Social Networking

It may come as a surprise to you but I’ve actually always been one of the more techy people in my group of friends throughout high school, college, work, university etc. Not sure if this is because;

a) I’ve been influenced by family members of whom most are involved with IT related stuff, with only a handful of people breaking away into different areas or

b) I have a natural curiosity for technology and don’t mind changing my lifestyle to adapt to new stuff. Basically I see it as a help rather than hindrance.

Reading a newspaper article on social networking, a few of my friends stated that they don’t get social networking and to some extent I do understand their point. Why stay bound to your PC when you could be out meeting actual people in real world, face to face… a method which I much prefer to the virtual world. There are even concerns for our health as more and more people turn to the online world on a daily basis for work, communicating and so forth. The reference given below is for one of the papers by Dr Aric Stigman. Dr Stigman suggests that a lack of real social networking can actually have an adverse biological effect on our bodies. The rise of electronic media such as the web, TV etc is not a good thing and it means we spend less and less time actually communicating with real human beings. Please follow the link below to read his paper in full.

Paper – Stigman A. Visual voodoo: the biological impact of watching TV. Biologist. 2007. 54(1)

Human interaction is a fantastic thing and it is what sets us apart from the other mammals – the ability to relay emotions with our speech. It is great to be able to feed off another person’s body language or facial expression when having a conversation as it makes it more enjoyable and you better understand where the conversation is going. It’s nice to be able to actually see a person smile (or frown, whatever you prefer! :P), to hug or nudge them or hear their laughter rather than having it conveyed to you by an emoticon. Also there is usually no room for misinterpretation as often is the case in instant messaging (IM) conversations. Whilst conversing with people, I often find that my mind takes a snapshot of that moment in time – the colours, sounds, smells, my emotions all contribute to the memory. Therefore sometimes I find that I am able to recall face to face conversations better than the ones I have online. But then on the other hand, some social network sites do have their advantages. For me, they allow me to keep in touch with the family and friends that I can't always meet up with due to differences in geography, working times and so forth.

Numerous social networking sites such as Hi5, Bebo, My Space etc have been introduced over the years; some have been and gone whilst others have stuck around. As each of the new social networks has been launched, I’ve found myself joining up only to find that the initial attraction wears off. As the number of users increases, the quality of the service on some sites decreases or the service then starts charging for its’ services. Fair enough if the site is good then I don’t mind paying, however more often that not, it is usually not worth it. A newer more attractive site pops up over time and you find yourself joining that one instead. My preferred social networking site… after testing out numerous others is Facebook. First introduced in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook celebrated its’ 5th birthday today and I can’t believe it’s been around that long. I like the fact that this site allows me to connect with my friends old and new via the usual messaging and sharing of pictures. But also the use of various applications helps to pass time when I’m bored or when swamped with work and need a bit of break. Therefore I recently went through a culling program deactivating/deleting my profiles and information off the numerous sites that I had joined over time. And it felt good :) However there are some sites that I just can’t bear to remove as I may need them in the future. I mean I wonder how long Facebook will be around for. What if Facebook eventually ends up following the same fate as its’ predecessors? I need to have a back up plan, lol.