S. is waiting for a friend who is 20 mins late. M begins conversation by showing him an image representing a scene at Piccadilly station in Manchester.
S. Oh that’s the departure board for Manchester Piccadilly I remember when they put that in…such an improvement on the only flickerboard. It’s a really nice piece of kit – tells you all the destinations, rather than just the final one. As a way of getting the info across it’s a lot more fluid and more accessible than the old way of doing it
M. But do you also use your iphone ?
S. I do…it has apps so that I can search for particular routes that I want, but if you are in a train station that’s just in front of you. It’s just easier.
M. Points to the picture…But what about the other people round there?
S. What’s interesting is that a lot of people aren’t staring at it. You’ve a lot of people staring up at it that side. It’s funny…it’s a reasonably slow refresh so you only have half of it at any one time and you have to wait. It’s funny: there’s a way in which you have to wait for the info.!
M. (Shows a pic of Madrid after bombings…mass action)
s. (On being told this) Oh right. OK.
M. People used their mobile phones The government blamed ETA v. quickly and people used phones and the internet to organize some pretty ad hoc demonstrations against that.
S. Wow
M. Have you come across anything like that?
S. I’ve heard of such things I know there has been a similar sort of use of technology in Iran. It’s been well publicized. I hear of it on the news but it’s not something I’ve been involved in myself
M. Would you know how to find out or would you be interested or…
S. I suppose that’s about technology in conjunction with a particular group of people who have a particular focus on the way they use technology. I don’t have any people? friends who are into demonstrations and that sort of thing…so in that sense my friends group doesn’t necessarily lend itself to using technol in that way.
M. ??What about i pod discos and more frivolous things?
S. I lead a sheltered life…I mean, I listen to R4 and that’s about it (laughs heartily)
M. What do you do?
S. I’m a software developer…
M. Oh right
S. …working in Liverpool which is very exciting…
M. Not?
S. It’s v boring but it pays the bills
M. What kinda software is it?
S. It’s database stuff. It’s all about collecting customer info and storing it properly and reporting on it.
M. Does it connect to things like…?...inaudible
S. No. It’s v isolated in that respect. Definitely doesn’t involve any….it’s v protected. It’s v personal information so have got to be v careful
M. But that’s exactly what ?? We’re v interested in. If you…people using social media and ah…inaudible due to background noise…Tesco club card and all of that – you leave traces in all those databases
S. Yes I know…what’s interesting about that is that I’ve noticed on F/B (face book) now, there’s another thing called um, is it location?
M. Place…F/B place
S. Place - and I find that frightening actually that you wd give people that degree of info about where they could find you. A friend of mine had his house on it and it shows a map where u could find his house. I’m like….well I know him online, but I don’t know him well enough to be invited to his home and now I know where to find him. I find that…I think that people are freer with info than they would be if they realized how that might be abused I think.
M. And ho, how …so you don’t use any of them?
S. I use them to an extent….?? For example, I wouldn’t use that ‘place’ thing on F/B. I think that’s giving away too much information. I wouldn’t want someone to know when I was home even though I wouldn’t want someone to know when I absolutely wasn’t at home
M. Agreement, but inaudible
S. Exactly, I mean I hve friends on F/B who I don’t know v well…inaudible…depends on what you mean by friend….friend is no longer a strong term, I think in F/B. To that extent I wouldn’t want to share tat degree of information…Um…I’m sure….I mean I’ve never used them…I’m sure other social media provide a similar degree of invasive insight if you think of it in that way
M. Yeah and do you find that difficult to conceptualise? I mean why do people make such information available? Why don’t they understand the implications?
S. I don’t know…I think that’s an important question to be honest because I think its about the way society sees its information. It’s the sort of info that you would share w yr actual friends…and don’t know if it’s the way the terminology is or the way people are and I don’t know…have a more…the way our society’s changed in a way that it means that people are , people have a smaller group of real friends or a larger group of …you know, ancillary friends if you like.
M. Yeah
S. who aren’t really friends in the conventional sense. Maybe it’s just that people’s concept of what friends are has shifted, but the way they’re willing to share info with that hasn’t kept pace.
M. Yeah and how do you yourself know what to do and what not to do
S. (inaudible)…judgement on a case by case basis. I used to shre more info on F/B than I do so for example I used to have, you know my d.o.b., my phone no and everything on there and now I’ve removed those info because I just think it ‘s…
M. Yeah
S. The reality is, that actually if somebody chose to abuse that information they could do…
M. Yeah
S. …and as a result I would be in stuck and that wouldn’t be good. Oh…got an email…I’m interacting
M. Yeah, yeah. Laughs. EXCELLENT data. I know it’s a v personal thing to ask, but wd you show me yr phone a bit? I mean you could choose what you show me, but that would be…
S. Shows his (pink)_iphone to M This is my iphone and that’s my boyfriend uum his name’s Andrew uum I have…I use the iphone and they’ve recently upgraded it so you end up w all these folders and stuff, so I’ve, I like everything nice and compartmentalized, uum so I have everything in 1 page. I know some people… (inaudible M taking too)… but I don’t like that …(I like??) everything all grouped by logical areas
M. Categories?
S. Which suits me
M. What do you use most?
S. I mostly use uum I use the calendar. I use F/B. I play the games a bit but not much uum usually when I’m at work….I do use things like Grinder which is a gay social networking…
M. Oh yeah
S. …which is kind of about finding gays nearby basically sociable?? inaudible uum I use things like that for chatting to people, friends already rather than…
M. Finding people that you don’t…
S. I usually find things like that unsatisfactory anyway
M. With a lead on (??) get past the small talk
S. I don’t particularly want to usually. Uum I like chatting to people but anything more than that is uum need to get to know somebody a bit better and social media don’t provide the facility to get to know someone properly to the extent that you’d want to share your life (W anybody??)
M. It’s about trust isn’t it?
S. Absolutely it’s about trust
M. It’s a funny question why we have other people on social media with so much information about themselves, but the kind of trust that you…
S. I think there’s a degree of …when you meet somebody you can get an idea of whether you trust them or not and that’s from the interaction with them and you get an impression of that person. The extent to which online you simply don’t get that. You’re basing it on people’s words rather than their whole mannerisms uum ah, but the majority of communication is not verbal so you’re missing out on all those extra communication because all you’re getting is the words not the delivery, not the whole person…so
M. Yeah
S. So I think as a result I’m more guarded of that because I’m more mindful of it…uum yu know it’s so easy to eg upset somebody by email because they red it differently to the way you think about it when you write it uum and communicate with people through social media is going to be every bit as bad.
M. Yes you can hear the undertone of irony or…?? Something that we’re interested in, in terms of public space…I mean that translates into public space cos in the past you would have had people interacting w each other more through ?? and communication ??and with everybody now…just look at that guy over there (S turns his head) because more and more individualized…how people…
S. You almost have people in their little bubbles…the no. of people partic when it is sunny you see people over the grass (indicates grass on Picc Gdns) here with their phones chatting to each other in small groups or NOT chatting to people ‘cos they’re chatting to each other on their phones…um which is quite a funny change because now…technology has allowed people to do that in the public realm.
M. But it allows you to connect to people in your own interest group. So…people that you already know you’ll like on some level, whereas in the past you couldn’t….
S. You’d have to try and work things out a bit more
M. With people who were completely different from you
S. Yeah…who might be and might not be and then it was about…I think about you know finding um things like even classes or stuff where you, you target an activity where the kind of people which you like…inaudible
M. Yeah, yeah, where it’s not necessarily about you.
S. Now, it’s like you search the internet for people with the right tick list (stops and shrugs, nods head from side to side). I think that might well be less satisfactory, I think that might well be less satisfactory. I mean I…
M. In what way?
S. Um, the closest friends I have, are friends I made without using technology. Um I’ve got some good friends I met using technology (blinks and pauses) they’re more (makes some sounds) the very close friends I’ve met by other means, actually through shared interests, through meeting them outside and things through…
M. And how is the relationship with them?
S. I don’t know. I think it’s just the starting point…it’s where things lead off from. That’s where your foundation comes from. If you sort of…I think you put in more effort in, if there’s not that pre – conceived expectation ‘oh well we’ll get on, we share an interest maybe…’
M. yeah, so you listen more and …
S. Think so
M. …and you’re more open to…you learn more things as well and you…
S. I think you’re more um I think when it’s harder work to make a friend uum to get to know somebody um I think the extra effort adds to the real ?? added value of that friendship. Uum there’s something to be said for when things are too easy they’re not worth as much. I think it goes for many things.
M. Yeah
S. But friendships it certainly is true
M. Yeah, yeah, great…
END…
