time (deliberate on the writers' part)
2) Nobody uses social media (unforseeable)

...and how its possible to be "alone" in the ST universe in a way that would be far more difficult for us to achieve today.

golakers

 

[Robert D. Robot]

Maybe all this social media addiction/fascination is just a phase our culture is going through. There may come a day when the average person trades away a good amount of the communications that are really pretty shallow and inconsequential and that eat up so much of our time and focus in favor of a state more towards a focus on what you are doing right in front of you and who you are physically with. Maybe the path to becoming the Borg is our future, or maybe this is just a temporary cultural obsession.

I don't mean that we will abandon the methods that we have for such immediate and constant communication, but that people in the future won't invest so much time, effort and money into being constantly plugged in for casual reasons.

 

[T'Girl]

Facebook is already passe, who knows how long twitter will last. I spend much more time interacting with physical people, than with their electronic personalities.

I've wonder about a social network version of the holodeck, where ten people, on ten different ship's within communication range of each other, all "meet" on their individual holodecks. A protracted coffee date, to talk about your last away mission and next lover.

 

[jayrath]

Pretty hard to update your Federation Facebook page minute by minute when you're 16 light years away. Anyway, if I were in deep space, exploring new worlds, I doubt I'd want (or have time) to twitter "OMG! Gorn & capt fighting! Gunpowder? LOL!"

 

[RyuRoots]

Pretty hard to update your Federation Facebook page minute by minute when you're 16 light years away. Anyway, if I were in deep space, exploring new worlds, I doubt I'd want (or have time) to twitter "OMG! Gorn & capt fighting! Gunpowder? LOL!"

I agree with this. I'm glad that the stench of social networking has been kept out of Star Trek so far.

 

[Christopher]

On the other hand, Diane Duane's 1988 ST novel Spock's World gave the Enterprise its own '80s-style mailing-list-type message board wherein the crew discussed the issues and events unfolding in the story.

 

[tafkats]

It's easy to dismiss social media as shallow and inconsequential, but even inconsequential communication serves a purpose.

I went to a talk about six years ago by a professor of communication who researched the effects of "small talk," the chatter about unimportant things that makes up many of our interactions with other people. She found that so-called small talk was essential in growing and cementing relationships between people -- in giving us touchstones that make us feel connected to each other.

The communication we engage in through media like Facebook isn't really different from what people have been doing for ages ... it's just in a different medium that (a) makes it easier to do with a large number of people across distances, and (b) is easier for people with some level of social anxiety to handle.

If Lieutenant Barclay had had access to a 24th-century version of Facebook or Twitter, he might have been more well-adjusted.

 

[THE_FETT]

If Lieutenant Barclay had had access to a 24th-century version of Facebook or Twitter, he might have been more well-adjusted.

Or perhaps the opposite? They discover that text-networking creates a egocentric mania which eventually becomes a full-blown addiction similar to holo-addiction. So the federation banned it.

 

[Christopher]

Or maybe someone who's shy in real life wouldn't be much different in social media. Or would be even worse at social media than at face-to-face socializing. I'm shy myself, and as a rule I find it easier to engage in in-depth discussion and intellectual exploration than in the kind of small talk and idle chit-chat that serves little purpose beyond social bonding. But I can open up enough to be more social when I'm in the physical company of friends or family, whereas I find Facebook to be somewhat boring and superficial and tend to be just a "lurker" there for the most part, aside from using it to repost my blog entries.

So while my own experience is of course subjective, I don't accept the premise that social media could make someone "more well-adjusted" (or, for that matter, that being outgoing and popular is the only way to be "well-adjusted"). On the contrary, I find they create a distance that makes it easier to isolate oneself.

 

[MacLeod]

Shy people can easily engage in small talk, discussions debate etc.. But with a few provisions

1.>They usually aren't the one to initiate a conversations
2.>They have to be at the very least like the subject of discussion
etc..

Shy people can also be more guarded in displaying emotions and letting people in.

 

[Forbin]

Anyway, if I were in deep space, exploring new worlds, I doubt I'd want (or have time) to twitter "OMG! Gorn & capt fighting! Gunpowder? LOL!"

Post of the week!

 

[davisn456]

There was a quote from one of the shows I had to look up, but I think it really applies to this conversation. It came from Enterprise, and was a conversation between Dr. Phlox and Crewman Cutler talking about movie night:
Cutler - "They don't have movies where you come from, do they?"
Phlox - "Well, we had something similar a few hundred years ago, but they lost their appeal when people discovered their real lives were more interesting."

Text messaging, social media, and the other kinds of communications like that definitely have a less personal approach, and all communications on the Star Trek series seem to be much more personal, like video communications and the like. The Ent-D crew didn't play poker together via computer terminal, they got together. When there was a ship's concert, they went and saw it in person, and didn't watch it on a viewscreen. When Sisko calls home, he sees his father, he doesn't email him.

I also noticed that when there were scenes of Earth, specifically on DS9 (Sisko's restaurant), and on Voyager when Harry Kim went to San Francisco (Non Sequitur), it was a very simple/laid back atmosphere. People weren't walking around with their face stuck in a PADD (like we do with our cell phones today). They spoke to one another, appreciated their surroundings, etc. Another good example - in Barclay's apartment on Earth, I don't remember seeing any technology to speak of, other than his replicator and a tabletop console. They just didn't let it consume their lives.

I guess the holodeck is an entirely different story, since it did consume Barclay...

 

[The Castellan]

Maybe all this social media addiction/fascination is just a phase our culture is going through. There may come a day when the average person trades away a good amount of the communications that are really pretty shallow and inconsequential and that eat up so much of our time and focus in favor of a state more towards a focus on what you are doing right in front of you and who you are physically with. Maybe the path to becoming the Borg is our future, or maybe this is just a temporary cultural obsession.

I don't mean that we will abandon the methods that we have for such immediate and constant communication, but that people in the future won't invest so much time, effort and money into being constantly plugged in for casual reasons.

Yep. And given the fact that there is no TV anymore in Trek's future, that's a sign of hope.

There was a quote from one of the shows I had to look up, but I think it really applies to this conversation. It came from Enterprise, and was a conversation between Dr. Phlox and Crewman Cutler talking about movie night:
Cutler - "They don't have movies where you come from, do they?"
Phlox - "Well, we had something similar a few hundred years ago, but they lost their appeal when people discovered their real lives were more interesting."

Yes. When the time comes, which I think is sooner than later, when we learn there's much more, and what's out there, that movies, sports, reality television, celeb gossip (maybe even celebs in general) are nothing compared to it. I mean if given the chance to either meet an alien race/explore an alien world or watch a football game or listen to a TMZ-esque show rambling on about Whitney Houstan's or Michael Jackson's life, I'll take the first one, thank you.

 

[Anji]

But you know, today, thank God we have the Internet. I don't have the time or the money to socialize with other fans anymore. The only way I can keep up with you all is when I get home from work, which is late at night and by that time most people are sleeping.

The only communication I can afford is to read your posts and leave some of my own. I don't feel so disconnected with the BBS around.