The social media things I thought I had wanted to forget

Fresh-faced from completion of my Ph.D 'Seriously Social: Managing Connection in the Information Age' it's nice to take a more 'rear seat' view of social media happenings. Of course technology, like time, does not stand still just because you think you deserve a break in the sun and run along the beaches.

It is the middle of lunchtime when my father arrives to meet at a astronomically and monetry named related coffee chain. Without saying a word he sits opposites me and deposits Monday 19th The Guardian's G2 open on the first page to Hadley Freeman's article 'Oh no! My parents have joined Facebook'. This is not the first instance when a near pyschic revelation has passed from father to daughter. So immersed when writing my Ph.D days would go by with merely a grunt or glance of acknowledgement as the 5am starts and midnight stops for research took over. 'Finishing' the research represents a mojor personal achievement and I had hoped an opportune moment to take stock of the knowledge that I had accumulated. The throwing of the paper between two cappuccino's represented an long established 'you'll find this of interest' notice and at the same time the statement that posed 'your of-the-moment research' is now already going out of date. If The Guardian are writing about Facebook, and association social media, and Chris Moyles even observes of one of his callers on his Radio One Breakfast Show that she is 'too old for Bebo and should be on Facebook' then one can safely assume that the daily interactions across various forms of technology has taken hold and infiltrated even the most unlikely of 'enthusiasts'.

I file through a mental list of things that I had thought I wanted to forget. Mostly this consists of a less immersed attachment and acknowledgement of social media generally. Until I gaze back down at Freeman's article and remind myself (with a hint of jealousy) that as an essential implentation of my research it was necessary for me to be so attached and that I'm not quite ready to 'pull the plug' just yet. Which begs the question, what would one do without a daily procument of various newsfeeds via numerous social media streams.

'I'm not here.' I state to my father.
'Of course you are, you're right opposite me,' he replied.
'No I mean from a social media point of view. To all concerned I'm not 'here', or rather 'there''
'I. See,' Dad replied in a different and slowly delivered voice.
This either meant he did see, or was having difficulty with my deliberate evasiveness.
'I'm not taking any notice of Facebook, Gmail or Twitter at the moment,' I reiterated.
'Well it's probably for the best,' he replied glancing down at the article and then rejoining my gaze on him with a 'yes dear' look in his eyes.

Now on reflection after the cappuccino's I realise all the things I had wanted to distance myself from actually make up the bulk of my day and reveal a lot more than who's on a tea break. In a flash of astute realisation and clarity I drift off. I daydream of a time and place where social media cannot infiltrate and there's a beach and mojitos nearby. Then I decide that this is stupid where it is essential friends are notified of my beachy mojito status and what better way to do that than Facebook.

I am startled out of my dream and back into my day by my father observing,
'I bet you can't go one hour without acknowledgement of some sort of social media.'
About to address his challenge I am interupted by my mobile smugly pushing Gmail/Facebook status/text message/call my way. I realise that perhaps it's not 'me', but rather 'it' that is to blame. Yes. That's it. The acquirement of social 'skills' and astuteness is merely a condition of the way I have been bought up (with Sega Mega Drive in the house, various Mac's and the first dial-up modem in our street) and therefore it is all Dad's fault. The increasingly 'intrusion' of other people's social actions make-up the sensibility of the 'seriously social', by definition I am not only the epitomy of the 'seriously social' itself, but a product of my father's own enthusiasm and anlytical discourse about social happenings. He is, in case you had not guessed, a rather astute academic himself. It seems sociologists breed sociologists.

'I can keep up an at-distance presence from social media as long as you can, ' I challenge. And then swiftly remember that didn't this whole conversation commence with my statement of not 'being here'...

At the same time our mobiles spring into life and our eyes lock in a technological game of 'chicken'. Will power dictates the who will relent first and answer. Neither of us flinch, only a slight twitching at the corner of the eyes betrays a desire to locate the intrusion.

Eventually I realise that our cappuccino's have gone cold and stand to refresh our mugs. In the queue my mobile vibrates 'knew you'd read this, dad x'.

Rats. So who won that round?