randy_byers: (2009-05-10)
randy_byers ([personal profile] randy_byers) wrote2009-07-28 09:09 am
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Ping

LJ posts are a kind of ping. "Anybody out there paying attention?" But whereas ping is trying to determine whether a host/server is out there and reachable -- whether the Other exists and can be accessed -- LJ posts often seem to be a way to determine whether the Self exists. If somebody responds to me, I must be here. This gets to be addictive. If I haven't posted for a while, I begin to feel invisible and immaterial. Likewise if a post gets no response. However, that's only true if I'm regularly on the internet. If I'm away from the internet, well, out of net, out of mind.

I used to have a close friend who I ultimately decided liked to piss people off because it proved that he existed and had an impact on the world. It seemed an unconscious reflex on his part. It wasn't enough to get somebody's attention, he had to provoke an emotional outburst. He was completely impervious to the anger, too. It contained no personal information for him. A bit autistic that way, perhaps. To him what he was doing was just an elaborate form of pinging, although clearly it was a bit of an unconscious power trip too.

Looking at the Wikipedia article on "ping", I'm now wondering what the existential/psychological equivalent of "ping flood" is. Nagging, perhaps.

[identity profile] kalimac.livejournal.com 2009-07-28 04:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Perhaps the extreme of that phenomenon is mass murderers and assassins who do it to become famous, they evidently not caring about the difference between fame and infamy.

Like most Wikipedia articles on technical topics, this one quickly descends into morasses of complete incomprehensibility to the uninitiated.

[identity profile] holyoutlaw.livejournal.com 2009-07-28 05:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Nagging or bickering.

I hadn't thought of LJ as "pings of the Self" before, I think you're right. Or at least, onto something.

[identity profile] surliminal.livejournal.com 2009-07-28 05:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Very good thoughts. I have a current close friend - of sorts, again a rather autistic relationship - who does what you describe, and yes, she does it when, I think, she's decided the conversation has been not paying enough attention to her for too long - it's very strange and you've pegged that way the actual anger created doesn't seem to be the point, nor the actual substance. She did it on Sat in fact,quite suddenly after a perfectly enjoyable evening , and I, who had a lot on my plate at the time, rather radically did not respond but simply walked away and hid in the toilet for a bit. When I came back we resumed pleasantries and later, very unusually, she rang to apoogise for the lapse(though not quite in so many words :-) . I wonder if that's what to do: like dogs, train them by denying attention rather than giving it..
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[identity profile] akirlu.livejournal.com 2009-07-28 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm now wondering what the existential/psychological equivalent of "ping flood" is.

Secretarial work. Hosting a birthday party for a three-year-old. My morning e-mail routine.

[identity profile] kim-huett.livejournal.com 2009-07-29 04:05 am (UTC)(link)
I agree with the concept of LJ posts being a ping but I don't see them in quite the way you do. For me it's about writing on a topic of interest to me and seeing if anybody responds. If nobody does I don't feel any less real but I do feel more out of step with the world. If people do respond I feel less like an island and more like an isthmus (which is perfect because I don't want to be part of the continent).

[identity profile] trinfaneb.livejournal.com 2009-07-30 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
For me the addiction of pings and the simple satisfaction of having written out my thoughts go in cycles.

One of my old computers would make a sonar ping-like sound when I pressed my voice comm push-to-talk key when I was alt+tabbed out to my desktop while playing a video game. My friends would then ask me how my yellow submarine was doing.