Social networking in our lives

“Social networking is a communication tool but does not generate meaningful connections.” Social networking is a valuable form of communication. It makes it possible for people to be able to quickly and conveniently communicate with large amounts of people simultaneously. It does not, however, generate any real emotion. It is immediate, entertaining and allows me to keep in touch with old friends. That aside, I believe social networking contributes to a disappointing and disingenuous social life. Social networking replaces earnest interaction with pleasantries, leaving one yearning for human connection.

             We also have the communication between people and businesses. Since they have paved a new way for interaction between the two, customers can now tell brands exactly what they want. Businesses can then use that information to tailor their products of more appeal. They used to have to spend a ton of cash for this kind of marketing data. Customers used to have to spend hours on phones getting more and more frustrated when they had a problem or complaint.

Non-profits are seeing the benefits of using social media for their awareness campaigns. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others are a cost effective means of spreading the word and getting support. Not to mention socially shared petitions from sites like Causes.org, reaching hundreds of thousands of people.

There is no doubt that there are many reasons to love social media.

But…….

not all consequences of this technology are good ones. Like the way it has allowed us to hide behind screens and limited our social interaction face to face. You get the feeling of being social without having to go out and socialize. In the same vein, it gives you the feeling of being a friend (or having friends) without having to put in any actual work to build the relationship. Just think of how many people you have on your Facebook friends list. How many of them do you see on a semi-regular basis? At all?

                  I think that the effects of social media have been somewhat balanced, to be honest. There are many good things about it, and many bad things. In the end, if you can keep your own life centered in reality and use social networking as a small part of it, you should be just fine.

For those who can’t, it might be time to turn off the computer for a bit and go for a walk.