Social media isn't really a 'new' thing anymore. I don't think it can be described as a 'fad' and I don't think people can convince themselves that it's merely a 'craze' that will pass in time. I think that social media is here for good. I'm not saying that I think Facebook will be around forever, we all learnt from the fast demise of MySpace how quickly these things come and go. But overall, I think social media, in one form or another is here to stay.
But how will that affect us as human beings? What will the long term affects be on our relationships with the real world and real people?
I am, by far, the most active user of social media in my group of friends. Recently, I have started to question how this affects their perception of me and their feelings towards me. Being the author of a lifestyle blog, every piece of my life is detailed on a daily basis for everyone to see. At the moment, my friends find this quite a novel idea and laugh about how they don't need to ask me what I've been up to anymore because they already know. But how will that have an impact on the way people interact with me in the future?
Will they tire of seeing and hearing about me all the time? Not only do I keep a blog but I also update Facebook and Twitter several times a day. Will they stop inviting me to parties for fear of photographic evidence of their drunken antics ending up on Facebook for friends and colleagues to see?
What about the meaning of the word 'social'? Has 'social' media mutated the meaning of 'social'?
I'm sure most people have a friend who spends all their time at parties and another who spends all their time talking to people online - which do you consider more social? Most people would probably say the one at parties. But what defines that? Why is one considered to be more social than the other, even in this day and age where checking Facebook is the first thing most people do in the morning when they wake up?
So what becomes of the friendships that we build online? Being a blogger, there is a very strong community online and I have got to know some great people, who I would consider friends, despite never having met them in real life.
I can imagine some people are thinking me foolish to consider these people to be friends of mine, but really, how do they differ from friends made the traditional way? I've probably got more in common with my blogger friends than my real life friends. In some cases, I probably spend a lot more time communicating with the people I know on Twitter.
So, in the end, I don't think the question really is whether social media is making us less social or not. I think the question is, what does 'social' mean in the 21st century?
For more social media musings, head over to www.fourkilos.wordpress.com