Yes to social media, No to face-to-face interactions.
In a recent study, it has been found that information and communication technologies do provide numerous opportunities for individuals to have social interactions. But do you know what the negative side of all of this is? More and more people are being isolated in their own private space thus, in their home and mostly in their own room! (Hampton, 2007).
Neighbourhood in the Network Society
Once, a long time ago, I was sitting down and I was listening to someone speaking. He shared this thought that I never got out of my mind; “Social Media has brought us closer to those afar, and farther away to those near”. By time, I realised that no words could ever explain this situation better.
The network society surely encourages communication across distances, be it either a shorter or a longer one. As soon as we obtained greater familiarity with the Internet and various social media platforms, the size of local social networks experienced a drastic increase. New media and technologies made interactions transcend any spatial or temporal boundaries and with the introduction of the Internet, the burden of distance was eliminated completely. Ties became rare across the street and more accessible across distances (Hampton, 2007). Dystopians fear that the ties that are developing over the network are inauthentic and less meaningful (Wellman & Hampton, 1999, p. 651).
The act of talking via emails, telephone calls and social media, even in work environments, is replacing the meet-in-person conversations. On the other hand, luckily enough social media can work to reverse the lack of accessibility within neighbourhoods to instead promote social interaction (Hampton, 2007).
Rising Implications on the Future of Humanity
Unfortunately, living in this globalised network society is triggering loneliness. It is also true that when some people are physically close they tend to be psychologically and emotionally distant. This is happening as we are now accustomed to communicate virtually and some might feel awkward talking in person. The urban community and our social relationships are deteriorating from day to day. Being this connected has made it very natural for people to have more friends outside their neighbourhood and decrease those within it (Hampton, 2007).
Besides being physically separated while online, studies have proved that also when we are physically together, meaning that we have a social interaction, we are using our devices and we detach ourselves from the tangible world. Social media once again is deteriorating our physical conversation and the relationships between the members of society. This is becoming a threat to our humanity as social technologies are affecting deeply the society (VPRO, 2016).
Elaborating on human communication, everyone knows that it is very dependent on body language. The feedback you received, the tone of voice and the expressions could never be communicated effectively through social media. Instead, it is very common to be misinterpreted which will in return effects our relationships and interactions. One could not forget to mention that innovation and motivation are reducing drastically as spending a day behind a screen is not so engaging (The Lee Group, 2020). This is slowly leading to boredom and an unhappy life along with other related issues.
On another note, although social media is very entertaining and relevant to the present day and age, we must be wise when it comes to decision making. With this, I am referring to what information is consumed and what information is put aside. This is because we are exposed to so many negative influences in the network society and in this case, they are affecting mostly the younger generation (Jain, 2018).
A Distracted Generation
One of social’s media concerning aspects is the fact that we are getting easily distracted. It seems like we are deviating a lot from whatever we are doing at that moment to see what others are doing or saying. This distraction is leading to a high level of procrastination caused mainly by the time we waste on social media (IESC, 2018).
Here is a question to wrap up; are you aware that we are substituting your true friends and your life for virtual ones? There is no going back so here is a tip! Measure your actions carefully, find a balance in what you do, and manage your time better to spend time on social media but also a reasonable amount of time for face-to-face interactions.
This blog is a project for Study Unit DGA3008, University of Malta.
References
Hampton, K. N. (2007). Neighborhoods in the Network Society the e-Neighbors study. Information, Communication & Society, 10(5), 714–748. https://www-tandfonline-com.ejournals.um.edu.mt/doi/full/10.1080/13691180701658061
IESC, Admin M2. (2018, February 23). Social networking and human interactions: how social networking changed our way of life. Master Intelligence Economique et Stratégies Compétitives. https://master-iesc-angers.com/social-networking-and-human-interactions-how-social-networking-changed-our-way-of-life/
Jain, P. (2018, November 20). Social Media: Impact on human behavior and society. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/social-media-impact-human-behavior-society-piyushi-jain
The Lee Group. (2020, March 10). The Lost Art of Face-to-Face Communication and Why It’s Still Important. https://theleegroup.com/lost-art-face-face-communication-still-important/
VPRO Documentary. (2016, June 7). Offline is the new luxury — VPRO documentary — 2016 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzp6g1H52wQ
Wellman, B., & Hampton, K. (1999). Living Networked On and Offline. Contemporary Sociology, 28(6), 648–654. https://www-jstor-org.ejournals.um.edu.mt/stable/2655535?sid=primo&origin=crossref&seq=5#metadata_info_tab_contents
