The Brave New World of Digital Intimacy

In this article, the main argument is: "[Ambient awareness] is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does-body language, sights, stray comments-out of the corner of your eye."
Three different ways that this can be worded are:

1. Ambient awareness, some say, is similar to literally being with someone and seeing how he feels through the small signs such as his tone and expressions.

2. Ambient awareness is, they say, the state of knowing the same details as someone being directly next to target would through the expressions given by the target's words and actions.

3. Character awareness is, they say, getting the same signals of mood and emotion of direct contact with someone by other means excluding actual interaction with the target.

      Zuckerburg introduced the "News Feed" to enable ambient awareness. It is one of the leading reasons that people can "know" one another without actually knowing them. This may have negative effects with the depth of relationships, but overall, this helped establish relationships that encourage literacy in the way of planting the desire to know more about other people rather than just first impression details. This ambient awareness allows people to know others without investing excessive amounts of time. I think that everyone that uses a social media site regularly experiences this effect. The benefit of this is simply the amount of information it grants us. This benefit comes with the downfall of being a fake or shallow friend. Only interacting with a person over social media can lead people to being fake by only disclosing certain aspects of themselves and thus creating a barrier in the relationship. An example of an ambient update would just be a vague post about one's character such as someone expressing their feelings after a concert they just attended. This update can show how this person felt about the performance and anything connected with it along with general knowledge of a person judging off of what music they listen to.
      The difference in social media rather than in-person updates is the option whether to pay attention to certain updates by will. Users are not required to read everything on the news feed and can choose what they will use their time to read. This leads to the problem of "weak tied" friendships. While it is nice and entertaining to have so many different opinions on topics and many people to assist passing time, weak tied friendships can hurt users by tainting the meaning of literacy. The two problems of this are the actually changing of the meaning of literacy defined by social media and the pressure to have one in the first place. Most people are pressure by friends or even professional sources to own a social media to express one's identity for first impressions and further research. The meaning of literacy in the 21st century is being able to adapt our language through the perspective of others and take a step back from day to day moments. Literacy is the act of selfless comprehension.