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June 19, 2006
Illusory communications
Barry Sonnenfield, director of Get Shorty, RV, and the two Men in Black films, also writes about personal technology for Esquire magazine. He had some fascinating things to say about movies in an interview with Walter Mossberg the Wall Street Journal's D All Things Digital conference. But what particularly interested Bleeding Edge were the comments he made that might challenge your views about family intimacy and the digital world.
MOSSBERG: You talked about the Internet being isolating, but the Internet is also used as a social network. You don't think the Internet can have communities and can be a community to talk about, "Hey we saw 'RV,' and this is what we think of it"?
SONNENFELD: It's a different social organism, but I'm not sure it's as good a social organism. I was talking to a buddy of mine who works at Sony, and we were both talking about how when we were growing up, we didn't see our fathers that often. They were both salesmen, they came home after dinner; they worked half-days on Saturdays. But we both felt incredibly close to our fathers. I saw my father, not that often, but we were very close, because the time we spent together, we took the D train to 145th and up to Yankee Stadium, we saw hundreds of baseball games together. But my point is we felt very close to our fathers and didn't see them that much.
I am home with Chloe all the time. When I'm not directing, I take her to school, I pick her up from school, I hang out with her. You know, I'm there for weeks and months at a time.
Yet, Chloe -- and my buddy Doug's kids -- feel that they don't feel as close to us because when we are in the room with them...I've got a cellphone, a BlackBerry, a computer. Ten years ago, I remember playing Barbie -- Chloe was like four at the time, and she was very demanding and wouldn't let me use certain voices for Ken. The phone rings -- I'm playing -- and I go to answer the phone, and Chloe's four and she says, in a secretarial voice, "Is Barry available for David O'Connor," who is my film agent. And I thought, oh my God, my four-year-old daughter already knows the name of my film agent....
That's what worries me about the Internet. I don't think that interconnectivity of the world through electronics is necessarily bringing us closer together, as a society or a world or as family. In a sort of abstract way it does. In a soulful sort of, you know, karmic way, it's the opposite, and that's what scares me.
Posted by cw at June 19, 2006 11:13 PM
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Comments
The problem, of course, being that he forgets that he doesn't have to answer the phone or that he can say "I'm sorry, I'm busy right now. Can I call you back in..."
The problem is that he has brought his work home to such an extent. But it his problem. Not the internets. I currently live 24 hours (and over $1500) travel from my parents/brother/friends/family etc. Currently 9 hours difference by timezone. To be able to send a friend an email. To skype my parents. To read the newspapers on-line. To keep in touch with home from half the world away is great.
The problem is that people get sucked in by the premise of being always connected and so always at work, rather than using it as an opportunity to keep in touch with what is really important to us.
Posted by: Alex at June 20, 2006 08:06 PM