Who is your BFF?
© Susan Todd-Raque
Have you been tweeted, linkedin, facebooked, emailed, or texted lately? If you haven’t, would you consider yourself backward or fortunate?
What happened to phone calls, letter writing, making face-to-face contact with people, or even shaking hands without having to have an iphone, Blackberry or other kind technological gizmo. 47% of Americans now do some kind of social media as a form of communication. However, many of us remember when there were no cell phones or computers. Of course, we survived.
Now technology is moving faster than anything many of us have ever experienced. And I am not against all of the outcomes that technology has precipitated in the explosion of social media communication. At the same time it is like driving through the drive-thru banking. Remember, you would drive up to the window and see a friendly smile of a bank teller, who often would know your name. You would chat briefly, do your business and drive off. Now, you drive up to a tube, are often greeted by a mysterious voice, you do your business and off you go. What is happening to personal relationships?
Young adults today don’t bother to call someone on the phone. They text. They check their Facebook (FB) page several times a day and count how many friends they have. Conversations on FB have become more meaningful than in person conversations. Some even think their global connections are real friends, when they are really superficial, existing only in the Internet dimension.
Social media has become the techno-noise in our lives, taking up valuable time and our attention from what we need to know and be doing. Are we isolating ourselves or simply moving to another form of personal communication? How can we put it all into the right perspective, not be overwhelmed, deluded nor distracted by the techno-noise?
So, what can one do? Set aside a specific limited time each morning to answer emails and check other social media. Only answer or send texts when convenient and never when interacting with real people in person.
And remember life is here and now, not on the Internet, in 2D nor in our phones.
Oh, got to go now…just got a Facebook message!
