(un)Social Media?
Don’t get me wrong. I am a Facebook user. I comment. I tweet. It’s great.
And it sucks sometimes.
Here’s why: It all falls under the label “social media”. And in a day when the most social interaction someone might have is to invite you to join their Farmtown, we could be heading towards trouble. A few thoughts:
- Social Media allows opportunities to interact (comment, reply, retweet) in a way that gives me the illusion that I have lots of meaningful social connections. It’s misleading, though; these comments can make me feel like I’ve connected with a good dozen friends today, but have I? Perhaps on a limited level. But part of the beauty of a real relationship is that it goes beyond a few witty or warmhearted comments. There is stretching, disagreeing, and something that can’t be achieved in social media: personal space. I want to share my heart with a friend in unguarded fashion (something hard to online digital media) – as well as without 20 comments posted about it.
- Social Media, for many, is a business tool, not a social tool. Being a tool, people will use it to build what they want; some people will use it to build into their social lives, and some will use it to build their own empires. Case in point: I get weird people I don’t know twittering back to me about what I just wrote, in some way that tries to say we’re chums – “Hey, @beezerboyd, I totally feel ya man! You’re crrrraazy!” Wouldn’t be so bad if I knew them, or had any social connection to them. But I don’t; they just added me to their list like some hip business blog told them to. I’m being twitter-stalked by somebody who wants to make me feel like we’re buds, but really just wants to sell something.
- Social Media has become a way to seem to know somebody. It has the equivalent feeling to sitting at a certain table during high school lunch. A great example is the Retweet, which has come to be something of an awkward name-dropper for twitter-crushes: “RT @joeschmoe I’m totally into fava beans. // yeah, I’ll get you some Chianti!” But you don’t know Joe Schmoe, it just feels good to kind of know him. Publically, that is. And that’s kind of weird; we don’t really want or need to know Joe Schmoe, we just want others to know we kind of (sort of (at least on Twitter)) know him.
- Social media gives us the opportunity do send out large amounts of personal social information without the need to develop a strong social tie. Which means that I could live a somewhat closed off life in the non-digital world – the people closest to me not really knowing how I am doing, while people I haven’t seen since high school are aware of my every step (“Tripped over my own feet today. Mornings!”) This allows us the anonymity that keeps us relationally safe (right alongside stagnant and isolated), yet the digital comments convincing us we have connections.
I’m no tech expert; I have no doctorate on social media. I’m also not a big rant guy. It’s just that community and living-breathing-face-to-face-people are real needs of the heart; to know and be known. Social media can add to this, but social media cannot replace this. If your friend posts that they are home sick, you could comment “Bummer! Get better!” And that would be nice of you. But what if you made some real deal chicken soup and went and saw them? Now we used social media for what it can be: open doors towards social living.
As long as chicken soup doesn’t become some business blog’s new social media model. If that happens, I might start a Mob War in Farmville.
I think you’re absolutely right! However, I DO like that Facebook has allowed me to re-connect with old friends (most of whom are not local so I don’t have that opportunity to bring chicken soup over to them). I guess it can go either way!
Comment by Carrie — November 19, 2009 @ 1:52 pm
Right on Beezer ole buddy ole pal! Nice insights Sean. I know that you proof these before publishing so I won’t tame it down. Post it if you like. Sometimes we can get to a point where we are so ecclectic that we push people away for simply not knowing where the best coffee in town is. That is counter-productive. The Lord said ‘blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness sake.’ Righteousness is about love and about looking under the surface, but its really about God and who He is and what He thinks is right and wrong. Even geeks like you and me can get that, if we get Jesus.
I recently pulled back from FB because there is too much data mining going on and I don’t know if the social engineering is done by someone I want to know about me and my family or someone I pray never will. The world is darker than it used to be and the Internet, though filled with great potential, will surely only give the broad roaders a really fast ride to their eventual destination. You cannot save everyone. Well honestly we can’t save anyone, only God does that.
I read all of your blogs and though I may have stumbled out of your life a long time ago you are often on my heart. I only remember one time that we disagreed strongly, at Coco’s. Then you shocked me by turning around and starting to read Luther and all this stuff. It was a very impression dimension that I only saw in a few other of the youth I knew and all of them are in the ministry now like yourself.
God’s plan is bigger than us and His plan for you is going to carry you further, and when I say further I mean to the very heart of real christianity. Stand back from it all and take a breath and the wind that fills your lungs will be the Holy Spirit. Many changes are about to happen but those who know Him will not be caught off guard. Let go of the paradigm of paradigms and feel the depth of the bedrock below your feet. Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today, and forever.
Peace.
Comment by Larry Cornell — November 20, 2009 @ 1:05 am
I love it! I’ve often thought about how much I’m “infatuated” with technology I am and how much I can see it destroying (strong word… hampering, maybe?) society. First off, think of how it’s changed how we live: when the Pony Express was invented. it allowed us to communicate with people farther that we could easily travel in a day. Side note: I do find a letter more personal than an email, text, or Facebook message. So, since the mail is still restricted by physical means, it’s still slow. we now are able to communicate with anyone in the world instantly from any internet connection! =D Quite an amazing feat actually. But, as I’ve said before: technology has made the world a smaller palce while pushing people away from each other. Honestly, as amazing and facinating as technology is to me, it’s getting scary. I’m going to put up a blog to talk about technological advances, politics, struggles, and general ideas. Great blog! =D
Comment by Alcane — November 20, 2009 @ 2:49 pm
There is another aspect of social media that hasn’t been voiced yet, and is, to me anyway, the more important. That is the ability for someone so inclined to be anyone or anything they want to be, and no one else the wiser. It is the ability to be lied to, cheated, scammed, and hurt in so many ways that it blows my Internet-illiterate mind sometimes. Everything you read, see, and hear is a digital product, and digital products can be manipulated in ways I have never even heard of yet, and may never.
This is a problem for me. I find myself looking for the tell-tales to see if what I am reading, seeing, or hearing is real or not. It creates, in me at least, a feeling of cynical doubt. In face-to-face you have the warmth of that person to make it real, and reality is a fast disappearing commodity in this truth-for-sale-society. Face to face allows you to be, as Sean put it, unguarded and private, without a bunch of people I’ve never met and probably never will commenting on something that was none of their business to begin with.
Do I sound cynical? Yep, I probably do, but with online predators, scams, viruses (I’ve been hit by two in less than a week), and Lord only knows what else on here, it’s kind of hard not to be. Unfortunately, there are few other ways to get this kind of information access, so we do our best, be the honest, caring people God would have us be, and trust his will be done.
Even if it means you get a virus or two.
Comment by Shaun Olinger — December 4, 2009 @ 3:46 pm