Social networking and our future.

Hello ATS, It has been a while

I have been thinking lately about social networking and the impact it will have on the future of mankind, already it has bought us together in a way that it's impossible to see ourselves any further apart, a catch-up with an old friend now occurs through Facebook message when it used to occur via a drink at the local pub/bar and i try to live via these old traditions but nobody is so keen to make an effort to see people in this way anymore.

I am right now talking to you all through a network, i cannot see your faces and you cannot see mine, i don't know who you really are and yet through connecting this way through a non-personal type of communication we in some way feel connected to the outside world, but isn't this type of communication meaningless? Does nobody fear that been reduced to mere words on a screen encourages us to lose everything that we are?

Is social media encouraging us to come together or is it really teaching us how to be alone?

Regards,

TedHodge

a reply to: TedHodgson

Its not a future with social online networking that scares me, its the reliance on it.

It just being gone one day is the thing we should worry about. While many like my self wont care much, we will be effected still. The hordes of people, walking out side, squinting in the sunlight, like zombies brought back to life.

However back on topic: I think that it wont get much worse than it is now. Honestly. We are already at the stage of 90% of people on a bus FB-ing on their various devices, the only thing to get worse is the number of ways they can access it. Google glass is going to be an issue if it takes off, start being able to buy Oakleys with GG installed (google glass) as standard and such.

ZOMBIE NATION! Its just brains talking to other brains, while the body goes to work or sustains itself.

a reply to: Biigs

I must solemnly admit it is only a matter of time before we lose everything that makes us "us" and a new generation comes to pass where everything we think and do will be just data with no physical attribute .

I think social media is a way to make one's self the center of the Universe...

Look at my pictures! Look at me! I have so many "friends"! I'm important! I matter! Here's what I did last night! Here's what I'm doing now! Here's what I'm going to do tonight! This is important to me! This is what I like! Basically, I'm the center of the universe!

I don't like it. I think it creates a false sense of communication, belonging and self-importance. The "friendships" created aren't real. And, as someone said, the dependence on the medium is CRAZY!

I posted about a study that was done recently where people sat in a room alone for 15 minutes (without any gadgetry). They had the option to just sit there or to shock themselves. Over half chose to shock themselves rather than to just sit there with their thoughts. Crazy! I think we're programmed to have something going ALL the time. Some input, entertainment, music, computer, social media, games, etc.

And I believe the existence of social media enforces that.

a reply to: TedHodgson

social media is tearing us apart..i have a great example...i used to play this video game....during your turn if you died you could talk to each other while waiting for the next round. Back in about 2000 it was so much fun because we all talked about things as we were "dead" which was almost as fun as the game itself. I recently started playing the same game again in 2014....its almost creepy silence on it. maybe people who are friends will talk among each other or you have the one idiot who plays his music really loud until we all ban him but it it totally different from over a decade ago. I completely blame this on social media...there is no "real" interaction any more and people can say and do what they want online feel invincible. We even see it here sometimes.

a reply to: TedHodgson

I enjoy conversing with others from different areas of the planet, being exposed to others ideas (though I don't always agree and state such) and educated about others lives throughout the planet from a personal perspective. The MSM doesn't give me that.

But one thing about social media that irks me is the people who troll/bully, just for grins and giggles. Back in the day before the interwebz, most would never display such behavior because they knew if they did, they would get beat down at some point. I know that they are a small percentage, but we still see them often enough, and occasionally fail ourselves and feed them as well.

a reply to: TedHodgson

Is social media encouraging us to come together or is it really teaching us how to be alone?

It's not teaching us anything, we are teaching it; that's the whole point of the systems that are being employed, they can only learn from our click-stream data.

We teach the systems by using them, even if a human admistrator tweaks the system it can only be tweaked based on models built from data genearated by users.

It's a closed loop and we all make adjustments to how we use the systems based on the feedback that is presented, and you guessed it: that feedback is feeding back from the data generated when we use the systems.

It's recursive, like it is supposed to be.

Social media is reflecting back at us what we put in to it.

a reply to: TedHodgson

I started reading a Novel on this subject lately, I think its intriguing enough to share this, I admit Ive been skimming through a pdf of the boring parts, there are some details that are great to read and know, and the narrative story is intriguing.

en.wikipedia.org...(2013_novel)