I would like to say that I have recently discovered peoples desire to write or hint about what they are going through, or even how they are feeling. But I've felt it since day one, as I'm sure many people have too. I want to be angry and call them stupid, however it is quite impossible as the entire point of the social network is to express these things.
"I am SO crazy, I just jumped into a pond RANDOMLY LOL"
However, sometimes, it gets to a point where you know more about this person through what they are saying online, then the words you have actually spoken to them.
I recently found out about a relationship I had been curious about for several months.
It started out as a relationship status change, moved on to "I don't want to talk about this pain" statuses, and now after four entire months, I know why he was in so much pain. The entire fact that I know and remember these irrelevant facts makes me respect the power of social networking and human curiosity, but at the same time, it makes me scared of it. What if I slipped up once and posted something at a weak moment. Do people still remember that status? That wall post?
Thinking about deleting my profile has crossed my mind, however, I've done it once. And in that two weeks I missed many parties, a lot of news, and too many people.
So what's next?
I'm guessing it can go one of two ways:
Either people will freak out and protest that no more information be shown.
Or, and this 'or' should come with a 'probably', our social networking will explode with new information and new mediums to show that information to the world.
Because at the end of the day, humans love to show and humans love to be seen, we will meet more people online, we will see more people online than we would in our day to day lives in person, and thus, we will show these people more of us. Because even if we try to hide it, if we are connected by choice to a social networking site, we all want the same thing.
social networking is a virtual world, where reality is overlooked alot. People can express their feelings openly and not suffer the real world response of 'toughen up' or 'stop complaining'. It also shatters the glass panes of social order. I could play World of Warcraft with Barack Obama whenever we wanted, but how could I rrange a basketball game with him?
ReplyDeleteWhat must be remembered, fundamentally, is this is all a Belief. The virtual world exists within reality
Maybe, and it's great for people to be able to express themselves in a sort of safe medium, however, social networking has become more than just a virtual world, it has become a reflection of self.
ReplyDeleteIf, for example, we all had avatars instead of our personal pictures, I can see how an alter ego of sorts can encourage you to be less inhibited.
However, Facebook has become a reality, and in terms of the content people provide about themselves, they really must be careful. I know that most employers nowadays do check applicants profile (if they haven't enabled privacy settings) to see whether they'd be suitable for the job because of what companies can learn about individuals on Facebook.
Just saying....
Y'all are just some haters and some math minors.
ReplyDeleteThat aside, I think you guys are being very contradictory. Do you want people to express themselves or not via social media?
You guys are too caught up trying to make the network into an abstraction when really its just a catalyst to everything social already existing in society.
People have been acting "fake" or projecting who they want to be long before the internet (not going to use anymore because what is it really? ). The means to do so have changed though.
Short status updates in text form are easy to crack down on (RE: to your example of the status regarding pasta on the floor, sacrilege!) if you want to go down hard on someone.
hi girls , watching this video , the impression or idea that I got was two girls bored out of the brains who just want to express how they feel , to me you both sounded exactly like the annoying statuses you guys are "talking about", at the end of the day facebook/twitter/bbm are all large networks were people can express the way they want to whenever they want, yea it annoys you but its not wrong ,your blog is interesting im sure there are far more important things in life to talk about , looking forward to seeing more interesting things that all of us can learn from xx
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