Social Media pt. 1: Lonely Nation

Some critics of social media have argued that Twitter and Facebook are a waste of time--meaningless chatter, a tool of endless procrastination, a cause of both narcissism and alienation. And, admittedly, the critics aren't entirely wrong. According to psychologist Aric Sigman, "Time that was previously spent interacting socially has increasingly been displaced by the virtual variety."

Well, there's a no-brainer. I think anyone in an industrialized nation--and especially any American college student--can recognize how drastically virtual life has edged into our reality. My friends have spent hours laughing over youtube videos. (Kittens Inspired by Kittens and The Count Censored were classics.) Every day, I hear students at UofM talking about how much time they waste on Facebook. And Twitter keeps the illusion going. We feel like we're connecting with other people--and maybe we are--but at the same time, we're just sitting in front of a glowing computer screen, clicking buttons and typing on a keyboard.

It's a form of social isolation that nobody could've imagined twenty years ago.



Voyeurism

Let's be honest.....it's weird.  We're all putting our lives on display, living like the star of our own feature film. Twitter makes it worse. And don't get me wrong--on some level, I love Twitter. But do people actually care what you ate for breakfast, or that you're going to the gym to work off that mocha latte?

And the answer, surprisingly, is yes. People do.



T.M.I.

This one speaks for itself. We've reached the point where everybody and your mom is on Facebook--literally. If anybody posts pictures of you French-kissing your (female) friend at the bar or drinking straight out of a bottle of Grey Goose, you'll have a lot of explaining to do with your boss (or maybe your parents) in the morning.

And while some people use caution in their Facebook posts, others seem to have lost the ability to censor themselves. Do we need to know about your bowel movement issues, or your mysterious rash? No, probably not. Even worse: do you really need to announce: "PPL R SO FAKE, guess i no who ma real friendz r" every other day? We got the point the first 513 times. And I'll never understand the Facebook users who post pictures of themselves drinking/smoking/shooting up.

1. No one's impressed.
2. It's a great way to get fired.

The internet presents us with other time-wasters, too. If not for online TV shows, for example, I wouldn't have spent countless hours of my life watching entire seasons of Arrested Development, Pushing Daisies, and Doctor Who. On the one hand, I love them.

On the other hand, it makes it easy to waste my time doing something other than living.