This morning mr. happy posed this question on the Alternative Consumer — “is Twitter a global catalyst for social activism and digital communal living, or is it another mutation of a behavior that’s undermining our social fabric and weakening our interpersonal connections? I’m just asking.” http://bit.ly/z3jqX
But mr. happy is not happy — he concludes that Twitter and social media are killers of warm human contact.
Do internet organisms like Twitter really facilitate a lack of interpersonal contact? I don’t think so. I think they actually can increase — get you in contact with people you’ve lost touch with. And allow you contact over things that wouldn’t justify a phone call or a lunch, keep you up to date for when that phone call or lunch happens. And, as often as not, will make the happening of that lunch or phone call more likely.
I bet when the old land-line telephone was first invented people said the same thing — it’ll inhibit real contact. Of course, it actually is a convenience that facilitates warm, human contact.
If you want to find the real culprit in reducing actual human contact, look toward the TV. (Actually, look away from the TV, please).
What’s the average number of hours a person spends watching that passive, momentum killing, attention sponge — that sapper of energy and initiative — that purveyor of faux human contact?
When Oprah or Conan or Colbert or House or Olbermann or O’Reilly qualify as your best friend, it’s time to off the power and get real. Check Twitter — see if anyone’s around and go have a glass of wine.
Hasta Later — Friends is on. You know, the one where …
