Week 2: Response to a response

Brittany commented on my framing questions, responding to if technology is making us more detached and she argued that she feels it allows us to be closer to people.

I agree with so many of the points she made.  But I feel that online networking, social media, all of it, has become a double-edged sword, especially as of late.

What made me really question so strongly was the fact that I hadn’t talked to one of my best friends in awhile because I’ve been so busy. So what did I do? Did I call? Did I text? No, I posted a message on her Facebook wall. And after I did it, I was a little disgusted with myself. I know part of me though ‘I know she’s busy so I don’t want to bother her and she’ll get back to me when you does’ but a part of me was aghast that I couldn’t even send a text, let alone, make time to call her.  Yes we share a certain portion of ourselves online and I will delve further into that aspect of it, but I feel like I contact my friends less by phone or even in person when I was home, and chose to comment on Facebook statuses and pictures instead of just calling the person up and going out and doing something. I feel like the Internet is making me even more lazy.

On the other hand, I love that Facebook allows me to learn about people more in-depth. I love the fact that I can read a profile or look at pictures and see places they’ve been, or what their favorite books and movies are and be able to talk to them about it later. I love that people I might normally be a bit too shy to really talk to or haven’t had the time to get to know better, I can still be Facebook friends with them and quickly get to know at least a little bit about them.

And I do feel that Facebook makes us, in a way, more compassionate. We are concerned with the well-being of people we barely know. People who may not tell us something is upsetting them in person may mention it on Facebook and we are now aware of it. But it also depends on the user and how open they are on these networks.

And the danger as time goes on? We have to censor ourselves to an extent on these websites. Yes, now we have increased privacy settings on a lot of sites, but say some distant acquaintance who you are friends with on Facebook works at a company you are applying to. Say the employer is doing a background check and demands they give them access to your profile or they lose their job (ok, maybe not that bad but you get the picture).

We put ourselves on a lot of these sites, but what version? It feels like a squeaky-clean photoshopped version of only our politically-correct aspects so as not to offend future employer possibilities or parents or relatives or even teachers. I know after we learned in school teachers could see our profiles, I definitely cleaned my up.

What does any of these mean in terms of how we interact with people? I don’t know but I do know I hope the future doesn’t become like the recent Bruce Willis movie “Surrogates” where we never leave our rooms and send out robot copies to face the real world each day (once again, a little exaggerated but who knows what the future really holds?)

Tags: detachment, facebook, social network