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Before the Web, Hearts Grew Silent

nytimes.com

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Re: Before the Web, Hearts Grew Silent

#3

Post by joe_the_user »

Hmm,

Book plots, movie plots and real-life drama in many ways revolve around missed connections.

TV shows where everyone has a cell phone now have to use the device of turned-off, missing etc phones.

A world of perfect connections would theoretically have no drama but since connections are never perfect, we would never have that. On the other hand, in the technologically connected world, missed connections become tech failures. But someone, the richness of "a passionate glance in a crowded room" seems much greater than "a pic I saw just before hard drive crashed".

Re: Before the Web, Hearts Grew Silent

#4

Post by danso »

Whenever I watch a movie or TV show more than a decade old, I can't help but think: that would never happen now, they'd be too busy tweeting/facebooking/instagramming it

Like, "Hamsterdam" in "The Wire"...as if a drug free zone could last two minutes before someone uploaded footage to YouTube and Buzzfeed got a hold of it.

Re: Before the Web, Hearts Grew Silent

#6

Post by interstitial »

Road trips with multiple cars were down right dangerous. Cars weren't as reliable back then, and you could never tell if one car had disappeared from a flat or car trouble. Meeting points, pulling over, middle men for pay phone tag. The CB radio did change things -- watch movies from the CB era and you see the rise of information exchange.

Today you can still have a car chase on the I-70 in the middle of Utah and the cell phone won't matter to your plot, no reception, no gas either. Just need to change your setting.

Re: Before the Web, Hearts Grew Silent

#7

Post by e12e »

"Consider the ending of “Doctor Zhivago,” when a chance sighting of Lara on a city street leads Yuri’s heart to rupture as she disappears before he can reach her. Had the Internet been around during the Bolshevik Revolution, Yuri and Lara never would have lost each other. They would have been Facebook “comrades,” boring each other to death with snapshots of food (“Borscht!”) and ironic observations of proletariat struggle."

I've sadly not watched "Doctor Zhivago" -- but I do know that tweeting your every move while being part of a revolution is a great way to be put against the wall and shot before it is over.

I'm also a bit puzzled about the premise of the article -- while distance relationships may have been made more bearable than before, trying to maintain contact across continents is still a dreary proposition. You might walk around historical sites, tweeting images of what you see -- it's still not anywhere near the same as being able to truly share that experience with someone you care deeply for.

Other than that, good on the author for not letting go of his wife-to-be.

Re: Before the Web, Hearts Grew Silent

#9

Post by jere »

danso wrote: post #4

Whenever I watch a movie or TV show more than a decade old, I can't help but think: that would never happen now, they'd be too busy tweeting/facebooking/instagramming it Like, "Hamsterdam" in "The Wire"...as if a drug free zone could last two minutes before someone uploaded footage to YouTube and Buzzfeed got a hold of it.

I always thought Hamsterdam was too farfetched to start with. I really couldn't see that working for more than 5 minutes with all the parties that were there to observe it.
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