Welcome Windows and PC Afficionados - I know you're used to seeing articles here that talk about your PC, what's wrong with it, what's right with it, what you can do to upgrade it, etc. However, today I wanted to explore something that hits a little closer to home - social networking, and what it's doing to our interactions as human beings.
Earlier today, the good people at the BBC published an interesting story about how families are becoming increasingly tied to their high tech gadgetry and how those gadgets are helping them to better their familial interactions. 53% of people surveyed indicated that cell phones had made their interactions with family members better. Of course, cell phones are not the issue here, but they may as well be - most teens are now hooked on their cell phones much more than they were even five years ago, and the same is true for social networking.
Five years ago, people may have curiously wondered what a "Myspace" was, or what a "Facebook" could be - such is not the case today. CNN even now has a program where they take user feedback from Facebook, Twitter, etc. The fact is, social networking is just the beginning of a Web 2.0 explosion, one which will expand to other sectors of the web eventually. So, the technology obviously stands up to scrutiny - after all, friends of all sorts, and extended family can communicate with you through these interfaces - no one can argue that exchanging casual comments with friends and family is enjoyable.
However, Facebook and Myspace and most social networking sites are creating situations where face-to-face chatter is no longer necessary. This is something that started with text messaging - and even I have to admit, it's more convenient to send a simple text message to a friend asking them a quick question than to create a pretense for a phone call. However, there is a point where sending messages is not enough - I've seen friends breaking up with their girlfriends (or boyfriends) through Facebook, I've seen people sharing information that is just too personal, and I've seen friends who post compromising pictures.
What most people seem to forget is that without some "settings changes", anybody can access your page - and by anybody, I mean the degenerates of society as well as interviewers for jobs, internships, and the like. As the social networking scene expands, you can expect more and more people looking for an opinion of you to look on sites like Facebook first. They do this because they know you feel at-home in your little corner of cyberspace - which is why I am always warning people to be cautious of what they post - because if you go on the website right now, you can find the very first posts you ever wrote - going back 2 years or more.
So what are the implications of all this? Where is social networking steering us towards? Companies are relying more and more on social networking to tell them about the character of a person before they even pick up the phone to talk to them. Romantic interests are being judged based on their posted pictures, as well as their personal information (that is self-submitted). You can ignore people easier than ever - two clicks of a mouse and you no longer have to believe that annoying person exists anymore.
