Social media is changing the way in which we communicate with each other. We thrive off of “likes” and notifications that are making us superficial and self-centered. In Michael Wesch’s lecture on YouTube called “An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube,” Wesch discusses how media “mediate human relations.” I think that the new media of the Internet has changed the way we communicate, and in turn, changed the relationships we maintain.
According to Wesch’s lecture, “media is not content”(11:59). By this he means that the act of communicating is only meaningful when there is meaningful content. Take Facebook, for example. It is one of the largest and most popular social media sites. In a college atmosphere especially, I’ve noticed that I have more friends with Facebook profiles than without. I know that I personally rely on Facebook to keep up with friends that I don’t see often. Two of my best friends are studying abroad in Spain right now, and because it is hard to keep in touch with them on the phone, Facebook is very convenient. I message them when I’m thinking of them, and the posts and pictures on their profiles help me to stay updated on their adventures. They also have a Tumblr blog where they post pictures and stories about their time in Spain. These technologies help me to feel like my friends aren’t so far away. However, no amount of online chats and “liked” pictures are equal to a genuine face-to-face conversation with a friend. Wesch argues that the Internet allows for a deep state of community because everyone can be a part of it and it’s easier for people to communicate (30:40). He thinks that the distance helps us to form more strong connections because we can connect more easily. Although I agree with him in many ways, I do not think that this distance helps to make stronger connections. On the contrary, these connections are more shallow and meaningless than ever. Wesch himself says that “connecting deeply without the responsibilities of a deep connection” is what people are looking for online (30:45). He thinks that this is a positive thing that helps create community, but I think it is negative. Online communication takes little effort, and because of it’s short-term, 160 characters format, it is hard to say anything with meaning. In Sherry Turkle’s TED Talk titled “Connected but Alone?” she describes this as the Goldilocks Effect. Technology keeps us “close, but not too close”(5:56). Writing “Happy Birthday” on an old friend’s Facebook wall is not equivalent to picking out a card, writing them a note, and mailing it. That takes too much effort for this generation’s superficial Facebook “friendships.” We write “Happy Birthday” on an old friend’s wall because we want them to think that we still care. Suddenly, it doesn’t matter if you’re feelings are real, you just want everyone online to believe the illusion that you care; it’s all a show. According to Turkle, the problem with face-to-face conversations is that they “take place in real time, and you can’t control what you’re going to say” (6:20). The distance provided by the Internet gives us more control over the conversations because we can revise and rewrite our responses before sending them. We can decide what would make us sound cool or what the other person would want to hear. Real conversations don’t allow for this time to sit and consider your replies. Online, you only reveal as much of yourself as you want, and only receive the information given to you. Relationships can not be based only on short messages and comments because they lack real content. Although I am able to stay updated on the activies of my friends in Spain through social media, I still feel disconnect with them.
These shallow online conversations not only affect the relationships we have with others, but also the relationships we have with ourselves. Facebook is notorious for causing “hyper self-awareness” as Wesch would describe it (26:20). Facebook makes us aware of how people view us, and because Facebook is all about what you post on your profile, it can make people overly conscious of what people think of them. People believe that the number of “likes” on a picture determines how pretty or popular they are, and they base what they post off of what they think would get them the most “likes.” This is an easy way to let someone know that you are thinking of them, but without real conversation social media becomes more a form of entertainment than communication. This surface level conversation doesn’t work for actually getting to know each other. Since we now rely so heavily on social media, we are forgetting how to have real conversations that make real connections. Social media is making us isolated and ironically anti-social. Kids would rather sit on a computer in a chat room than go outside and play. Turkle claims that technology is compromising our “capacity for self-reflection” because “we use conversations with each other to learn how to have conversations with ourselves”(8:38). Because we lack deep discussions with people, we cannot have deep reflexive discussions with ourselves. Also, technology and the Internet is a part of our everyday lives. Between cell phones, school email accounts, and Facebook the Internet is hard to escape.
We often think of the internet as though it has been around forever, but it’s still very new and the affects that this media has on the world are still being revealed. Few would have guessed that technology would be sucha large part of every day life today. Although new technology is good, social media has made us shallow, lazy communicators. We have access to the world, and yet we are more alone than ever.
Works Cited
Wesch, Michael. “An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube.” Library of Congress, Washington D.C. June 23, 2008.
Turkle, Sherry. “Connected, but alone?” TED Talks. April 3, 2012.
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