Real Life Trumps Social Networks
A columnist wrote a fantastic piece on the differences between real-life and social networks. He takes a realistic approach to the station and questions the obsession people have with social networking sites like Facebook, and the new obsession, Twitter.
While this doesn’t have much to do with ‘monitoring for safety’… it certainly should make parents more aware of how obsessed their kids may be with the virtual world. You’ll find that the uses for monitoring software like PC Pandora are numerous and vast…
So, it’s light Friday reading and I am going to do something a little different. Because I agree SO much with this piece, I am going to paste it below, but also add my comments and further discussion throughout the piece.
Enjoy the article, and my thoughts! Have a great, sunny, relaxing weekend!
April 17, 2009
Real life trumps social network interaction
Andrew Wible, Collegian ColumnistIf you want to know what I’m up to tonight, don’t check my Twitter, Facebook or even Gmail status. Sure, I have accounts on three of the sites, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I want the world to know what I’m up to every second of every day.
But more importantly, why does anybody care what I’m up to? The people who should care — my friends and family — already know. Anyone else begging to check my status updates either needs to find something exciting to do in their life or take notice of the restraining order I’ll be filing next week.
I’ve been saying this for years and it’s the main reason I won’t create a personal social networking page.Web sites that alert the world to our every move aren’t going to cause the end of the world, but they may just be the first steps to the end of privacy as we know it.
Already happening.I don’t know what’s worse: feeling the need to announce to the world your every move or actually sitting in front of a computer or check your phone every five minutes for updates to your friends’ or celebrities’ Twitters.
EXACTLY! Twitter is just a manifestation and extra drug to take for our self-obsessed society. Rather than really knowing a person and having a personal relationship with them, we are more obsessed with just knowing what they are doing at the time… and it goes in one eye and out the other…Yes, these Web sites are great tools for news agencies, groups, companies and people to update the world on important happenings in their lives, but we don’t need every last detail. I mean, who really is dying to know that Tom from Ebensburg just blew his nose?
Agreed. But I don’t think these are ‘good tools’ for anyone but the superficial teenager.I don’t know where our society’s infatuation with being 57 places at one time came from, but it’s clear it’s starting to take a toll on everyone. People today are overworked, over-stressed and always on the go, thanks in no small part to ever-encroaching technology and networking sites.
It has yet to happen to me, but I’ve seen it take place in restaurants across State College. A couple is out on what appears to be a date and five or 10 minutes into the conversation, one person is picking up his or her phone to either respond to a tweet, text or update a status.
There is no common courtesy left in society and…This just makes me wonder: Where is that person’s mind at that moment? He or she is obviously not giving his or her date the full attention they deserve. People seem more concerned with living in some cyber world than concentrating on the one he or she is actually living in.
…no respect left for the person you are with at the moment.A recent University of Southern California study claims Twitter and other rapid-fire updated sites can hamper and cause long-term damage to the emotional development of children’s brains.
The brain, especially while in the developmental stages, takes a while to process feelings of social emotions and the constant updates on networking sites can result in an overload. It also can lead to shortened attention spans and lower grades.
An Ohio State University study indicates that students who are Facebook users had GPAs a full letter grade lower than non-users. Yes, there are many other spurious reasons for this relationship, but the fact of the matter is Facebook and Twitter abuse are to some extent hurting society.
I TOTALLY believe that. I think there is a direct correlation to the popularity of these websites and the stupidity of the current young generation. There is no emphasis on harvesting knowledge. Whether it be learning about a real friend, or just learning math… the flightiness of this generation is exacerbated by the rapid-sharing of useless info, thanks to social networks and texting.There’s nothing wrong with keeping a profile and updating it every once in awhile or catching up with old friends. But why every 15 minutes? Why stalk?
Agreed.Have our lives become so mundane that we need to know the intimate details of our favorite celebrities’ every move? Read a book, go for a walk, talk to a living, breathing friend, whatever you do, take some time away from the virtual world.
You know, I always have said that the only interest in celebrities is because they are pushed SO hard on us… do you really honestly think ANYONE really honestly cares about Brangelina? If they weren’t in the tabloids tomorrow – would anyone miss them? But their images sell magazines because we are being told they are important for us to know.Maybe if we just focused on the tasks in front of us and were efficient, there wouldn’t be a need to feel like we have to be everywhere at once.
I agree… and maybe we wouldn’t be such a dumb country!So the next time you’re having a thoughtful conversation with someone or are out on a date, turn the cell phone off. Trust me, it’s not going to kill you.
THANK YOU!What could you possibly miss during that hour that is more important than this person to whom you’ve supposedly pledged your time?
The conversation will be infinitely better, you’ll feel better, and your friend or significant other will feel truly appreciated.
Society evolves, but sometimes it does so at too rapid a pace. By slowing down and appreciating what is in front of us, we can calm down and reduce stress. Somewhere during the past two decades the world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.
Totally. And what good has it done? We aren’t sleeping as much, we aren’t as healthy, we don’t enjoy things as much, and we always want more… it’s a pretty sad way to live. I know “stop and smell the roses” is cliché, but it holds a certain truth to it. There is a certain happiness in life that can be found by slowing down and enjoying the moment…Let’s just make sure we don’t get too involved in this digital world and forget the reality we actually call home. Trust me, someday we’ll all have to have face-to-face conversations and the 140 characters allowed for each tweet just won’t cut it.
Andrew Wible is a senior majoring in journalism and is the Collegian’s Friday columnist.
