Some have suggested that technology can save us...

I work in student communications and learning skills, which at first blush might sound like two very divergent fields, but much of the work I do seems to come together in surprising ways. For the last year or so, I have been trying to figure out "Web 2.0" all the while playing with it both as a hobby, and at work. A year ago, I saw the web as pretty much an informational medium, a place that someone can find out just about anything at any time of day. Even though I prized both my e-mail and Facebook accounts, it hadn't occurred to me that the internet had become a social place.

Mason and Rennie argue that "websites are moving away from isolated information silos to sources of organized content with far more linking of information within the site." And as Wellman and Hogan point out, the internet has become part of a "media multiplexity":

Rather than only connecting online, in-person or by telephone, many relationships are complex dances of serendipitous face-to-face encounters, scheduled meetings, telephone chats, email exchanges with one person or several others, and broader online discussions among those sharing interests. Extroverts are especially likely to embrace the ways in which the Internet gives them an extra and efficient means of community. However, introverts can feel overloaded and alienated.

I hear that. As someone who leans toward introversion, I can't keep up with the constant rolling of updates from my friends (most of whom I wouldn't actually consider real-life friends) on Facebook. And more than once I've had spirited e-mail exchanges with people that have gone on for days, but even though we might often see each other during that time, the e-mails don't even get mentioned. A complex dance indeed.

The web, then, has become a meeting place, and though one might think that people would be more likely to allow themselves to be different online, my experience has been that highly social people are just as social online, and quiet people don't make any more noise on the web than they do in face-to-face interactions. But it does allow those who are less outgoing to participate - quietly - by seeing what's going on.

In my work, I often think about those we serve, and how we can better serve them. But I'm more interested in how to reach the ones we aren't serving, the ones who won't show up for help with their studies, won't go to a workshop, but will seek help from a website at two in the morning. While we can offer web pages with tips, what the new technologies offer is a chance to have a conversation.

I've begun to discover this with a new student blog I manage called UpbeaT. While I still have a lot to learn about blogging, this exchange of comments showed me how blogging goes beyond simple sharing of information into conversation. I think the potential for true interactivity with students at U of T remains largely untapped. I also have my doubts about the concerns I hear that using web technology will alienate students and keep them from wanting personal contact. In a media multiplexity, our online presence can even act as a front door, a safe way for students to enter, especially those who might not feel ready to make their first entry through a physical doorway. Technology isn't the only answer - it won't save us - but university can be an alienating place anyway, and those of us who work in student life need to find as many ways to help them connect as we can: