Social Media Alienation
I no longer believe that all social media “tools” are broadly beneficial. Some are, and some aren’t. As well as hanging out online, often trialing and sometimes adopting and using internet and mobile technologies, I’ve been extensively attending podcasting conventions, social media cafés, and meetups for the last two years, along with many other more conventional kinds of social and professional gathering, based on different industries, professional interests, and education, and I guess that puts me in a good place to sum up.
The more expensive conventions are not any better in terms of either learning or making connections. The cheaper ones are not any better at being friendly or creative.
The Social Media Myth is that the ‘organic’, small-scale, newer and less well-known kinds of gatherings are somehow more worthwhile than the organised, larger, older and more conventional conventions. Many times, the gatherings are organised around web technologies such as wikis, the geek’s version of MySpace groups, and Twitter, the geek’s preferred instant messenger.
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve turned up at these meetings and been met with a hundred geeks armed with enough technology to ward off alien invaders - laptops, mobile phones, video recorders, and sundry special devices of all shapes and sizes. The meetings are all supposed to be about social networking but everyone is so busy scanning for available WiFi or attempting bluetooth connections, they fail to contact one another on a human level.
Rather than closing the gaps, the technology in these situations is serving as a prophylactic. Perfectly sane people experience disjointed communication, interactions which are cut into pieces by video blogging, live video streaming and all the rest of the paraphernalia usually experienced solo at their desktop. Underneath this frenzy of technical play, often remains a loneliness which characterises many of their lives and to which, post-gathering, they return, having been prevented from achieving the intimacy they so badly need by the technology they have replaced it with.
This situation is maintained by a kind of social group denial, which does not recognise the negative impact of technology, and refuses to see the shadow side of the behaviour. Personally, I find it depressing. I value and enjoy spontaneity and it disturbs me to see tools which are claimed to enhance creativity and connection actually produce the opposite effect. I’d like to see some gatherings where the technology was checked in at the door; I’d like these social media early adopters to put aside their crutches regain their social muscles while they still can.
Hello fella.
I know what you mean. Most videos I have seen of any of these meet ups includes a lot of people with their heads buried behind laptops.
Now, I am not saying that I wouldn’t do any different … but I know what you mean.
Another fav is to hide behind a cup / pint glass / mug of tea or coffee (you get my drift) … they all offer support in some way.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:04 am
I have flounced, well more like exploded out of the seespit. You see there are certain things that I absolutely hate about web 2, the usual things, social networks, cliques etc, acceptance issues, but mostly about the seesmic system, or should I say the people that frequent it. I have trouble when I am tipsy in keeping my feelings to myself and it tends to make girls cry and thus, grown men, with beards, get all chivalrous defending them. And it might be me, but some people don’t half talk some shit, and some even use it as an alternative to skype or ichat or even MSN or Yahoo! having conversations in public.
“It’s just like walking into a coffee shop and tagging onto someone’s conversation and joining in, ” But because you can’t tune into a conversation without clicking on the video, and then finding out that you don’t really want to talk shit, or you see that the conversation is private, or the person may be someone who gets your back up, at least in a real coffee shop you can migrate to another part of the shop and never have to make eye contact or over hear their conversations, in seesmic you can’t do that.
PS I have tuned into 138 media and found his review fantastic.
Thanks for your concern, but I really don’t think I will be using seesmic anytime soon. Maybe we could still stay in touch via skype or e-mail.
Peace.
Paul
May 26th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Amen, brother, amen.
Balance.
That’s what we need.
Without it, all we have is anti-social media.
I have this problem at home and I don’t know how to deal with it yet.
Facebook (Hobo Wars), Yahoo Answers, Sermo, etc.
Something is very wrong when people prefer to spend time attached to technology instead of interacting with live human beings who are right there with them.
I find it depressing too, very depressing.
That said, I am managing to leverage the connections I do make to enhance our social life.
Recently got back from LA visiting.
Relationships achieved through social media. I think when it is used correctly, it works. However, that takes effort, and it is all too easy to let it become focussed on itself.
Bottom line, we need to remember to focus on being sociable, period.
May 28th, 2008 at 11:05 am