Social Networking Leads To Isolation, Not More Connections, Say Academics

Modern society seems convinced that social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter keep them connected and thriving socially with their friends and peers. But a new book called Alone Together by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Sherry Turkle says otherwise, purporting that social networks are more like mutual isolation networks that detach people from meaningful interactions with one another and make them less human.

“A behavior that has become typical may still express the problems that once caused us to see it as pathological,” says Turkle in her book, referring to the near-total obsession with the digital world in today’s society. She and others say that the online social world is destroying real communication, dumbing down society, and leading to a society of people that have no idea how to actually function in the real world.

Turkle emphasizes her belief that more people need to put down their phones, turn off their computers, and learn to communicate with one another face-to-face. She writes, “We have invented inspiring and enhancing technologies, yet we have allowed them to diminish us.” And many others in research and academia share her views.

One major indicator of the chilling decline in communication values is the case of Simone Back, a Brighton, U.K., woman who announced her suicide on her Facebook status. None of her more than 1,000 “friends” contacted her in response to the posting, and many simply argued with one another back and forth on her “Wall” about the legitimacy of her posting and whether or not Back had the freedom of choice to kill herself.

This sick display of meaningless Facebook “friendship” is only fuel for the fire to the many who say it represents the “writing on the wall” of worse things to come. If individuals cannot learn to interact and develop meaningful relationships outside the narcissistic, soap opera-environment of the Facebook “News Feed,” then society is in for some major trouble down the road.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/201…

Learn more: http://www.NaturalNews.com/031128_social_networking_men…

Originally at http://news.iskcon.com/node/3401/2011-01-29/social_networking_leads_to_isolation_not_more_connections_say_academics

Voyager near Solar System’s edge

Voyager is approaching the edge of the bubble of charged particles the Sun has thrown out into space

Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, has reached a new milestone in its quest to leave the Solar System.

Now 17.4bn km (10.8bn miles) from home, the veteran probe has detected a distinct change in the flow of particles that surround it.

These particles, which emanate from the Sun, are no longer travelling outwards but are moving sideways.

It means Voyager must be very close to making the jump to interstellar space – the space between the stars.

Edward Stone, the Voyager project scientist, lauded the explorer and the fascinating science it continues to return 33 years after launch.

“When Voyager was launched, the space age itself was only 20 years old, so there was no basis to know that spacecraft could last so long,” he told BBC News.

“We had no idea how far we would have to travel to get outside the Solar System. We now know that in roughly five years, we should be outside for the first time.”

Dr Stone was speaking here at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, the largest gathering of Earth scientists in the world.

Particle bubble

Voyager 1 was launched on 5 September 1977, and its sister spacecraft, Voyager 2, on 20 August 1977.

The Nasa probes’ initial goal was to survey the outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, a task completed in 1989.

They were then despatched towards deep space, in the general direction of the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy.

Sustained by their radioactive power packs, the probes’ instruments continue to function well and return data to Earth, although the vast distance between them and Earth means a radio message now has a travel time of about 16 hours.

The newly reported observation comes from Voyager 1’s Low-Energy Charged Particle Instrument, which has been monitoring the velocity of the solar wind.

This stream of charged particles forms a bubble around our Solar System known as the heliosphere. The wind travels at “supersonic” speed until it crosses a shockwave called the termination shock.

At this point, the wind then slows dramatically and heats up in a region termed the heliosheath. Voyager has determined the velocity of the wind at its location has now slowed to zero.

Racing onwards

“We have gotten to the point where the wind from the Sun, which until now has always had an outward motion, is no longer moving outward; it is only moving sideways so that it can end up going down the tail of the heliosphere, which is a comet-shaped-like object,” said Dr Stone, who is based at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California.

This phenomenon is a consequence of the wind pushing up against the matter coming from other stars. The boundary between the two is the “official” edge of the Solar System – the heliopause. Once Voyager crosses over, it will be in interstellar space.

First hints that Voyager had encountered something new came in June. Several months of further data were required to confirm the observation.

“When I realized that we were getting solid zeroes, I was amazed,” said Rob Decker, a Voyager Low-Energy Charged Particle Instrument co-investigator from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.

“Here was Voyager, a spacecraft that has been a workhorse for 33 years, showing us something completely new again.”

Voyager 1 is racing on towards the heliopause at 17km/s. Dr Stone expects the cross-over to occur within the next few years.

Although launched first, Voyager 2 was put on a slower path and is currently just over 14bn km from Earth.

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News, San Francisco at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11988466