Ever since the invention of social media, after blogs and on-line diaries had been invented, people began to lose the opportunity to physically interact. Generation X, Y, and Z are going to be the first to adapt to these changes a lot more than those of older generations, or people who oppose of popular culture such as me. The problem arises just like with anything else, no matter how humans are able to communicate, whether it’s through the phone, mail, telegraph, the internet, or just physical interaction, drama happens, and I’m not talking about drama as in Shakespeare’s time. I am talking about real drama in which a dispute gets out of hand, and gossip is usually the main culprit. Many people, especially teenagers in generation Y and Z, act more immature than they are supposed to be. Most of it is caused by conformity and the need to be like others, to impress one another just to get higher social rankings. If you look back at my rudeness essay along with my other posts, you will find some information that may refresh your mind.
Let’s begin with definitions. What is social media, exactly? What is the primary use of it. Why is it here? Social media is a form of social interaction between humans who share a bond, whether it is mutual, relative, or biological. They use a variety of technological devices that hook up to a main infrastructure. From there, it gets as simple as this. Think of social media as a new planet, a virtual Earth. There are people from all around our real world who join social media. The only difference is that it is all being viewed through a different face than it would be if it was through the phone or through some party line, etc, even radios (amateur and non-amateur) are different than they were before. Social media can be customised. Your profile is your house. You build your house so others can stop by and check it out as they wander the streets. This is like when you physically go to houses of friends and neighbors, except that it is done virtually.
Blogging is somewhat different. Blogging is where you can put up a virtual journal or diary, and, depending on what it is, you can let others read it and hope someone will share your interests. You can link blogs to social media to expand your interests to others. Blogs are meant to share thoughts and feelings with others around the world and is not primarily designed for social interaction.
Now, let’s get down to the differences in between real life and virtual interaction. Remember that this is one of many ways you can picture what social media is like. To everyone, social media is simply a page in your browser, a client you use, etc that allows you to connect to the server..on someone else’s machine, and then you would use the controls to find the person you want to interact with and then move on. In real life, people would actually transport themselves over to where the person dwells and interact with that person. On social media, a person can build their profile, update them, add photos, share other photos, and do a wide number of things. In real life, a person can tack real photos to their door, decorate the insides, make it look neat, and if a friend copies their photo for you, you can share it by putting it inside your house. Perhaps one of the major differences of all is identity. On the internet, identity can be hidden very easily, but location and machine usage is very hard to change. In real life, identity is hard to change because it requires a whole lot of work in body alteration. Many people choose not to take part of the social media because they prefer real-life interaction. This doesn’t keep them from spying on the virtual world, though. Employers can hunt an employee using a search tool that allows them to track down that person’s virtual house, and then they can vet that person.
Chatting versus talking: This is something that has piques my curiosity for quite a while. Chatting is basically like telegraphy or phone. You send a person instant mail, and then they respond. This is different from texting or e-mail, which is like telegrams and regular snail mail, though certainly much faster. Video chatting is carrying the voice and or body language from one person through a relay, after which is delivered to the other party. In real life, people can talk over the phone or simply talk in open air. Now here is what gets my interest. Could a person actually say something in voice that would be more awkward to utter than it would be for a person to text? That medium offers little emotion, and therefore, it makes it hard to interpret what someone is saying and how. There is a saying that you can write to a fellow something you can never tell them face-to-face.
Now, where does the problem come in? Humans are constantly putting up signs on the walls of their houses, or they would be airing their dirty linens so anyone passing by would know that this person had a fight with their partner because of such and such. Or they can no longer be friends with this and that. Or, what if they posted a sign mentioning another person who has no access to, or is not a member on that platform, and their friends learns about it because of what you said? What about spelling? Since we are primarily chatting, spelling and grammar correction has been a major issue. Of course, this would mostly not apply to snail mail and talking, except for correcting someone on order of words or something along those lines. We would also assume that people proofread their correspondences before sending them.
Privacy is a major issue that humans want to have, based on two philosophies. The first philosophy is that of John Locke, and the second is called Information Wants to be Free, which is a part of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Truth is, our rights are constantly being misinterpreted by the government and by ourselves, and we are limiting each other to say what we should say without libel and slander. It is okay to post a sign outside your wall saying that you want this and that, but if you keep it in a general attitude, it may not gain as much attention than if it were specifically targetted at someone or something. I think that you should have the freedom to say what you want to say, if you can deal with the consequences that will follow. Many pessimists say that you shouldn’t say this because it was offending them even though the original person didn’t think it was rude at all. This is where rudeness is interpreted by humans. Optimists are usually supportive and help people team up to become a unity so that the person doesn’t experience the pain alone. We must take steps to etify, rather than berate one another.
Now, how do we get this under control? Some people, such as myself, are considering a revolution of sorts to get back into balance. What this will entail I know not, but it will definitely involve using social justice. Some people want to reclaim words that were originally meant to be harmless but are now becoming more pejorative. I remember Wikipedia shutting down all service in protest of ending piracy. http://www.tandiltheme.com/2012/01/reddit-and-wikipedia-will-go-dark-in-sopa-protest/ I am thinking of balancing out privacy and publicity since things are now becoming more and more open, like sexuality, gender, etc that are constantly being talked about in the media in our modern society. However, there are good reasons for this. We’re doing it to educate and raise awareness, not to belittle these issues and turn them into perverted situations. I heard of some people wanting to start new religionsb based on old ones to fit these changes, so they would have an inclusive bible with gender-neutral pronouns and titles. Truth is, I don’t know when the day will be when our world will be perfect. It may never be, or it might be when the day comes when humans are able to become immortal; I doubt I will see that happen, though.