
Social networking is making us antisocial in many indirect and not so obvious ways. Yes it is true that it has given us ways to reach out to a larger set of people and redefined the way we interact with each other. It helped us to know about how different people think. In fact I could go on writing the good things about it but that’s not the point. All these points look good only in writing. Ideally we should have become more and more socially connected as a result of social media but in reality I don’t see that happening. At least not anywhere around myself.
People are getting more and more addicted to screens. They are starting to believe that being 24×7 on the internet makes them connected to the outside world. Little do they realize that it only is consuming them and it’s just their screens that is connected to other screens and not people. Wishing someone on their birthday has been reduced to just doing so on their Facebook walls or messaging them on Whatsapp. Gone are the days of wishing them in person let alone calling them on phone. This practice has become so common that its ridiculousness is hardly noticed. And this is just one of the examples of how socially disconnected it is making us.
I think one of the reasons that people get easily glued to online social networking is the level of their openness on this platform. People are quite open and free to express their thoughts when it comes to doing it online. For instance it’s easy for a guy to compliment a stranger of her beauty on the internet. But how many have guts to step up and do that in person? This is the difference between a real society and a virtual online society.