Today I've been thinking about the cause of my theory, which is the following:
I think all human beings are becoming more introvert, we've all found something more appealing than human interaction, we're becoming a shadow of our former species, and it's all down to two words - social networking.
Now, how interesting would I be as a blogger, if I wasn't a disgusting hypocrite? Well, staying true to form, I'd like to admit that I have given preference to MSN, Myspace and Facebook over real, actual human interaction many times.
However, it seems that people would prefer to Twitter than talk, and the best way to keep up to date with those closest to us - is to check their Facebook status.
Now this point has probably been argued many times before - but are we loosing our social skills? It doesn't take much to type a message to someone, but face to face conversation...well there's so much to think about, the active listening, the eye contact, the witty responses and good advice...is it just too challenging? We've all seen the delight of being able to talk to people without getting out of bed - so what's the point in making such efforts if we don't really need to?
A few years from now, is it actually that far-fetched to predict that the norm will be to take a laptop everywhere we go - to sit in a business meeting and communicate to workers over instant messaging? Or that we'll go out for lunch with friends and balance our salads on our laptop so we can eat and talk to each other simultaneously? Are social skills like learning to ride a bike? Or are we in danger of possibly loosing the ability to talk face to face?
And where did this obsessive need come from to make sure everyone we know is updated with our daily lives - without the internet - would you still feel the need to tell your boss and your best friend's boyfriend that you're just about to have a shower?
I think that it has a lot to do with comfort - if we're feeling lonely it literally takes seconds to have someone to talk to. Can you even remember days without such luxuries? What did it take to talk to people? Cast your minds back to the time we used to ring people up at night time to talk, or visit friends when we feel the need to socialise; that wasn't so bad was it?
Just don't be surprised if you slowly see Facebook status' changing from 'is going shopping' to 'is walking down the isle, balancing blackberry and bouquet'.
Face to face interaction is scary. I agree that it seems to be more and more common for people to communicate over the internet, and that in turn lowers our threshold of our social comfort zones. However, social networking still allows us to keep in touch with friends on the other side of the world. I don't think it's a case of losing our social skills, we still make friends in the real world, it just seems to be that the next few steps after the initial meeting seem to be made on a computer screen.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of social positives to come out of networking, too. It's so much easier to organise a party of a study session just by clicking "create an event" on Facebook - it's easier than ringing, texting, visiting people to sort it. On a related note, it's also easier to manage massive discussions about certain things. For example, I've set up a few groups for group work at Uni, and its a lot easier to manage preliminary ideas and such when everyone isn't talking at once, and it's actually written down for you, rather than shouted over the top of everyone else.
If anything, I think social networking inspires creativity in us. It's difficult to think on your feet when you're face-to-face with someone, on Facebook etc you have the time to think about something, consider the best way to word it, and apply it as needed.
In conclusion (...apparently this turned into an essay) I agree with you in so far as it is decreasing the time we spend actually phsyically interacting with each other, but I think there are as many, if not more positives which come from it. It's still the individual's responsibility to maintain a face-to-face relationship with someone, and whether social networking has a detrimental effect on that depends on the person in question.
:P
I think that the idea that you can be the personality that you want to be, without the quick, thoughtless shitty remarks you make at stupid comments, or the poorly timed tasteless jokes that you thought were funny at the time is what drives people. As you said, it allows you time to think of a response, and the space to paint yourself as the person you wish you were! It is ultimately a way of make-uping your personality, covering up the blemishes and insecurities we carry, or seeking the attention we crave.
ReplyDeleteAlso...why would you carry fruit down the aisle!!? (joke.)