Although I can see the benefit to social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Ning, I am wary of the effect this type of socializing will have on people, particularly youth who haven’t learned to communicate effectively face-to-face.
Instead, they are communicating in a more artificial environment with people who may or may not be who they say. Even if their “friends” gave their correct name, gender and age, they can still alter their profile to seem like anyone they want. They may not be purposefully deceitful, but they create only personality sketches, mere shells of their actual selves.
And while it can connect people who never would have met before, it doesn’t have the energy and warmth of personal contact. There’s a reason it’s, “Eyes are windows to the soul,” and not “Boot up Windows, get online and find your soul mate.”
Additionally, limiting your contact to only those with similar interests, worldviews will continue to narrow. It seems that more and more that is a huge problem in society.
On the plus side, I love being able to hear music from obscure bands around the world. On MySpace, you can find myriad musical acts offering a free preview of their work. It is nice to be able to hear several songs of an artist (online, or of course from the library) before you dish out cash hoping more than one or two songs are worth a darn.
OK, I’m done venting. I almost sounded like a grumpy old man there for a minute. (“Those dang kids with their M-Pods and their IP3s, playing their X-Stations and PS-Boxes! Their nothing but a bunch of punks! Text-messaging punks!”)
Instead, they are communicating in a more artificial environment with people who may or may not be who they say. Even if their “friends” gave their correct name, gender and age, they can still alter their profile to seem like anyone they want. They may not be purposefully deceitful, but they create only personality sketches, mere shells of their actual selves.
And while it can connect people who never would have met before, it doesn’t have the energy and warmth of personal contact. There’s a reason it’s, “Eyes are windows to the soul,” and not “Boot up Windows, get online and find your soul mate.”
Additionally, limiting your contact to only those with similar interests, worldviews will continue to narrow. It seems that more and more that is a huge problem in society.
On the plus side, I love being able to hear music from obscure bands around the world. On MySpace, you can find myriad musical acts offering a free preview of their work. It is nice to be able to hear several songs of an artist (online, or of course from the library) before you dish out cash hoping more than one or two songs are worth a darn.
OK, I’m done venting. I almost sounded like a grumpy old man there for a minute. (“Those dang kids with their M-Pods and their IP3s, playing their X-Stations and PS-Boxes! Their nothing but a bunch of punks! Text-messaging punks!”)
