An interesting and well-written
article on social networking; well worth the 30 minute reading time. There is a lot of food-for-thought here, with an eye toward what kind of a culture are we creating via Facebook, Myspace, etc.
Because friendship depends on mutual revelations that are concealed from the rest of the world, it can only flourish within the boundaries of privacy; the idea of public friendship is an oxymoron.
There is something Orwellian about the management-speak on social networking sites: “Change My Top Friends,” “View All of My Friends” and, for those times when our inner Stalins sense the need for a virtual purge, “Edit Friends.” With a few mouse clicks one can elevate or downgrade (or entirely eliminate) a relationship.
“There is a sense of, ‘if I’m not online or constantly texting or posting, then I’m missing something,’” he said of his students. “This is where I find the generational impact the greatest—not the use of the technology, but the overuse of the technology.”
3 comments:
I read this...interesting...
"This is where I find the generational impact the greatest—not the use of the technology, but the overuse of the technology.”
The only problem I have with this, is that I feel that you could rewind this back to the day and people were making the same arguments about email vs snail mail. The "traditionalists" harped about the loss of holding a physical letter, of knowing the time it took to craft the letter, etc. Its just a generational thing, and we use the tools, and find ways to express ourselves in our own environments. While some who were not raised on this system might find it awkward and unsettleing, we still have ways of having real friendships and determining who's the real friend and who's not. Its just a different context for the same old social interactions.
MJB - I understand what you are saying, I guess. You can't roll back technology, nor can you really stand in its way. As new generations are raised using technology that was not available to the other gens, well, its only natural that the other gens would be critical of the young pups.
However, I would simply caution you that not all change is for the better, and not all new technology will automatically yield equivalent, or even adequate results compared to what it replaces. Certainly email has brought benefits to the work place, but I would argue that the changes it has wrought have also been damaging, not only to the art of effective communication, but also to the awareness of the impact/responsibility that issuing a letter has on the recipient. Not to mention spelling and punctuation. ;)
Anyway, my point is that you need to be careful not to simply chalk things up to generational differences or the "harping of traditionalists". The harping may be accurate, albeit inconvenient. Maybe long hair and rock 'n roll were actually subversive to the culture.
I would also hasten to add that you experienced many formative years sans social networking. EJB less so, and AEB, when she reaches adulthood, even less. I'm not so confident that social networking will not have ill effects on these future gens. Therefore, the adults in the room must step up and be careful to set limits and create structure when possible.
Its hard, sometimes, to be the responsible adult. No, you cannot go to see Batman with that beautiful girl. Get over it - move on! ;)
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