My nephew, Shaun, has just invited me “to connect on his LinkedIn site.” I wondered why he would want his aged uncle on his spot. As a teaser, the underwriter hinted that such a connection might create opportunities for the future.

Under the guise of communication, says MIT psychologist Sherry Turkel, writing in the NY Times, we have “sacrificed conversation for mere connection,” and with a lot of people. Furthermore, such silent connections enable us to change what we do — more importantly, who we are, who we want to be. And to be in touch while being somewhere else. One writer has characterized social media as narcissistic recreation — “a place where people prowl when they’re lonely and restless and unrecognized.”

To be sure there is an abundance of others who primarily want to be heard, to be spotted, and eagerly check their hit counts, but I suspect more is happening in the long haul.

The self-censorship most of us impose on our thoughts and actions limits who and what we can be in our face-to-face connections — even with those whom we are in closest contact — to the extent they evade our consciousness and come forth, for example, in our dreams. The intimate anonymity of social media could allow us the candor to knowingly abandon these inhibitions and try out other possibilities — customizing our own public opinion polls.

The appeal & judicial development of social media may also indicate more profound changes in the multiplicity of our consciousnesses; we no longer need be bound by a single one.

So my nephew’s invitation to connect might lead to an opportunity to glimpse what Carl Jung forecast, the unconscious itself may be in a stage of makeover.

Cross posted from Dennie's Blog