Having friends and family all over the world, Facebook has given me the opportunity to keep in touch and share pictures with people I possibly before Facebook would not have seen again. On a more local basis, though Facebook has me in touch friends that live here in the Salt Lake area, I have found myself becoming more lazy in actually going to see them and talk to them. A simple message, comment on their status or picture, or even a little poke(though I thoroughly think they're ridiculous) and I feel as if I have connected with that person, prompting me to not have to truly go face to face with this individual, or at least give them a call. Even the use of chat on Facebook is not true communication. Repeatedly I have talked with people more on chat then I have in person. I have come to see how this affecting my social ability to interact and communicate with people that are within my own community. Isn't Facebook supposed to help people cultivate and maintain communication and interaction amongst it's users?
Like Michael Bugeja addresses in the reading from last week, people are moving away from developing and sustaining lasting relationships and filling it with new digital devices which we feel will help us avoid loneliness. Bugeja goes on to say, "Because we lack practice interacting with others face-to-face, or act on impulse using technology, we cannot always foresee how people might respond to our thoughts, words, and deeds." While users believe they are communicating more with people, they really are communicating less and especially at a lower level of communication. With people within communities not communicating amongst each other, a separation occurs causing loss and greatly affecting the outcome of the area. Though through the use of Facebook in creating an event or letting a mass group of people know about a city planning meeting, etc, not everyone has access to the Internet nor do they all have Facebook, causing a divide amongst community members and further widening the gap. The only answer as Bugeja says it is, "face-to-face interaction good, other kinds bad."
Facebook comes with its good and its bad. Determining how much use is too much is the hard part to figure out. So, if the old fashioned method of face to face communication is best, maybe we should bring back the typewriter too?
I find myself agreeing with your questions on how much time online is too much time. I think a good distinction to make is whether you're using it only during time that would have otherwise been wasted, or if you're actually substituting it for face to face social interaction. I think this is a very fine line that's very difficult to distinguish, especially as time goes and, and it also seems to be what Bugeja fears. In my opinion, using social networking sites in moderation and in no way a substitute for face to face socialization has little to no negative results. Once social network time begins to replace that face to face interaction is when I think problems begin to arise. Would you say your use of facebook overlaps/replaces some of your face to face social interaction time? You do seem to indicate that it does, do you think there's a reason for this? Would those friends you're spending less and less time with actually be your friends if facebook weren't around? Or would *too much* face to face socialization have separated you from them?
ReplyDeleteI guess what I'm asking is, is there a reason (not counting the ease of facebook) that you're socializing with some of these people less? If not then I think I'd agree with Bugeja that it's a bad thing, but if there are underlying reasons that would exist without facebook, then I don't think it's a big deal.
Although I mainly disagree with Bugeja out of principle, I find myself agreeing with him in practice. In my early college years I'd spend hours on social networks and social games every day. As my college career has progressed, my time on social networking sites has dropped dramatically (down to ~30 minutes per month unless I'm organizing something between out of state friends) and my time on social games has decreased to 0. Face to face interaction has slowly began replacing that online socialization time, and I have to admit, my life has been great. This may be due to many other factors, but I do enjoy the face to face interaction significantly more than online.
I agree with the fact that facebook is replacing face-to-face interaction. My professor for human computer interaction went over a study about face-to-face interaction. The study involved cars instead of social networking sites like facebook but the message is the same. The study said that the reason people have so much road rage is because in high way etiquette and encounters you can't see the persons face. When you see the persons face your interactions and whole involvement is changed and nothing can truely replace that.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your comments, to an extent. I also find it sufficient to go onto Facebook, check out the homepage and feel pretty confident knowing that I am up to date on what is taking place in the lives of my "friends". On that subject, I have found it interesting in general that many of my Facebook "friends" were not necessarily my friends face to face from high school etc. So what's the purpose of being friends on Facebook? I wouldn't say it truly adds to my social capital if I don't truly consider them a friend. However, after doing some reading on my text messaging presentation there was a study conducted on text based communication on the Internet. This study found that "the more communication that occurred within the relationship, the more intimate the relationship was perceived to be.” This would lead me to believe that regardless if you're talking back and forth (IMing) or just posting a comment on a friend's wall that you are directly enhancing that relationship you have between you and the other individual involved. I would think this matter is a personal decision. What works for one person may not work for another.
ReplyDeleteThis is basically what my blog tackles--does it help or hurt a society that is an ever-evolving fish in a barrel?
ReplyDeleteIt comes down to social capital, as Mackenzie mentions above.
If you want it to consume your life, it will. If you want it to be an "upgrade" into your social life, you will look upon it as exactly that. People who sport so a exorbitant amount of Facebook friends usually have some sort of reasoning behind their large amount of social networking pals.
But you have to look at it like this, some people choose to be friends with only close friends and those they talk to on a reasonable basis, compared to a slew of people who just add random people that they had met once like five years ago and therefore, the social capital is expanded upon thanks to comments on Walls, photo comments and the Facebook chat that is evolving into the newer, easier version of text messaging.
I would say it's both an upgrade and a downfall, but it's just what you take from it and if you want to jump off that bridge when you come to it.