So today I decided to take a little stroll into the past and visit my neglected Myspace page. I literally have not updated anything on it for a year, other than my status which still says something about it being negative 20 degrees with wind chill in Iowa...It is currently June and I am home in California. That should give you an idea of how much I do not use Myspace anymore. It is incredible how Facebook has completely taken over. Two years ago I was one of those people that swore by Myspace and said Facebook would never live up to its standards. But here I am two years later dissing my beloved Myspace. My little journey to my Myspace, though, sparked a thought in my head...
In some ways, I wish this social-networking world did not even exist. It has taken over a big part of my life, as much as I hate to admit it. I am not far off from being a certified "Facebook Stalker". I could make it a career. Anyways, because I am home from college for the summer, I feel a need to be on FB all the time because I can stay connected to my friends all over the US (not to mention, Canada...but who really needs to mention Canada anyways? :P JK I love you crazy Canadians!). Being slightly bored and in Subway (my former place of employment) withdrawal might have something to do with my time spent on Facebook as well.
Really, it's pathetic. Spending hours a day staring at a computer screen to see what my friends are up to or to write a little comment on someone's "wall"...I mean, why? It really shouldn't even be called "social-networking". It gives the word "social" a new definition and puts it in a false light! The Webster dictionary definition of Social is, "of or relating to human society, the interaction of the individual and the group, or the welfare of human beings as members of society". There you go, copy and pasted right from Webster's online dictionary, the supreme source for everything (not really). Though this definition could have some political implications in it, it still applies to living with other people in society and interacting with humans. Because of social networks, the definitions of "interaction" and "society" are being re-defined. Facebook in itself is like its own little world or society. In some cases, it has replaced the true social lives that people have. Communication is changing and communication skills are taking a toll for the worse (I could write a book on this topic, so we'll save it for another time).
As human beings, we are given the abilities to communicate using our voices, facial expressions and hand motions in order to enhance our social experience and cause it to be more effective. Though talking on Facebook is definitely a form of communication, it is being substituted as the ONLY form of communication that some people use -- same thing goes for texting.
So, what is the moral of the story here? Stop using facebook? Absolutely not, because then I would be a complete hypocrite seeing as how I checked it twice in the course of writing this "post". My point is simply to raise awareness of something that you probably already know, or should know. If we continue to use these social networks as the primary source for our social lives and communication, our ability to talk to people in day-to-day life and interact in social situations will slowly decrease to the point where even a mere conversation will frighten us. If our current generation continues in this, just imagine how the coming generations will be. Social-networks are only about five years in the making and see how much they have already changed the way people communicate with one another. Who knows what it will look like in the next 10 years even.
No comments:
Post a Comment