Has Facebook destroyed the current generations ability to form lasting social contacts?
It is often heralded as the social networking tool of this age but, is it really?
I see profiles with over 1000 ‘friends’ and, for all practical purposes, it’s nigh on impossible to follow even a fraction of those and their postings if any. The timeline must be moving so fast anything which could actually benefit the reader has long gone unless they sit staring at the screen hour after hour.
Indeed, perhaps not even just Facebook, let’s move to
To show but a few and good old ‘texting’.
There are now very real arguments caused by users poor ability to adequately communicate the emotions of their text leading to terrible misunderstandings.
In an age where so many of us have so many free minutes on our mobile phones where we could actually talk to someone, we still choose to text. Indeed, why have a 30 second phone call when 20+ texts over 10 minutes will screw the whole process up?
It makes no sense!
This is because a generation has lost the ability to communicate. So concerned are they that they might humiliate themselves during a call they text as though, somehow, this isn’t them, it’s a degree of pseudo anonymity. No one can see them so, it sort of isn’t really them and it’s plain crazy.
Indeed, so used are people now to communicating via Facebook and others that they fail to do it in person, they genuinely don’t have time because they are answering all those messages online. When they are physically with someone else, that message tone sounds and straight off, out comes the phone to answer someone about not very much who may well be with another real person but, they are not actually communicating effectively because of all the uninvited guests sitting their virtually via text message.
I’ve been in rooms where everyone is communicating online, even with each other. They have to as it’s the only way to actually have everyone involved talking even though they are all talking about different things.
Does no one ever get the urge to go out and just leave the phone off? Not on silent or vibrate but, actually off? How many times have we sat there across a table talking to someone and realised they’re barely paying any attention because they are engrossed in their phone.
Some people spend so much time looking for the right person via text that they miss them sitting their at the same table!
Perhaps we should have phone bans in public places? Give everyone the chance to learn or remember what it is like to be with real life people and communicate with them without someone virtually getting involved that wasn’t invited?