Is social media taking over our lives?

[Fausto]

http://news.yahoo.com/90-days-without-cell-phone-email-social-media-015300257.html

This is an interesting article. Any thoughts?

[ulthar]

Only if we/you let it ... by buying into all the "gotta have" hype.

Shoot man, you should see the reactions we get from people when we tell them we don't have a TV.   Or, how about the "fun" conversation I had with one lady about us not having a refrigerator!  Or, (gasp), a MICROWAVE OVEN!

"Social" media is a marketing buzzword ...

[Flick James]

I appreciated the article. I can relate to some of the frustrations over social media, particularly how people who supposed care about one another and want to spend time together spend so much of it glued to their mobile device. I have no problem with all of the technology, only that we haven't seemed to have advanced a reasonable set of social manners along with the advance in technology. For example, if I go to somebody's house or event that they are throwing, and I spend half of my time on my mobile device, I think that's rude, so I don't do it. However, if the host wants to suggest an expectation of either suspending mobile device, people gripe and use the lame excuse of "what if it's an emergency?" Well, if it's an emergency then they will call you, and nobody's going to give you a problem about that. But even then, the "emergencies only" posture sooner or later turns into them receiving a text or tweet and snapping right back into the groove.

I haven't been doing it in a while, but I have a group of people I know that engage in Irish traditional music "sessions," a highly social event where people get together with their fiddles, flutes, banjos, bagpipes, etc. to play some tunes, have some craic (Irish for general social banter and entertainment), maybe have a pint or two, and just in general share some times. Plenty of tunes are played, of course, but about a third of the time is spent between sets, just socializing, joking, telling stories, etc. It's a grand time for those into pure socializing the old way. That's what a session is supposed to be. It is generally frowned upon for somebody to pull out their mobile device and start tweeting away. Does it have to be like that for all social events? Not necessarily, but there is an example of technology not overtaking the basic social etiquete of gatherings.

Hell, one used to be able to go into a bar and the whole point of it was to socialize. Nowadays if you go into a bar you are met with a barage of noise and images from 12 different flatscreens, and everybody is glued to either their favorite game on TV or their mobile device. I mean, why even go to a bar if you're going to avoid people? And all of this is coming from a guy who is not terribly social.

The last time I was in Ireland, you had some clubs that were meant for going to and catching sporting events and such, and others, the pubs, that might have a single TV in the corner, or a few gambling machines in the back room, but mostly it's just people stepping in to catch a pint and a bit of talk, and better yet if they pour a particularly good pint of Guinness. One pub I went into had zero televisions, no entertainment machines of any kind, no billiards even, but the place was packed with people drinking and actually having conversations, and the only sound other than that was a session of 4 or 5 guys in the corner cranking out some bloody good tunes at conversational level (no amplification is involved in a session). It was terrific. My wife and I settled into a nice booth, met the occasional strangers who would share the booth with us, and listened to the atmospheric fiddly-dee music while getting to know new people.

Part of the problem is that too many parents don't place expectations or rules in regard to mobile devices. In fact, many of them want their kids on social media so they can constantly monitor them. So this social media addiction is being enforced even by parents. Like I said, I don't have a problem with the technology, just that people have allowed themselves to be overtaken to the point of at least some level of abandonment of manners in human interaction.

[The Gravekeeper]

Ah, but you have to be past a certain point in your life to pull this off. Right now, I can't. I get assignments e-mailed to me, I have to use the internet to do research since the libraries around here often don't have the articles I need, etc. I barely use my cell phone for anything other than checking the time, though, and getting rid of it would be a terrible idea since it's the only quick and reliable way I can communicate with anyone when I'm away from my computer.

My social life? Not where I'd like it to be right now because, thanks to jobs, homework, and poor transit on the weekends, it's often not possible to get together with people. That said, I had a great time a club meeting last night, and the only times phones and such like came out was to check the time or simply to check if there were any new e-mails in inboxes. No texting, no answering messages, just a quick check and then right back to the conversation.

[El Misfit]

depends on where you view it. On one hand, social media can be used as propaganda to further the ever growing line dividing left and right politics. Only the ones that aren't bat s**t insane are usually the ones that get criticized the most for not being "too enthusiastic" about the more extremist views. Social media can exaggerate s**t to make the more money that the "reporters" demand, esp on stuff like Kim K., Snooki, Brad Pitt, etc.

On the other hand, it could help people who has never seen other places in the world and see it as it is, during that time.

It really depends on what you watch and judge it on.

[Jack]

Guess I'm from the generation that grew up before this stuff was popular and look at it as a bunch of junk.  We went on a riverboat cruise a while back and there was a guy who was there with friends, yet spent the whole time talking on his cell phone - about electronic gadgets.  He ignored not only the beautiful scenery going by, the entire experience that I would assume he was there to enjoy, but his real-life friends who were right there in front of him as well.

I dunno, I enjoy this site and a couple of others, but I've never had a Twitter acct., I set up a Facebook acct. just because someone insisted I do, so they could send me a bunch of spam that they also forwarded to their other 100 best friends (I haven't been back there in ages).  I don't use my cell phone;  hell I barely know how to make a call on it.  I don't have a mic for my video game console, I hate online games, the whole experience is just pitiful.  Yet it's this pitiful stuff that so many gamers seem to relish  

I'm baffled as to what these people who are always on their cell phones talk about all day.  Though I'd bet money that it's absolutely nothing.  Just gotta keep the lips flappin' 24/7.

[The Burgomaster]

Yes.  But I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.  Facebook, for instance, has allowed me to reconnect with dozens of people I never would have found if Facebook didn't exist. 

[JaseSF]

Yes it is taking over the lives of those who let it but really it's just another entertainment distraction from the true reality of life for the most part. Some people seem to be seriously addicted spending all their free time on phones and texting this or that or playing silly, pointless games. ulthar is right though, it's ultimately one's own choice if one lets it consume their lives. Me, I don't own a cell phone nor do I want one yet I've had people look at me like I had three heads when I said that and another friend told me "it's like you don't exist if you aren't on Facebook"...which I found disturbing because he generally seem to feel that way but which personally don't believe.

[HappyGilmore]

Mobile devices today are internet media. 20 years ago hardly anyone had a cell, now 6 year olds do.

I think it's a bit much. People at bars standing next to each other texting or tweeting.

At concerts (which aren't cheap), no lighters are in the air. Instead, cell phone lights as people are filming/taking pictures/tweeting and facebooking. Just ENJOY the show. Same for movies.

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

The reliance is scaring me... companies want everything to be smart phoen driven. 

I think what is really taking over our lives is marketing.
-Ed

[ulthar]

I think what is really taking over our lives is marketing.
-Ed

Exactly!  Which is really scary if you think about how so many people believe, not just casually but really buy into, the marketing stuff they see and hear.

I fear it's all part of a grander manipulation of our minds.  Institutional education absolutely breeds this kind of "just listen to what you are told" behavior....just accept.

To make it bad movie forum related, I think a viewing of THEY LIVE is in order....

[The Gravekeeper]

I think what is really taking over our lives is marketing.
-Ed

Now, why do Apple fanatics immediately spring to mind?

[Mofo Rising]

I disagree with the central tenet of this argument.

Yes, social networking can take over your life, but only if you're a jackass.

If you're lucky enough to be able to be afford being connected to a vast communication network all the time, more power to you. The internet, and all its subsidiary creations, are often presented as an information source or a waste of time. It's both of those things, but where it really shines is in the way that it has created a new form of communication between people. In that sense, it is a truly revolutionary invention.

I've been in many groups of people who all have the latest smart phones, and I don't ever find that they are fooling with them to the extent that they are ignoring the friends they are with. They're just another tool, anybody who ignored the people around them to fool around on them would be ignored to the same extent. Malsocial losers, not uncommon.

I have a Facebook account, a Twitter account, probably some other things as well. They're just communication tools. Facebook is essentially a big bulletin board, where you can post things that are maybe relevant, maybe stupid. It's important to note that this message board is yet another form of social networking. I've had some of the most intellectually stimulating arguments on this board, and I can safely count some of the people I've met on this board as true friends, even though I've never met them in "real life."

Social networking isn't a blight, it's a new tool for communication, and it works like gangbusters. Now if you want to talk about unscrupulous monetarization of the whole thing, you're on safer ground. But that's just a side-product of our worship of money, you don't need to buy into that.

[dean]

Anything that helps me maintain a semblance of a social life whilst still being able to work, study and watch crappy movies is a definite benefit.  It's tiring trying to socialize with everyone I know all the time, but whom I still want to touch base with.  A sneaky chat/message/text/wall post is a good effective way of keeping up connections without devoting time to driving out, grabbing a drink/meal/etc if all I want to do is say hi.

As for the marketing, more and more generations are growing up submerged in it and we seem to grow more immune.  The ad bar to the right of screen on this site for example is just part of the white noise that my brain filters out.  Same goes for any other online marketing, so I'm not too fussed; if people want to spend time creating ads fine, I sure as hell don't generally pay them much attention and my life is no poorer or greater for it, but if it means the site I like can afford to generate content I enjoy without paying for it, all the better.

[Trevor]

Aside from my home here, I only post on the IMDB and a Moody Blues board ~ I check my FB account probably no more than once a week, not more. I could actually do without Twitter and stuff like that.