Before we ask what social media has changed about our interactions with others, we must ask who we are as a people and how this is reflected in social media. While social media has potentially changed even the most minute details of our existence, it would behoove us to realize how much of this is an attempt to communicate with others and make our presence known. We probably do spend too much time in front of a screen, perhaps even three screens at a time, but we wouldn't do this unless we, at some level, obtained some sort of gratification from this. This is because social media, on a more personal level, serves as one of two things: a reflection of ourselves or a reflection of who we aspire to become.
As a reflection of who we are, this is what Mashable has to say about us Americans: We are obsessed with royalty - 65% of all social media related to the royal wedding was American. Perhaps by default, this also indicates our obsession with celebrities, seeing as the three most followed Twitters are Lady Gaga's, Justin Bieber's, and Barack Obama's. This desire to vicariously live the life of others demonstrates a desire to be distracted from reality - there are 63 million users of Farmville in the US and they play Farmville a full 15 minutes a day, pretending to run a farm. The need to be in a dream world is reflected in the outside world when things from the online world become hot topics and people are left out when they don't have Facebook accounts or Twitter accounts. This further prompts the usage of these social media sites and perpetuates a constant stream of new users. Americans are also heavily influenced by one another - purchasing decisions of up to 38 million Americans are affected by social media, up 14% in just six months. Perhaps more telling of American lifestyle is the fact that 6/7 American homes are connected and 9/10 Americans are online.
Hispanic and African American students are most likely to meet people online. Leaving behind the race issue, we will notice that it has become more acceptable to meet people online. Previously, people were to be met in person. Children were told not to trust anyone they had not actually met, including and especially not people from the Internet. When you wanted to see someone, you had to actually go out or mail each other pictures. Now, you just have to log onto Skype or any other similar chat service. It is now that we can ask if social media then kills you for your naivette. Well, does it? Not usually. What social media does kill is your attention span. Social networking is a constant responsibility: one minute, you're talking to one person. The next, you're juggling four or five conversations with more on the way. Your brain becomes used to the reassurance it gets and you become like a toddler, always calling for the attention of your mother. Switching from one conversation to the next, you lose your ability to focus.
To bring back an article from months ago, the New York Times has shortened their article lengths in the last fifty years and added an index for "time harried readers". What a way to say, "We were losing readership because our readers can't handle anything more two pages anymore." This rising inability to focus may also be a contributing factor to the now prevalent ADHD, attention deficit hyper activity disorder. Eroding social constraints include the act of looking at someone while speaking to someone. Too often, there's now a phone in their face and they're mumbling to you about some nonsense or the other. In that scenario, there now exists two worlds in the same place - the real and the virtual. Another article stressed the fundamental difference in computer screen sharing and real life conversations. On a computer, you can hide behind your computer and make witty statuses about your puppy all you like. In person, no one is willing to stand there and perfect their "wit" because that results in a lack of conversational flow and awkwardness.
http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/education/social-networking-young-adults/
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/is-social-networking-killing-you/
http://mashable.com/2011/08/12/social-media-infographic/
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