SOCIAL MEDIA PART 2

As any self respecting technophobe, I do have reservations and worries that concern me greatly about the use of social media.

Some of these social devices can become addictive; just the simple constant checking of face book posts or twitter tweets. The number of times I have watched people in restaurants, sitting opposite each other, in an ideal situation to have a conversation and they are on their cell phones and not interacting with each other at all.

This obsessive behaviour is becoming more prevalent and it worries me that people are losing so much from not interacting face to face as much as they did so in the past.

I try hard to understand that this is the new way of communicating to a wider audience but with that comes the downside, which is less face to face time with each other. But then I am reminded of how Skype is used and the new video phones etc. which are being developed even further. I’m looking forward to seeing these in our homes in the near future.

Then I hear a report stating that Japan’s declining birth rate is in part due to young people staying at home and interacting over the net. This worries me because young people miss the anticipation and excitement of meeting someone for the first time. Seeing and touching and reaching out in a physical sense rather than through a computer screen seems to me to be more human and I want our race to thrive and multiply but how can it when men  and women remain at home in their own virtual world.

With the influx and interest now in indoor gaming I worry about our youth’s future. I worry about children becoming more obese and less healthy as they don’t play outside or do physical play or organised games as much as in the past. Their leisure time is spent on computers.

I watched some children of all ages at a recent gadget show exhibition and was amazed by the variety of games available; the commitment and skills shown by these youngsters was fantastic. They showed outstanding hand /eye co-ordination and thumb- finger hand dexterity plus the brain power needed must have been phenomenal however this wasn’t good for a whole body workout.

Also, I worry about  how many of these children are confident talking to each other; actually having a conversation with another person in real life rather than on a compute screen.

I don’t want to become a dinosaur when it comes to technology and I freely admit to being an ostrich with my head and eyes being buried in the ground in the past. Technology is out there and I have to embrace some of it more than I do now but I do think that the term social media should be regarded with caution.

The term social is important. The dictionary says it is the interaction between couples, and groups of people; a community working together for their greater good.
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 I just wonder if we are thinking maybe too much about the global aspect of this and forgetting the basic principles of talking and sharing ideas side by side and face to face. I hope not. I want a technological future that can embrace both.
 
Thought for the day: Technology should improve your life; not become your life!
 
 

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