Massucci's Take: Is social-media making us less social?
Filed under: Company News, Technology, People, Apple
Recently, I noticed I'm using fewer cell phone minutes as I spend more time on Twitter and Facebook. It has me wondering, is social media making me less social?How about President Barack Obama? Will he be less likely to speak his mind in public after ABC News reporters used Twitter to spread his off-the-record comment about Kanye West acting like a "jackass" on MTV's video music awards show? TMZ.com, owned by DailyFinance's parent company AOL, then published audio and video of those comments. Will such incidents cause celebrities and non-celebrities to be more on guard for fear that their every move may be made public via social media?
It seems plausible, especially as more of us walk around with cell phones equipped with cameras, voice and video recorders. Fact is, we're all in danger of having embarrassing behavior broadcast to the world.
So imagine yelling at the manager at your local grocery store for a worthwhile reason. Now imagine having that discourse posted on YouTube and having it seen by your grandmother and countless people half-a-world away - in a very different context. You might get the 15-minutes of fame you've always, or never, wanted. Would you have been better off swallowing your pride and avoiding the altercation?
Dr. Pamela Rutledge, director of Boston-based Media Psychology Research Center, says fears caused by social media are no different than those sparked by other technology changes seen in history. Socrates didn't like it when people started writing, she says, because he thought it would take away our ability to remember. Some people, such as Rutledge's grandmother, worried after the telephone was invented that people would no longer visit her.
"People don't like change much," Rutledge says. "Biologically, we're wired to worry about change. We like things to stay the same because that's how we find stability."
No wonder, then, that people now fear that social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook will actually make us less social.
But maybe those people have it wrong. Jeff Pulver, who co-founded Vonage and hosts Twitter conferences in cities including Los Angeles, New York and Tel Aviv, argues that social media should be celebrated, not feared. "Social media helps increase self-expression," he says. "It provides a platform for everyone's voice to be heard. People who are not confident about their voice, discover that their voice matters."
But maybe those people have it wrong. Jeff Pulver, who co-founded Vonage and hosts Twitter conferences in cities including Los Angeles, New York and Tel Aviv, argues that social media should be celebrated, not feared. "Social media helps increase self-expression," he says. "It provides a platform for everyone's voice to be heard. People who are not confident about their voice, discover that their voice matters."
Pulver argues that President Obama's "jackass" comment may have been shared over CompuServe or AOL's AIM instant-messaging service even a decade ago. So don't blame Twitter. It just happens to be the forum used in 2009. In some ways, Twitter has had a transformative power the way the telephone or radio did when they were introduced.
"No one at Twitter envisioned that it would be a change-agent for politics or that it would be a platform allowing celebrities to talk to their fans or that Hollywood producers would live in fear each time a movie opens.," Pulver says. That's because folks on Twitter can quickly praise or condemn a new release to thousands of people, possibly leading to the film's success or demise.
Perhaps a better question is whether social media is actually making society more social? Laurs, Rutledge and Pulver think that's the case - and they may be right. Even so, the next time you think you may flip your lid in public, be aware that there may be a camera or microphone pointed your way.
Now, excuse me while I update my Facebook status.
Anthony Massucci is a senior writer and columnist for DailyFinance. You may follow him on Twitter at hianthony.
Perhaps a better question is whether social media is actually making society more social? Laurs, Rutledge and Pulver think that's the case - and they may be right. Even so, the next time you think you may flip your lid in public, be aware that there may be a camera or microphone pointed your way.
Now, excuse me while I update my Facebook status.
Anthony Massucci is a senior writer and columnist for DailyFinance. You may follow him on Twitter at hianthony.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
9-22-2009 @ 5:03PM
Arthur! said...
Yes! I have been saying this for a long time. When you sit home surfing and chatting you are not really being social.
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9-22-2009 @ 5:57PM
Jack said...
Less Social? Like you think? look around, do you live in a community were no one talks to any one else? More and more people are pulling away and pulling in, and it is adding to the apathy that is growing so quickly in this country, with all that is going on in this county, how many of you have called, written your elected officals to complain, to ask? We should all be livit at what is going on, and how our government is adding to the greed that feeds this country and others, it is time to take it back, read the constitution, when government gets too big and ineffective then it is the people who must take it back. Will you?
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9-28-2009 @ 11:27PM
Oscar said...
I bet that you're the life of the party. Yes, people should be socially aware, but frantic paranoia doesn't encourage any kind of discourse because people shy away from those who seem to be coming apart at the seams.
9-22-2009 @ 6:00PM
betsy said...
Remember "Big Brother is Watching You"?? Well Big Brother is now YOU with a cell phone, a camera, and any other recording device. So when you think you are alone, you are not. Someone is spying on you with their cell phone/camera!
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9-22-2009 @ 6:36PM
Tom Whitworth said...
Everyone with half a brain knows Obama stageged that whole fiasco on twitter. He did so to make himself look like he was a thoughtful person, but we know he's much worse than Conye West because he threatened to call out anyone with guts enough to voice political dissent.
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9-22-2009 @ 7:03PM
S321Saint said...
I dont understand why to concern. Obie's private comments were made public..SO WHAT? I mean he is a public official, so we have the right to know. I dont remember articles like this when a certain Republican (now ex) Senator's comments about an incessant idiot following him around was thrown out to the world and used as an excuse to say he was not good for office. I'm sure if you heard Obie's private comments about Republicans and Conservatives most of those who voted for him would lead a recall petition. But like with John Kennedy, it will never come out..and if anything does.....it will get squashed..like Teddy's little aquatic "fender bender" in Chappaquiddick. Enjoy theh Obama Recession.....change is what you wanted...and you got it...
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9-24-2009 @ 1:03PM
Stanley said...
Yes, we got change. And it's killing you, isn' it? Go suck a dick.
9-22-2009 @ 7:16PM
bailoutsos said...
About 5 years ago, a comedian said something like "Isn't funny that we get online to interact with someone 3,000 miles away, but we will not even talk with our neighbors."
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9-23-2009 @ 1:51PM
jake_iv said...
You are correct - less social, hide behind false IDs and spew hate, use codes instead of words and think you can contribute something to society with 140 characters. And the pundits wonder why schools cannot turn out competent performers?
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9-27-2009 @ 3:26PM
AG said...
This world will not be around long. People are very angry ,abusive and anitsocial. THERE ARE NO MORE MORALS IN TODAYS SOCIETY. THIS PEOPLE, IS VERY SAD IN DEED.
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9-22-2009 @ 10:11PM
mthudak said...
Well, they are certainly making us less literate. Case in point, the title of this blog should be "Are the Social Media...," as "media" is the plural term for medium. Folks who respond to various blogs, etc., can't spell (I see someone wrote "livit" when the word is "livid," didn't read too many other responses to this, however). Between the abbreviated words and the abbreviated phrases people use on Twitter, Facebook, etc., writing a sentence and spelling words properly have both gone down the tubes. I teach college, and many of our students write papers as though they are leaving a message on Facebook. I really do believe these media are contributing to the "dumbing-down" of America. It doesn't help that those in the media use language, both written and spoken, incorrectly as well.
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9-23-2009 @ 1:35AM
Gonch said...
Exactly. I've been saying for years now that we are trying too hard to oversimplify things. Textspeak is Newspeak as far as I'm concerned. There was a story on AOL just the other day about some Twitter account that does 140 word / character versions of classical English literature.
Horrifying.
9-23-2009 @ 8:44AM
jnjarnold said...
Seems like I remember cringing when 'ebonics' was introduced as an actual class at certain colleges ----anyone ever wonder if that has had a negative effect on language as this 'newspeak-twitter-critter stuff has?
9-22-2009 @ 10:19PM
Sonja said...
As a member of the "older" generation I think all of this texting, tweeting, chatting/blogging online is nuts. I enjoy my computer to keep informed and to e-mail friends who live a long way from me, but I draw the line there. I feel there is so little privacy left and to partake in those other forms of constant commmunication about nothing, is a BIG waste of time. And, I feel that it's addictive and will be causing big problems in the future, if not now. I don't even care for my cell phone and seldom use it. If people can't get ahold of me at home, tough. I like to go about my business when I'm out without the interruption of a call on my cell phone. If I do make a call it's very short for a definite purpose. Some people have those things stuck in their ears constantly. I've always felt that I've kept up with the times, but it's gotten to the point of being rediculous and I quit!
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9-23-2009 @ 4:35AM
Nancy said...
>
Try this: "Is mistakes in grammar making me less literate?"
The answer to both is "Yes, they is, and apparently, they is eroding your English skills, as well." [Twit.] The word "media" is plural for "medium". Radio is a medium of communication, TV is another medium, a newspaper is another, Twitter is another, etc. Together, they are all "media". I can't stand it when so-called writers put on public display their poor command of English. The writer should have said "ARE social media making me less social?" The answer would still be "Yes, they are", but at least you would appear to have a command of English.
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9-23-2009 @ 6:55AM
Dr. Richard Wigginton said...
Very well said and alas, very true!
9-23-2009 @ 8:26AM
bob said...
annonymity tends to draw out the worst in people...
nasty comments and behaviors they'd avoid if
seen...and we kind of get innoculated against it...
so that bad behavior after a while does not seem quite to bad anymore and we accept it in our lives. some good slap downs would make the world a better place I imagine.
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9-23-2009 @ 8:27AM
arentany said...
The "digital" age has ensued in many profound changes in the human community, among these are: job losses via digital efficiencies; dehumanization through fragmentation of social consensus; loss of person-to-person comunnication skills (especially, loss of linguistic skills); exacerbation of the fragmentation of the family unit; the intermingling of essential differences between objective and opinionated reporting of the news; and lowering the standards of critical reasoning via punditry's illogic. These and many other losses went unseen in the rush to computerization, and they far outweigh the gains of what will be seen, in historical retrospect, as a major, negative shift in human culture.
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9-23-2009 @ 8:50AM
noam said...
On the contrary. Yes, twitter, facebook allow us to hide behind false pretense. As any internet based facilitator, wether email/blogs/IM... The moment I started using twitter, I enlarged the circle of people I'm in "real-world" contact with. More phones, more meetings. And it's not only me. Try to search for your local "Tweetup". Social media enlarges our personal circle if influence by magnitudes, and as a consequence, enlarges our overall "real-world" human reach, and consequently makes the cellular providers happy by a total larger bills (calls + sms + data) for our various social activities.
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9-23-2009 @ 9:30AM
Sarah said...
It's like all the college freshmen who sit in their dorm rooms chatting with old friends on Facebook (lamenting how they have no friends at their new school) instead of going out on campus and meeting new friends. Kids don't know how to face to face anymore!
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