Some thoughts on social networking sites
SPEAK, the organization that I co-founded with two of my close friends held a discussion about Facebook today. It went really went and we had a decent group that openly discussed the subject. When thinking about social networking sites, such as Myspace and Facebook, there seem to be so many caveats as to whether it is a good thing or bad thing for American society in particular.
Sometimes I think that it is just tossing more fuel on an already blazing fire of distraction; I say this because I see it all around me, being on a college campus. In our discussion people said that they have seen other students in their lecture halls looking at Facebook on their laptops during a lecture. I have also heard friends say that when they study together, they must remind each other not to get distracted and go to Facebook. I have to even admit that I am not immune to this either and I have found myself on it while doing homework (although I catch myself doing this and get right back on track most of the time). It is quite disturbing and strange.
But then other times I think that Facebook is really a blessing of sorts because it can connect people in so many different ways. People can connect with others from all around the world. You can also be self selecting and communicate with those people that you only want to really talk to. Of course there are downsides to these elements too.
But either way, I find the whole social networking really interesting. I can not tell whether I actually like it and think it has/is benefiting me by getting my writing out to my friends/staying acquainted with old friends, or whether I am leading myself down a path of technological and artificial dependency.
I raised a point in our discussion that I am still mulling over in my mind. Many people argue that there is no real communication going on with these social networking sites; it is filled with pokes, jabs and wall posts that say hey, gotcha and boo. Impersonal mass messages can be sent out to all (592) of your closest friends inviting people to celebrate Boxing Day in style with them at a bar down the street (just an example, this probably hasn’t happened yet, as far as I know). We also discussed how Facebook even notifies you when one of your “friends” has birthday so you can send them a poke, message or post Happy B-Day on their wall.
But I have been really wondering that perhaps the type of communication that is going on with these social networking sites is just a type of communication that we have never really experienced before. I mean sure, you could say that it has/is making people dumber (and I often have said this. The bastardization of our language through text speak and writing in all lower case letters really bothers me sometimes, as an English major). You could even say that these sights really validate and perpetuate small talk instead of real in-depth communication where we discuss issues of importance. But, maybe these types of conversations are being had either way. Maybe through the rise in technological dependency it is becoming increasingly harder to have meaningful discourse on a given subject. I am not sure where I exactly fall on this whole thing though. It’s a can of worms that I will probably continue to drag my fingers through.
Tags: Boxing Day, Facebook, Myspace, SPEAK
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April 13, 2008 at 2:51 am
You write: “Maybe through the rise in technological dependency it is becoming increasingly harder to have meaningful discourse on a given subject.”
Indeed, I think there’s something to this. Between the rapidly growing amount of information out there and the growing skepticism about the “big questions,” perhaps the culture has talked itself out. It’s a little depressing to think that culturally we’ve hit a dead end, but there are days it certainly seems that way.