Communicating Through Social Networks

Picture by greggortech

As an undergraduate student, my first college did not have the, now worldly know, Facebook, so I really had no idea what it was. Around that time – Facebook was the first big social networking scheme that slowly being available for all colleges. When I transferred schools – I’m not going to lie – the first thing I did, was create my Facebook profile. And thus, my social networking life was born. Ever since then new words have been created based on this social network giant. You will walk into a party – and you’ll overheard people saying phrases like: “Yo, I know your brother man – he was cool kid. You gotta facebook me man!”, then you see a person looking at a picture just taken – “New Profile Pic!”, and finally the ever popular -  “Make sure you tag me in that pic!”

These phrases are just the beginning of the new verbs that have transpired with the new world of social

Picture by Tobi, made by greggortech

networking. When I was growing up – the only social networking service we had was AIM, so when you met someone for the first time – you would also get the question “Do you have AIM?”. Nowadays, its completely different. Before, after a girl and guy met for the first time there was rule on how many days you had to wait before you called. Now, there is a number of days you have to wait to friend them on Facebook or MySpace. It also depends who friends who first – you don’t have to be a friend slut now do you?

Over the past couple of years text messaging has been a popular alternative for the those quick messages. Nowadays, everyone used text messages – supposedly it’s just much easier than just calling the person. Teenagers these days spent hours just texting back and forth with their friends – instead of picking up the phone. And with that, a new verb has been created - to text; meaning to send a SMS message to a person.

When it comes down to it – social networking is taking the social of out networking. Sure – its easier and quicker to send a text to a friend, or check the status of a friend on Facebook or MySpace – but with that we are starting to drift away from standard communication. Technology makes it easier, but what will happen to your mind as you grow? Will you be too afraid to confront your client in person, so you will send them an email instead? This happens now all the time – what will be like in 25 years? It will be interesting to note how the children of the facebook age will grow up with this lack of direct communication.

Don’t get me wrong – I love social networking. It’s my hobby – but I don’t let that get in the way of me actually communication with people. I use as a tool to meet new people that are interested in the same things as me. As a tool for that – it brings the world together. But the issue at hand, is that people use it as there only tool, instead of using there own skills and personality to the table. The Internet is like Las Vegas – you can be whoever you want to be. People think that they are something they are not through the Internet which can change the way a person is now. That’s not how you want to use social networking – you want to bring the whole together, not recreate the world. In 50 years – will Facebook be the Yellowpages of the 21st century? Instead of ordering a pizza by calling the phone number – will you post on Pizza Hut’s wall – requesting what you want? What do you think about social networking? Sound off in the comments section.

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