The human side of the internet?

Social media is becoming an ever present topic in our day to day lives. People are spending more time on social media platforms, using it for work purposes, talking about it and reading about it. Although there are still a few ‘cave men’ out there who think Twitter is the omnipresent chirpy annoyance from one of our feathered friends! Back in the real world more and more of us our living our lives through the net, predictably this has led to a bombardment of opinions based around the positive or negative effects all this action on the net is having on our lives.

Adam Gopnik lately discussed within his article “How the internet gets inside us” in the New Yorker, that through our increased use of the net we are losing a sense of proportion. In Stylist magazine Alix Walker recently argued in her piece “Tweet freedom” the internet has “made us slaves to its power. And completely unable to live in the now.” I do agree to a certain extent that an obsession with living through the net has made us forget how to just stop and see life as it is. Instead of tweeting about an amazing sun set perhaps we might appreciate it more by merely...appreciating it!  But then again isn’t that what social media is for, to share our life experiences? 

In “How Social Media is Having a Positive Impact on our Culture” on Mashable.com Josh Rose argues “The internet doesn’t get inside us, it shows what’s inside us...The machine does not control us. It is a tool.” I agree with Rose that we use the internet as a tool. We use it as a tool to get closer to people and ultimately to share life’s experiences regardless of how banal they may seem to the Twitter critics out there. I do appreciate that not everyone gets why someone might be interested in Joe blogs tweeting about just having the best cup of tea they have ever had but that’s just it, you don’t have to be interested or find it interesting, what we should marvel at is not the cup of tea but the entity that is social media and its ability to connect us and bring us together regardless of how tenuous or dull these links might be. 

The arguments for or against social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook are all highly motivating and worth taking note of, but I think what we need to remember is, that even though we are increasingly sending out messages electronically, the thoughts behind them are inextricably and essentially human!

Victoria

Comments

[Geoffrey Talbot]

Great article... it' all about relationship friend! You are right.People get frightened off by technology but is it really the technology that is scaring them?

Thanks again

Geoff Talbot
sevensentences.com