OK time to be really honest, just among ourselves. Does it bother you, maybe just sometimes, if no one responds to your Tweets? If no one seems to comment on your Facebook status, or blog post? Do you ever feel when that happens that maybe you’ve become invisible, that you don’t really exist somehow? Come on, you know you do, at least occasionally. Well here’s what you need to know about that. That may actually be a problem.
One of the great concerns about social media is how it can suck you in. You joined Facebook just so you could keep in touch with the family or to re-connect with some old friends, now you’re obsessed w Farmville and Mafia Wars. You burn up far more time doing that than you would really be comfortable admitting to family, friends or perish the thought, your boss.
That constant need to be reassured that you exist is actually a fairly common behavior at one point in the human growth cycle. It’s very common for infants. The concern is that our brains might be backwards trained into a more infantalized condition by long hours on either social media or video gaming. Infants and small children are attracted to visual and audio stimulation and the concern is that this ongoing practice into childhood and beyond may have negative effects.
Now the first thing you need to know is that these concerns are not from anti-technology, no fun Luddite. Rather they are from Susan Greenfield, professor of pharmacology at Oxford University, director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, a neuroscientist and apparently a member of the House of Lords. Lady Greenfield is concerned that if too much of the socialization especially of children is done through computer modes there may be real and very serious problems with attention deficit and even autism. Whether or not that’s true remains to be seen. There are lots of studies out there that indicate both positives and negatives to social media. There IS a difference between interaction on Facebook or even on a video call through Skype and face to face communication. Making sure our kids get lots of chances for that kind of socializing is probably best all round.
The most interesting discussion to arise in all of this is that gaming and social networking simply isn’t enough fun any more. The problem is that people end up with hundreds of Facebook friends and it becomes a chore to track them all. Games become more and more about building social networks and not enough action and adventure. In other words they’re becoming way to much like real life. And let’s face it we all know that real life will kill you or make you crazy.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
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