Are social media networks stifling or helping live interaction?
Look at people around you; they are all talking – not to each other, but to a disembodied voice on their cell phones. Conversation with a person in flesh and blood is passé. The only conversation these days seems to be with people who are at the other end of a communication gadget or in cyberspace.
Look at the social media networks! Everyone worth his or her salt is in one or all of them! Yours truly is perhaps in the minority, resisting its pull! J I am sometimes left wondering if social media is further reducing real time inter-personal interaction. Granted, it allows one to keep in touch with one’s friends and family, but isn’t it also making the followers take the easy way out of actually making a call or personally meeting those who are on their ‘networks’? ‘Oh, I will post it in FB,’ is the attitude most of the time.
Given this observation, what do you think of social media? Is it slowly but steadily reducing interaction between people in real life? Or is it actually increasing contact amongst people?
I would love to hear what my fellow bloggers think about this topic!
Reason: thought i could make the title snappier
social networking is great. tete a tete talk is diminishing but here one finds some thinker or friend or of mutual interest , where he or she talks up and feels worthy and enjoys the time as well as learn too from varius ideas abounding. if this conversation was to take place in reality no body would have patience, and the outspoken one never would let you be heard.
Oh God, what happened to my post? what is all that junk at the top? Renie, Mohan, someone please look into this and help me out!
Corrected! Mohan, thanks for the tag. 
Pramod, that's a very interesting point of view. But again, wouldn't that make one withdraw from personal interaction for fear of being rebuffed? The fine art of conversation is in danger of slowly vanishing, with only the older people still indulging in it and you know how they are treated!
Actually it's a fast moving world and everybody is busy with something or the other. to encourage this one has to throw parties etc. kitty, or something . eat and talk. a little expensive but to draw your own friends you have to creat occasions of celebrations. every now and then. or fix something like in rotation every weekend meet up at one friend.
You are right, where can people find the time for weekly meetings with like-minded people? No wonder then that more and more persons are logging to chat and connect with those with whom they can vibe! But this is creating a vicious circle, isn't it?
To some extent stifling it because people prefer to chat and leave scraps, rather then talking live to people... I am guilty of it as well... I often chat on FB with my niece, despite us living in the same place!!!
I guess taking the easy way out is what it is all about. You don't tell me that you don't call up and chat with your niece and vice versa?
What is lost in these FB messages is the personal touch, isn't it? True, one can keep track of what is going on in each other's lives, but somehow it is not the same as personal interaction, right?
I have created a fan page for my blog on facebook. it has 150 followers.
But none of them seem tp be active and read any of my creations
i even dont know most of them
every time i share the same 5 or 6 people of the chunk either ress the ;like' button or leave a remark all cliche.
whenever i ask for minute details of their liking or disliking of the blog they have no words.
sucks though but looks great 150 followers..mere on paper..
regards
amit purohit
my infatuation love demystified
www.shayar4u4ever.blogspot.com
Wow! 150 followers sounds amazing! You are so right, it is galling when one gets the customery comments like 'great post' and the like.
You do agree then that social networks can't be a match for personal interaction, though it feels great to have so many fans and followers in the virtual world?
@Addy: that's fine as long the police is vigilant unlike our real-life ones! And i must say that you guys are quick! Thanks a bunch. btw, why don't you give me your comments on this one, seeing that you are a prolific blogger and forum leader!!
I think all the networks encourage people to talk at each other.
Real conversation happens when all our senses are focussed on what the other person is saying with not just the lips but with the whole being.
But forums like this do allow us to connect with like -minded people and exchange views on topics of mutual interest-this may be tough in real life.
very rightly said.
But Varsha, sometimes talking is necessary even if not to only exchange views and connect with like-minded people. What I feel is that this is what is getting compromised because of the social networks. Like Aashish said, people prefer posting updates on FB to talking in real life. A grandparent or an aged uncle or aunt would prefer a personal chat or at least look at their loved ones for a little while. all the preoccupation with virtual communities is taking away this quality time.
I agree with Pramod that the road to a friend's can't be too long!
I was thinking of this today only and found this topic on the forum.
tech has become a lot more interactive and being able to be in touch with someone from the pain of travelling from a point A to point B seems too much at times... even if that distance is not more than a 10 min walk.
but still people prefer to talk it out using other mediums than face to face.
i believe, that its coz you may not have that much importance to that person being face to face. all you care is that you talk to them somehow. being away from one and being with one but still talking is what we all wish to do.
Hey Hemal, that's a good way to put it, 'all you care is that you talk to them somehow.' So what you say is that one would make the effort to talk to someone close if one cared about that person and not otherwise, right? But somehow, it is not always that way and it spills over to personal relationships too. I agree about the traumatic travel in metros to meet someone though, even if it is a short distance away!
road to a friends house is never long
Social networks are good for the reason that you can connect with people who can think in the same plane that you do. And yes, I agree with your point, it has to be in a limited amount. Should not be the case that it exceeds personal conversations that you have
Cheers.
S.
Yes Sanjay. I have seen members of the family, sometimes in the same house chatting with each other over the net! Has virtual companionship so invaded our lives that we can't even interact in person in the same space?
worst is yet to come, youngsters chatting simultaneously with 100s and playing zynga poker as well.
its a very popular cards poker game on social networking sites like facebook etc. farm ville, and many more.
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