How Social is Social Media?

[BelgradeBeauty]

There is the current generation which has grown on up on Social medias, so for them it's the norm. It's a part of their extended personalities, their virtual avatars which are almost naturally integrated with their real life personas.

Then there are the generations who saw the evolution of the internet and social media come about at the time they came of age. When to get information you actually had to read a book or newspaper or hear it from the source's mouth yourself. It wasn't that long ago that you had to go to the library to look up something specific, a task that now Google does for us in miliseconds.

I believe that now intellgience is crafted in a different way. It's not about how much knowledge you have stored away, but in an age of over-stimulation and excess information - but knowing HOW to find knowledge and the answers you need. This is the new form of intelligence. Navigators are the new intelligentsia.

And then beyond knowledge there is communication. What we did on the phone, or face to face mostly happens now through texts, instant messaging and social media posting. I actually have an aversion now to calling someone. I feel like I'd be interupting their privacy and if they didn't respond to my instant message or post then they are busy or not interested. Calling used to be so personal, now ringing up even family members seems obtrusive.

I have a huge family, when I first started travelling I actually wrote them letters! My sister recently gave me back a whole batch I wrote from London on my first solo adventure. It's was so archaic to look at but so nostalgic. Then I looked at my first hotmail account from the 90s and the content of those emails are so laboured. My grammar was perfect, and I never started emails without an opening and a closing - just like a letter. Nowadays, punctuation for most is not a necessity and the art of writing to each other seems lost. Including the art of flirting, but I'll save that for another take. There is sexting to replace that!

Most of my close friends, though we live so far away are connected to me by a tap on my smartphone but do I really feel connected to them? I don't. The types of conversations we once had, we don't seem to have enough time for. You just check someone's 'wall' and you can see everything they have been up to. I can see but I cannot touch, feel or truly understand those experiences. They are just ambiguous snapshots of people whose faces you recognize and love but the level of comfort and familiarity with them is quietly fading away.

Ironically enough these social media 'walls' we post on has created real walls between people. Instead of choosing to meet and talk and share experiences in person - through unique peronal expressions and body language, we think it's enough to post a message or image/video that says it all for you - but does it really? I think it's a cop out. What started out as a trend or fad has now become a hardwired way of communication. I think many people feel less connected and more isolated since social media has so many limitations in comparison to true human interaction. Human beings by nature are social animals, we need to see, hear and touch simultaneously to get the full picture. Social media is a ghost of that. An illusion of closeness and connectivity.

It's more important now than ever to get out, away from machines and devices and 'be' with the people you know and the people you love. How many times since reading this have you checked another device? Or when you're with your kids or best friend or lover, how many times did you steal a second away to check something that really could have waited, and didn't just take a second. How long does it take to get back to the moment you stole away from?

We are missing the moment - we are missing creating 'real' moments. The race to post and share actually takes away from having experiences in real time. Creating snapshots of our lives puts us outside our life. Updating profiles that will never do justice to you is slowly eroding away our social skills, to a point that it sometimes seems almost preferable to sit behind the wall and stare at the world, instead of being in it.

To me, that's not social at all.

[Anonymous]

not social at all. everyone isolates himself in front of a screen, and everyone expects immediate responses. that has spoiled relationships a lot...

[sammy_31]

Hardly social most of the time.

[allmenaredogs]

social media sucks.