The anti-social impact of social media
WBA Consulting
Posts: 2,934
In a recent thread by Ken welcoming a new 14 year old Parallax enthusiast, he mentioned his excellent attitude towards social media's distractions when he has much more important things to deal with like "AP Geometry and academics even though students around him are driven by SnapChat, Instagram, etc."
As the negative impact of social media is very dis-heartening to me and especially how it severely affects our youth, I was enlightened by this recent video entitled "Look Up" that has gone absolutely viral: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY
Seriously.... when was the last time you went through a dinner or some other routine event without paying as much attention to your phone as those around you? With all the crazy cool technology out there it is really hard to keep focused on the truly important things. (ya' know, those DNA based things)
As the negative impact of social media is very dis-heartening to me and especially how it severely affects our youth, I was enlightened by this recent video entitled "Look Up" that has gone absolutely viral: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY
Seriously.... when was the last time you went through a dinner or some other routine event without paying as much attention to your phone as those around you? With all the crazy cool technology out there it is really hard to keep focused on the truly important things. (ya' know, those DNA based things)
Comments
http://www.wired.com/2013/12/ap_thompson-2/
But overall I don't really mind if people use their phones more. It certainly keeps me employed.
Edit: I just discovered that the book that's mentioned in the link (It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens) is free to download, legal and from the author: http://www.danah.org/books/ItsComplicated.pdf Looks like an interesting read.
IMHO, there is nothing wrong with staying in touch through social media. Of course there are pros and cons, some people let it run their lives, but that doesn't always mean social media is bad, it just means those people have a problem. Since everyone seems to have a problem with something, there wouldn't be anywhere to draw a line, and everything in life would be bad. I think it's great that some youngsters don't fall into that realm of "texters". It is alarming to me the amount of texting. What started out as Short Messaging Service turned into a monster!
If I'm hanging out with someone and they're staring at their phone playing games or posting on facebook I'll tell them to stop. It bothers me that much. I cannot be around anyone who looks at their phone for more than a few seconds per hour, unless they're using it for something productive.
Let's talk about adults for a minute, I encounter more adults with online/social media issues than young adults. I manage a lot of networks and do lots of gateway security. I see tons of flagged and blocked events from people of all walks of life hammering away on all kinds of stuff that is a 100% pure waste of time put out there by people making money from it all.
That's the part that kills me is people are getting rich off all the nonsense. I can't make money off nonsense, I've never tried, it's just not me. Maybe it has to do with morals, and not even the social networking aspect.
Erlend
I feel blessed to be able to reach out to friends in the USA without any huge effort, huge cost, or big delay in communication.
Some things about the internet are certainly disturbing, but it is not all bad. I do have to admit that the iPad have people actually reading a lot more and chatting less at the local Starbucks.
You could have some good fun when the horn in your truck, made the same sound as the horn in your bosses truck..:)
-Tommy
Maybe superficial-social. I think it's just not productive, too, that's all. When we're old and looking back, we'll all want to have lived full productive lives.
Ken Gracey
Our natural tendency is to construct a comfort zone around us. It's a wall of personal safety. Having to go out and actually meet with people face-to-face breaks down that negative reaction for the better. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter can (doesn't have to) make it easy to keep those walls up, while giving the illusion of social activity and peer acceptance.
Texting on the phone all day long is something else, an addiction indirectly related to the negative side effects of social media.
glove compartment for emergencies and she says "I'm just saying". They both do most of their communication by texting. I told her I can't type fast enough to remember what I was going to say.
I have a pay-as-you-go phone and rarely even turn it on. I have it basically for emergencies and have never sent a text message and don't plan to.
Instead of freeing people to communicate almost anywhere, I consider it more of a being a slave to a device.
Just my opinion...
It does appear that my statements about it affecting our youth implied that I felt it was only an issue for young people. That is not true. However, us older folks at least grew up with face to face communication as a daily utilized skill. I meant to imply that social media can train our youth into thinking that actual face time is unnecessary or unrewarding.
I also definitely agree with those that stated that social media in itself isn't bad (it does make it easier to stay in touch with distant and busy relatives/friends), but for those who use it as a replacement to actual social interaction, it is detrimental to one's social skill character traits. I have a friend who was conducting an interview with a 19 year old for a job and his phone went off for a text.... he read it and replied as if it was perfectly acceptable behavior during an interview. (to his dismay, she ended the interview right there)
Perfect example - some people just don't grasp how inappropriate that is...
On the other, they can make friends around the world, do projects, get jobs, change the world.
To me, it all comes down to who the mentors and role models are, and that's always been true. New tools, same overall dynamics.
If I were parenting, I'd exclude the TV completely from my home for the sake of having a family experience. I guess it is a reaction to being brought up on TV dinners served on TV trays while my parents went out to dinner and Saturdays that started with cartoons at 6am that were watched until noon.
Gaming on computers is another red flag for me. But they too got started as plug-ins to the TV.
By the far, the biggest problem for modern youth is the simple fact that 95% of all advertising research is targeted at youth.
Why so? They have yet to develop an understanding that money wasted has to be replaced with work effort. Also, they can make their parents buy their choices for the sake of family tranquilty (that's why McDonalds has toys and playrooms.. the kids will elect McDs whenever they are asked where to go. Of course, the price is right and the bathrooms are clean to ease the pain.)
But if you really want anti-social, try Klamath Falls, Oregon. Everyone still carries a gun and escorts their wife or girl friend in public for safety. Not sure exactly what that is about... but there are pockets of rural anti-social communities around the USA. Happy Camp, California is another one... gold-miners and pot growers. And Detroit had no need of social networking to become anti-social.
Just thought I'd throw my two-cents out there
Face to face communication can be a really negative thing at times. There is a lot of manipulation / subcontext / nonverbal (threatening cues) that happen during face-to-face contact. I wouldn't exactly fault an entire generation for choosing a way out of this power structure. Especially from the people that want to use their face-to-face "skill".
As for answering a text right then and there at an interview... Make up your mind, companies say they want self-motivated, proactive, people-person, multitaskers... and such a perfect specimen was dismissed. There was a person that can pause a conversation for a few seconds to give someone else an immediate reply and start right back up again... isn't that a positive thing? Don't know about you but every customer lately I've had to deal with has been like "I want an answer or a resolution to my problem NOW within this phone call".
Although personally I am very reclusive and I don't exactly like having a bunch of conversational balls in the air. It's just that I've never seen in a job listing: "Must be self-reliant and able to deeply focus on the task at hand. Candidate minimizes verbal/written communication to only what is necessary to perform the duties of the job. Excellent single-tasking see-it-to-completion skills required. Must be able to sit still during verbal tirades and accept unwarranted or misdirected blame from superiors."
And oh-great, family-time where everyone sits in deafening silence. Play 20 questions where Dad complains about work and grills you on the intricacies of whatever scuffle you mention happened during the day, interjecting his opinions on why whatever decision was wrong and how he would've done it back then and other such unwanted judgements.
https://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/facebook-study-173923084.html
From what I've seen, the biggest problem with kids is not so much social media as it is video game addiction. It's rampant among the younger generation. They simply do not do anything else. And all this electronic stuff, robot stuff, rocket building stuff is simply no match for Halo Whatever, and Grand Theft ADHD, and shooting somebody in the face twenty times a minute. Real life can't move fast enough for these kids. They're bored to death unless they are blowing up tanks on their Xbox. To make matters worse, school systems have been shutting down some activities like Destination Imagination and STEM-related activities because of the chance kids might use tools and hurt themselves.
I can't even imagine what sort of society this is going to lead to. I tell my kids to learn to build robots because they are going to need them. Nobody in the future will know how to do anything, and the people that haven't had their brains turn to mush by video games will need a robot army to protect them from all the Xombies out there who will want to eat their brains.
Xombies!?
For instance, beer drinking and bar going may indeed be addictive and social.. at least until the later stages of alcoholism.
Gambiling is certainly social.
Smoking tobacco seemed very social to me. One always met new people and chatted taking a smoking break.
Computer games can be either social or anti-social.. dependent on the kind you play.
TV tends to having people struggling over program choice, and even a young child will fight and throw tantrums for the remote control.
++++++++++
Pagers, cellular phones, and iPads may just be rude, rahter mysogynistic.
Advertising certainly desires to exploit compulsive and addictive behaviors.. to the point that companies actually target the weaknesses of people. These days, I can't seem to visit a Subway Sandwch, a McDonalds, or a Starbucks without having the transaction end on the rather annoying note of the cashier trying to add-on or upsize my order. I have to watch my weight and stay away from sugar, but those are the items that are the cheapest or most profitable add-ons.
Even pubs and bars know to increase the musics loudness between 9:30 and 10:00 to increase revenue. Everybody has settled in with friends and the loudness kills leisurely conversation and promotes drinking more to offset the unpleasant high decibel music.
Sad to say, but it all goes way back. At least as far as Pavlov demonstrating that a dog can be manipulated with food to the point that it could be trained to looked for a meal under an enemy tank, and then be blown up with the tank for being faithful to its appetites.
It is not so much that 'social media' is anti-social as it is that the media is funded by advertisers that desire to use it to find better ways and means to exploit individual weaknesses AND herd behavior. In other words, I completely distrust the healthiness of a 'consumer economy' or a 'leisure economy'. Healthy economics would distribute goods and services that progress toward a healthier, saner society. We are not anywhere near do that yet. Maybe in a century or two.
Sadly, Facebook illustrates the reality of our times ... the people who will end up having most influence over our future social fabric are the ones that have least involvement in our present social fabric.