Day 1: Five Problems with Social Media

Social Media is great. It provides many, many ways to stay in touch with family and friends. Through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and others, there is constant updates about people. The wonderful new technology, like smart phones and tablets, make it simple to update and stay informed on what is happening. Like every good thing, there is a bad side. The ease of use of social media has resulted in many different problems. Five of these problems are a lack of interaction with the physical world, over sharing, ease of stalking and cheating, and lack of intimacy. Overall we need to consider the message being taught to the next generation.

When you walk into a store, a restaurant, or Starbucks and look around you will most likely see at least 50 percent of the people interacting with their phones or tablets. There is little to no interaction with their friends or family sitting right besides them. Amusingly, some of these people may be looking at social updates of the person sitting right there. We have become a world of zombies. Technology has made communication with long distance friends or family members easier, but our focus on social media has destroyed the simple art of interaction. Everyone is so focused on the latest facebook post, tweet or instagram no one is taking the time to talk to the person right next to them.

Technology has made using social media easier, so much so that is common to see over sharing. Over sharing is revealing an inappropriate amount of detail about personal life. Sharing happy, joyous, sad, or important news to people quickly is a wonderful benefit of social media, especially to out of town friends and family. Though the ease of use has created the habit of sharing the mundane or unnecessary. Most people do not want to see a hundred selfies of their friends or care if they went to the bathroom. Popular posts are nasty fights between couples held over facebook or twitter. As amusing as someone else's life might be, somethings should be kept private. In fact, over sharing has become so commonplace, it is used as stupid jokes.

All this information has made stalking easier. Most social media have an option of posting your current location for everyone to see. No need to follow someone around, all a stalker needs to do is check the latest facebook post. In fact, facebook stalking has become a catch phrase. Facebook stalking occurs when someone uses social media profiles, pictures, and posts to learn about someone. While most of the time it is harmless fun of girls and boys just wanting to know how to approach each other, this catch phrase takes away from the danger actual stalkers present. Stalking is not fun and games. People can end up hurt.

Part of the appeal of social media is the games that can be played with other members of social media. As a result, social media has also become a hotbed of controversy about cheating. The question is being asked of what is cheating on social media. Some games allow people to live completely different lives, which may be enjoyable, but how far is too far? Is it cheating if all that was done were intimate conversation held through social media? I have recently read about a couple that divorced because the wife felt that the husband had become too intimate with another person through social media. She felt that he was cheating. Cheating also takes a different dimension as people can easily create different profiles and hide them from their significant others. Cheating is not acceptable. Most people do not cheat, but unfortunately cheating seems to have become easier with social media.

Social media seems to say that intimacy is a thing of the past. A time shared between couples or friends is not complete if it was not shared on social media. There is a growing lack of intimacy, brought about by the ease of use of social media. For example, a person proposing is a very intimate act, yet often that act is now recorded and shared to the world. An intimate dinner with friends is first posted about then tweeted about throughout the dinner, destroying intimacy. Social media is taking away the intimacy. The things that used to be shared with a few is now shared with a few million.

Think of the message that is being passed to the next generation. They are being told that it is more important to share something on social media than to talk face to face. It is expected to over share, that everyone should know everything about you, that privacy is non existent. They are setting themselves up to be targets of stalking and may someday even accept cheating. The next generation is learning that nothing is intimate, it is only to be shared and must out do someone else. Basically, the next generation's priorities are being turned around. This generation needs to teach the next the values that we learned from out parents. They also need to be taught the best way to handle social media so that the downside of social media is mitigated. If this is done then the great part of social media can come through.