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Parent Category: Advanced News Lessons

Category: Science and Technology

Written by Chris Cotter

Do social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter promote social interaction, or do they encourage people to become recluses? The sites - and there are dozens and dozens of them - have now caught on with working professionals. In fact, people over twenty-five are the largest growing demographic of users, primarily because of the increased demands placed on time. People are more harried than ever, with demands at work and at home clamoring for immediate attention. Social networking sites allow people to stay in contact with friends and family, and without scheduling face time.

But other reasons than time management exist. Social networking sites allow users to keep in contact with "proximity friends "- people who are or were close physically but not personally. Think of ex-classmates, ex-colleagues, parents of the children your kids play with in the neighborhood, and friends of friends. We may send these people holiday and birthday cards, call with congratulations of a wedding or a newborn, or express condolences of a death in the family. Face to face contact, however, remains largely nonexistent.

There is then the sense of contact, lots and lots of contact. As a result, many view the networking sites as a tool that fosters communication. The contact may be superficial and achieved through emails and instant messages, yet many people now know more small details about one another. As long as the personal pages are regularly updated, it's easy to share photos or hear about kids, achievements, and other important news.

Although people "talk" with one another more frequently, they rarely do so without the forced solitude of a computer. Social networking sites beg the following question then: Are people becoming social hermits?