"[social media] takes everything subjective and unspoken about human interaction and reduces it to objective, explicit numbers. I’ve never felt more alive."
— Community's Abed Nadir, App Development and Condiments
The ironic thing is that people who use
meetup.com with diverse interests actually have some unspoken things in
common: that they have a computer, use the internet and are willing to try new
things. A decade or two ago that might have only allowed for a select crowd but as programs are designed in more user-friendly ways, that circle
seems to be growing wider and wider. The cultural price of social media and the
effects it will have on this generation raised on it have yet to be
completely explored and we can only wonder where this road leads us. In a world
where communication is primarily via internet, video games and twitter, traditional
skills of getting along with co-workers, members of the opposite sex and other
real life skills are undoubtedly shifting. As I work, communicate with
family, friends and develop relationships over facebook, Skype, and meetup I
often wonder what, if any, is the major downside? One thing we can say for sure
is that the virtual social world is one layer removed and therefore less
extreme than the social construct of the past. It is a sedated, domesticated
and sterilized version of social life. Still, as a means of communication, the
increasing number of social media sites are a substantial improvement over real
life interactions with strangers in some very tangible, fundamental ways:
1. This may seem obvious, but people never get murdered, or any other
physical or sexual abuse via virtual interactions; no one ever was impregnated from virtual interactions. This is probably the most important, if we think about all
the useless violence that has happened over the years that can be avoided if people were
just to sit down and type out their ideas rather than fight in real life. Gang violence, street violence whatever, just wont happen if these
emotions are channeled into some kind of virtual communication
2. People never get diseases over the
internet. While there might be some pretty messed up computer viruses out
there, really the worst computer virus is much better than the slightest cold. While
sitting at a computer all day is definitely not great for our health, people
are never going to get STD's, Malaria, or AIDS through a computer.
3. People aren't physically robbed in
virtual interactions. True, people have lost a lot of paper money, reputations and even lose their
jobs[ii] over stupid stuff they say on the web, but you will never lose family heirlooms, or valued memorabilia over the internet.
4. You can read or watch online
interactions as many times as you need or want to. In real life how often do we
get annoyed having to repeat or being asked to repeat something or have to say
it louder or too loud. In social media people can read, watch or listen to your
posts at their leisure and if they miss something they can review it as many
time as they want without you getting annoyed.
5. There is actually some dialogue taking place, as opposed to TV, movies and newspaper which are more passive consumption. So even
if it’s just people clicking the "like" icon on things they see on
people's facebook page, there is more thought involved than consuming
pre-programmed media through the television.
6. People that are online are literate enough to type and advanced enough to sit quietly for a moment at a computer. Granted some of the most primitive, thoughtless, grammatically incorrect failed resemblance of intelligent commentary is posted across online everyday but at least they're trying right? At least they're sitting still and focusing long enough to type those jumbled letters out, so there's hope.
6. People that are online are literate enough to type and advanced enough to sit quietly for a moment at a computer. Granted some of the most primitive, thoughtless, grammatically incorrect failed resemblance of intelligent commentary is posted across online everyday but at least they're trying right? At least they're sitting still and focusing long enough to type those jumbled letters out, so there's hope.
So while the amount of money and attention
that social media is currently receiving is surely overblown and the social
media bubble will likely one way or another collapse, the
creative boom is fascinating to witness. This new media is potentially an
upgrade over passive media intake like TV and newspaper and is actually better than much of our day to day communication. The reality remains that we can isolate ourselves more as we try to connect exclusively online[iii] yet social media also serves as a filter, gatherer and organizer, purging a lot of the negative side of human interactions...right?
[b]http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkantrowitz/2013/04/23/meetup-ceo-points-to-booming-growth-as-his-company-hits-100-million-rsvps/
[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media#cite_note-93
