Has technology taken over our lives? Is Social Media anti-social?

[Brend]

Just watched this video, and it got me thinking. Is this kind of stance pretentious or righteous?

Are we missing out on 'real life' by constantly tweeting, facebooking and anything similar. Is it such a key part to our lives that real life interaction is not as necessary as before?


There are both sides to the argument of course, most of the times technology elevates us from boredom and to be honest, it provides as many talking points in real life as it could take away.

Thoughts?

 

[Zenith]

That video was pretty freaking pretentious.

Technology is enhancing communication by allowing people to communicate what they truly want to communicate.

What if somebody doesn't want very close friends and would rather know several hundred at a superficial level? What if they prefer communicating in 140 character quips to having deep conversations? What if somebody would prefer to learn directions from a computer over having to deal with strangers? None of those forms of communication is inherently superior to another.

 

[photonrider]

The medium is the message - or so someone said.

This should make for an interesting discussion - and long overdue. Basically: Social media - bane or boon?
Ironically, right away on a positive note; we're using social media to discuss this.

 

[Brend]

Well, I've been talking with my girlfriend about the video and these are a few observations I have found:

• It is basically propaganda. At no point does he explain a benefit for technology.
• He grazes over parts of the relationship used to drive his point. Are we supposed to believe that he didn't add that girl on facebook after bumping into her? Hence furthering their friendship/relationship?
• He says there is no emotional aspect to social media and yet, for many people, they have been helped through tough times with the help of people they have never even met!
• Reg. public transport and not talking because 'iPhones', Newspapers and books anyone?

There are plenty of things which just scream bias and for a lot of it...it seems like it's been made by a technophobe/hipster using his Apple iMac and video suite and then uploaded via Safari on the Youtube website.

I agree with the part about people ignoring friends and family a lot of the time. But that's about it.

 

[Danoff]

This conversation crops up over and over. Many people thought that having a telephone in their home was intrusive to their home life and would sacrifice their peace and quiet. The same reasoning was applied to cell phones. I've discussed the drawbacks of taking a camera with on you vacation. Do you want to live in this moment or do you want to take a photo of this moment? Often you can't do both.

The bottom line is that there is always a healthy way to use the tools at your disposal and an unhealthy one. Cameras, phones, social networking, internet forums, they can all be used to enhance your experiences or to ruin them. The option is yours.

You can't elevate yourself above this conversation by declaring that anyone who uses "X" is making a mistake. "I don't have a TV because I'm not an idiot", that sort of thing. You also can't dismiss the argument by saying that it's not real. It is real, you really can miss the sunset while trying to photograph it.

 

[BobK]

I can't disagree with anything @Danoff says here. With regard to public transport, I don't recall saying a word to anyone other than the person/people I may have been with at the time, aside for perhaps something like "Does this train/bus stop at <location>?". All this in the days when the internet much less iMedia was well in the future.

I don't recall a whole lot of conversation with my siblings/parents while watching the tv, either. Not sure if that reinforces or contradicts the video's point. Discussions tended to take place around the dinnertable.

 

[Zenith]

@BobK is correct. I'm guessing the maker of that video thinks that a less tech focused world will be a rose-tinted place of openness and love. It wasn't and it wouldn't be.

 

[Crash]

I too agree, with what was said here. To the point that somehow people were more conversational and social before technology, there was an image that I've seen that shows that that wasn't necessarily the case.

All this technology is making us antisocial

 

[miata13B]

I don't think it is just "social media" that is making us anti-social. Working in the bar for the past 10 + years I have observed the swing from people interacting towards people fiddling on their phones. It is a practice of mine to comment to people about it in order to get them discussing life/feelings/jokes with other individuals at the bar.

It may not just be twatting, fiercebooking, sexting; it may just be researching or playing games on phones in social situations, however these lead to more anti-social behaviors that make it harder to psychically interact with others. Cyber interactions though come natural.

12 years ago I started with socializing on the Internet through some stupid forum that grew to be a home away from home to me. I made digital friends while breaking and bending as many rules as I could with fellow cohorts. Looking back on it now, I wish these cohorts were with me on a daily basis doing things in person rather then ranting online.

I feel in general (General!!!!) People's social skills or lack there of have increasing gone to the crapper. What I would like to see an I promote on a daily basis is for people to put down their smart devices to talk to the people they are surrounded by. When you have watched the degradation of social interaction in society over many years it puts a stain on your views towards the general public that relies on digital encounters for relationships.

Maybe it is the next evolution of life to be digitally plugged in, but I challenge those that rely on it to stop in at my work and show me that you will get more laughs typing on your smart device then laughing amuck with all sorts of socially acceptable joking we do (we bring my friends).

 

[niky]

Social media has both its good points and bad points. For one, it truly does help to rebuild lost connections, enhance current ones and create new ones. My current gig came about through social media, in a conversation with someone I'd hardly ever said two words to in real life. Before that, I started writing online for someone I'd never met until he recruited me at a forum we both frequent.

On the other hand, a hyperfocus on social media keeps up from building social connections to people who are physically close to us yet not yet within our social groups. Of course, as mentioned, social media was not the first. There will always be something. Cellphones. Gameboys. Tamagotchi. Books. Newspapers. The advantage of social media is that it allows random train-ride conversations to occur between people on different sides of the planet.

Yes, we can be missing out on some things due to social media and technology in general. The more time you spend behind the lens, the less time you spend in front of it, doing stuff. But this is a personal decision... whether you prefer to enjoy the moment in the personal, nebulous now, or virtually, in the near/far future.

 

[GTracer98]

That video was pretty freaking pretentious.

Technology is enhancing communication by allowing people to communicate what they truly want to communicate.

What if somebody doesn't want very close friends and would rather know several hundred at a superficial level? What if they prefer communicating in 140 character quips to having deep conversations? What if somebody would prefer to learn directions from a computer over having to deal with strangers? None of those forms of communication is inherently superior to another.

Well, IMO a proper conversation has more value than a short message on Facebook.

But I'll agree with @niky , it has both it's good and bad points. Easier to communicate around the world (GTP FTW!) but I really don't like it whenever I see a group of people all looking in their cellphones and not starting a conversation. Real conversations and conversations through the Internet (also SMS, phones etc.) should be balanced.

 

[Zenith]

Well, IMO a proper conversation has more value than a short message on Facebook.

I do too, but the entire point of my post is that people are free to disagree and your opinion matters no more than theirs.

 

[GTracer98]

I do too, but the entire point of my post is that people are free to disagree and your opinion matters no more than theirs.

That we can agree on.

I think it's like with everything in life: do it within limits, stay balanced, try everything, don't stick with one activity. Have real and viral conversations.

 

[Azuremen]

@BobK is correct. I'm guessing the maker of that video thinks that a less tech focused world will be a rose-tinted place of openness and love. It wasn't and it wouldn't be.

Much like the cliche warming filter applied to the whole thing, the some what half assed "empty" background art sequence, and bleh lyrical pacing and timing.

It feels like the senior project of a media major that is kind average but wants to make a statement, so he got a dSLR, a 50mm lens, shot everything in a day or two and edited in Final Cut with a color filter to convey some personal issue with social media, likely revolving around a relationship that failed because of it, and dropped it on social media hoping it would go viral.

Which it did.

I've discussed the drawbacks of taking a camera with on you vacation. Do you want to live in this moment or do you want to take a photo of this moment? Often you can't do both.

As a photographer, this is a very real problem. At festivals and events, I'll often put the cameras away entirely for a while, which baffles people that know because the concept of me not taking pictures is so alien to them. But I know when I just want to move in the moment rather than finding the best spot to capture it.

At the same time, it is my medium of choice as an artist and I try to maximize capturing my experience with it, rather than another sunset/beach/postcard type shot. I see many photographers looking for "the" shot and missing out on the experience entirely.

Basically, as you say below, balance is the key.

The bottom line is that there is always a healthy way to use the tools at your disposal and an unhealthy one. Cameras, phones, social networking, internet forums, they can all be used to enhance your experiences or to ruin them. The option is yours.

You can't elevate yourself above this conversation by declaring that anyone who uses "X" is making a mistake. "I don't have a TV because I'm not an idiot", that sort of thing. You also can't dismiss the argument by saying that it's not real. It is real, you really can miss the sunset while trying to photograph it.

I feel many people are now caught up in conforming with the "share" mindset of advertising everything on social networks. While I originally had a very select group of Facebook friends, it has expanded quite a bit over the past year as a result of my photography and event going, including many people from less... educated backgrounds. The trend of that social group spending entirely too much time posting and sharing trivial nonsense shocked me - drama in the public, poor quality cellphone pictures of everything from food to drugs, sharing whatever tickled their fancy on buzzfeed or what not. It has, in a way, replaced the mindless nature of media consumption via television (not to be pretentious on the topic of television) with this concept of documenting and sharing everything publicly. To the extent that people are so caught up with the documenting they lose the experience and can't even tell the story properly.

People are more caught up in peer approval than life, which sounds pretty normal for the past several decades.

 

[Joel]

I agree with most of what's been said here. I find these types of videos and arguments are usually quite pretentious and are often a straw man, and I just don't feel like the video's point applies to me or my friend group since I left high school.

When I was in high school, facebook was what consumed most of my time. The social hierarchy was the most important thing, and I was on facebook most of the time to keep up with gossip and share pictures and such. Since graduating I use it substantially less, I check it a couple times a day and rarely post (granted I post on forums a fair bit - perhaps too much). The biggest change is that for the most part I just don't care about the kinds of things that people post on facebook any more, instead of using it for social status I tend to use it as a way to keep in touch with people, message groups of people, and this year I had to use it a lot for work stuff.

@Azuremen 's point about education level and their facebook habits is interesting. When I think back to the way I used facebook in high school, it was because peer approval was pretty much the only thing that I cared about and was relevant to my daily life. Since graduating and moving away from where I went to high school, I use it much less because peer approval isn't as important to me anymore. When I think of the people I know who use facebook in the way described in the video (buzzfeed, memes, and baby photos), they're mostly people I know from high school who stayed in their hometown or went to a school an hour's drive away.

For some, they never really grow out of that and well into adulthood high school-esque peer approval and gossip continues to be the most important thing in their lives.

 

[LeMansAid]

I think it's like with everything in life: do it within limits, stay balanced, try everything, don't stick with one activity. Have real and viral conversations.

People can be supposedly balanced, but still completely fake and deluded. The number of experiences has no bearing on the depth at which they are experienced.

The point for me is for one's idea of what they're doing to meet up with the reality of what they're doing. There's nothing wrong with isolation, and some people choose to live almost completely alone among nature. Of supreme importance is that they recognise that they are doing no more than the reality dictates. The isolation that some social media addicts experience is also completely fine, as long as they don't have a false reality.

There's a vast difference between "I'm getting drunk tonight because I want to be free of my troubles for a night", and "I'm getting drunk tonight because I want to be free of my troubles". Knowing what you're really doing, the real choice you're making, is key.

Any experience in life can potentially be a process of either living or numbing. The sky diving addict, the computer game addict, the travel addict, the mountain climbing addict, the exercise addict, the conspiracy theory addict. They could all be simply seeking what they love, or merely fleeing what they hate.

 

[GTracer98]

People can be supposedly balanced, but still completely fake and deluded. The number of experiences has no bearing on the depth at which they are experienced.

The point for me is for one's idea of what they're doing to meet up with the reality of what they're doing. There's nothing wrong with isolation, and some people choose to live almost completely alone among nature. Of supreme importance is that they recognise that they are doing no more than the reality dictates. The isolation that some social media addicts experience is also completely fine, as long as they don't have a false reality.

There's a vast difference between "I'm getting drunk tonight because I want to be free of my troubles for a night", and "I'm getting drunk tonight because I want to be free of my troubles". Knowing what you're really doing, the real choice you're making, is key.

Any experience in life can potentially be a process of either living or numbing. The sky diving addict, the computer game addict, the travel addict, the mountain climbing addict, the exercise addict, the conspiracy theory addict. They could all be simply seeking what they love, or merely fleeing what they hate.

Nothing says you can't live isolated, that's true, but conversations and social life does make a human being more experienced. But then it's also true that a person must know how to live alone, there are people who can't resist even a day without their friends.

Also, people should have one or two things which they specialize in, it's important to experience something more deeply than other activities, be more knowledgeable in some area than any other.

Technology and, on some degree, social media are actually a fantastic tool for learning. YouTube can be considered social media and the amount of educational videos there is high and they're high quality and well prepared as well.

But then one needs to remember that real books are still to be read, real papper letters are still to be written etc. It's an example of balance.

 

[homeforsummer]

Think everyone has pretty much covered my own thoughts already.

Social media is fine in moderation. Twitter is basically essential to me now, but checking it regularly doesn't detract from the rest of my life as it's integral to it anyway - I use it for work and keeping in contact with like-minded people, which is far more social than doing neither of those things. And if I'm in a room with the people I usually talk to on Twitter... I don't talk to them on Twitter.

However, I also like nothing more than to have some days where I'm not at the mercy of computers. My U.S. trip last year was bliss because I had a month to almost entirely switch off from staring at screens. Okay, so I uploaded the odd photo to Instagram here and there, but that was entirely worthwhile from my point of view as I've now got a few dozen photos I can look back on with fondness when I look at my feed. The important thing there was that using it was the right level of technology for me - enhancing the experience, rather than dominating it.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Every generation is different in the things it wants to know, the way it wants to say them and the means by which it communicates these things.

It will always evolve, there's already an interesting "hipster" post-tech movement going on, a shift to the "internet of things" rather than the "internet of pages", a trend to streamline our "social interface" while retaining the weight of knowledge (trivial and otherwise) that we amass and process daily.

Not like in my day etc etc

 

[LeMansAid]

Nothing says you can't live isolated, that's true, but conversations and social life does make a human being more experienced. But then it's also true that a person must know how to live alone, there are people who can't resist even a day without their friends.

Also, people should have one or two things which they specialize in, it's important to experience something more deeply than other activities, be more knowledgeable in some area than any other.

Technology and, on some degree, social media are actually a fantastic tool for learning. YouTube can be considered social media and the amount of educational videos there is high and they're high quality and well prepared as well.

But then one needs to remember that real books are still to be read, real papper letters are still to be written etc. It's an example of balance.

My point is to encourage being real about how one lives, however they live.

People can be alone in a crowded room, as they say. Have an unbalanced perception of their "balanced" set of experiences. People should do and be whatever they want. I just think it's unhealthy to have a false reality of what they are are doing and being, and it can be a very hard fall when reality hits home.

A social media addict with high self and environment awareness is either living how they choose to live, or aware that their way of living needs change. Either is perfectly fine and healthy in my book.

 

[kennylmao]

This concept of technology driving us apart instead of bring us closer together (like what it was meant to do) is very interesting indeed. Like what most have already said, it is balance that is important to have with everything.

Also something relevant, is this indie movie I've heard about. It's called Disconnect. -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1433811/ I still have yet to find the time to watch it myself () but I do recommend it as I think the premise is pretty interesting.

 

[sumbrownkid]

I think people over-zealously relying on social media to be sociable is an issue. And it doesn't help that our media/culture is reinforcing this attitude where you must be on social media or you're a nobody. True, we are using GTP as a form of social media, but I'm talking more along the lines of "likes us on Facebook" or "Tweet your garbage to others" stuff.

For instance on our "news" networks you can tweet in your highly biased political garbage to be viewed on television. Now it's coming to a point where people look at me weird when I say I preferred to be contacted by phone or email instead of Facebook. I mean if you really want to wish me a happy birthday, then give me a call and say it. It feels more sincere that way.

Maybe we're just becoming old school guys.

 

[Slash]

Personally I would say yes and no. It works both ways with strong arguments to back both sides up.


Wether or not it is or isn't a good thing is entirely up to the individual. Many of us partake in such activities but I know people who don't want anything to do with it, and that's fine; their choice. But in this day and age that makes some commutation with others a tad tougher.

 

[LeMansAid]

Can we please fix that thread title? It pains me every time I see it. There's no way I'd ever type took when it clearly should be tooken.

But seriously, it hurts my eye.

 

[Maccer_42]

Can we please fix that thread title? It pains me every time I see it. There's no way I'd ever type took when it clearly should be tooken.

But seriously, it hurts my eye.

Is tooken a word? Shouldn't it be taken if took is incorrect?

But yeah, I'm with the general opinion here that the video is rather pretentious. I still don't like or use social media such as Facebook or Twitter but I don't feel not using it makes me a better person than those that do.

 

[LeMansAid]

Hmmm..... and there I was thinking I made it ludicrous enough to be recognised as a joke.

 

[BobK]

I'm surprised the title has made it this long without someone asking to have it corrected. Perhaps everyone else, like me, was just waiting to see when somebody would actually mention it.

 

[Brend]

Sorry internet enforcers of the English language, my slang tendencies got the better of me.