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.
No comments:
Post a Comment