As my blogs name states in my words and in my thoughts well my thoughts yesterday turned to social networking as a celebrity tweeted "Hate to admit it but life ground to a halt when i was without Internet. When did i become such a techno baby?"
It struck a cord with me because being on twitter for over a year now I've realised I've come to depend on my daily fix of drama, sarcasm, laughter and great chats with international tweeps.
Some people i have met through twitter have had more in common with me than people in real life, it's like a whole other world on the net sometimes it feels like an easier one not having to talk to people face to face being free to say things you wouldn't dare share with some people fearing you may be judged but for some reason those worries disappear on here. Once i had to go without the net for two weeks that seemed like a year to me! I do feel there is a bad side to it too it sometimes makes me anxious if you send a tweet to someone and they don't reply within 5mins even though there on the other side of the world and every Friday waiting to see who gives you a follow Friday shout out and how they say it but getting upset if they forget you and however many times you may give them one they never return the favour.
Other social networking sites scare me i once joined myspace if any of my followers really know me they know I'm a fan of Meryl Streep so of course when an unverified twitter account who claimed to be Meryl said she was on myspace i joined to follow her and i was so excited to be followed back it made my week only to find out after a few months it was a fake account.
Then there's Facebook nearly everyone i know is on there but i just cannot bring myself to join thinking about all the people in school that never talked to me suddenly wanting me to add them to my friends list or wasting time sending a cocktail or a hug to your friends or playing games tying to earn money to decorate a house, that i feel is a waste of time. I know too many people that are up till 3am on their FaceBook page or if they are unemployed spending all day on their computer checking FaceBook. Social networking has certainly become part of our daily life but one aspect of it particularly worries me and that is cyber bullying now back in my day at school (yes i know that made me sound like 100) email was the "in thing" so we really didn't have to worry about it but today's kids i feel sorry for the net has taken bullying to a whole new level home use to be a safe retreat from bullies but now you go to your facebook page or myspace and theres your classmates bagging the shit out of you threatening all sorts of stuff. This is one aspect that needs to be looked at protecting kids against this sort of abusive behaviour i know bullying will never be stopped it's a part of life but this new mutation needs to be!
To conclude my thought overall i think my social networking and Internet use so far has been positive i think I've been lucky enough to chat to nice interesting people and hope it continues that way thankyou friends.
I'm a huge advocate of the internet and it's applications. I've met my best friend, my dear friends, and several 'web' friends all through the various applications you've mentioned - and a few you haven't. Through the years, I've learned to take the good with the bad, and weigh out the decisions I make to reflect how I want to live in immortality - since, what you say online is out there forever in most forums.
ReplyDeleteIt does bring on many more complications. You mentioned cyberbullying and the famous friend issue on facebook - the people I never cared to keep in touch with then who now want to be my besties and 'poke' me daily. Genug already! LOL. I think technological dependency means being technologically smart - and creating information for people so that they can be well armed and ready to enter the world at large.
In the interim though, I want to check my new tweets ;)