Social media: Does it connect or disconnect us?

graphic source http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-05-06-socialmedia.jpg

“On Twitter we get excited if someone follows us. In real life we get really scared and run away.” ~ Author Unknown

Lately I’ve been thinking about how connected  — or maybe disconnected – we’ve become through social media. I began wondering about it after I had to leave my hometown for an extended period. Through social media I was able to appear as if I hadn’t gone anywhere and I was still just around the corner. I started to think that having an online presence sort of created a new reality and existence.  Sort of like, “I’m online, therefore, I exist.”

Pew says Facebookers  have more support and connections
A recent Pew Research Center report took a look at the impact of social networking sites on our lives and found that Facebook users get more social support than other people.

Well, sure. How often do you see Facebook posts that reveal problems such as, “Got fired today,” or, “My dog died.” In my own case, I posted on my Facebook page when I broke my wrist last February. [pullquote]On a global level, social sites provide a mechanism to quickly spread important information about worldwide disasters, war, political coups, emergencies, and the breakup of J Lo and Marc Anthony.[/pullquote] These snippets of drama garner immediate support, sympathy and encouragement from friends and strangers alike. At no other time in history have humans ever gotten their ego stroked and confidence pumped up by so many people, so instantaneously.

• Himanshu Tyaga, MBBS, Specialist Registrar in Psychotherapy, Springfield University Hospital, London wrote in 2008, “It’s a world where everything moves fast and changes all the time, where relationships are quickly disposed at the click of a mouse, where you can delete your profile if you don’t like it and swap an unacceptable identity in the blink of an eye for one that is more acceptable. People used to the quick pace of online social networking may soon find the real world boring and unstimulating, potentially leading to more extreme behaviour to get that sense. It may be possible that young people who have no experience of a world without online societies put less value on their real world identities and can therefore be at risk in their real lives, perhaps more vulnerable to impulsive behaviour or even suicide.”

A new way to socialize and connect
Having hundreds, and sometimes thousands of followers and “friends” who we’ll never meet seems to be the new reality for future generations. Sitting in front of a computer screen for hours communicating to people online rather than face to face has become a standard form of socializing. Does that make people more isolated or more connected?

Here are some interesting Pro and Con arguments on the topic. [pullquote]And, if any of those connections start to get on the nerves, simply click a button and poof, they are defriended, unfollowed or hidden from your news stream.[/pullquote] I love that social sites have enabled me to reconnect with old friends from my childhood — people I had wondered about for decades suddenly were findable through Facebook searches. On a global level, social sites provide a mechanism to quickly spread important information about worldwide disasters, war, political coups, emergencies, and the breakup of J Lo and Marc Anthony. 🙂

As a writer and communicator it has been both fascinating and perplexing to witness the evolution of human interaction and communication. I’ve watched it evolve from face-to-face meetings and hanging out in person with a small, intimate circle of friends. sharing your secrets — the norm for me —  to theoretically never having to actually be in the same room with another person, ever again, if you don’t want to, and still easily have thousands of friends and connections. And, if any of those connections start to get on the nerves, simply click a button and poof, they are defriended, unfollowed or hidden from your news stream.

Perhaps when the telephone was invented, the people of that era said, “This will totally destroy face to face human relations.” And of course, what it really did was extend our reach to the far corners of the world. So, what do you think? Is social media drawing us together or keeping us from having to deal with each other?