I have been thinking about this topic for a while and I think it is really important to touch upon this issue because someday this could open up into a whole new area for doctors to analyze and study patients. I’m sure it has already begun but the addiction level some have to social networking websites is becoming a serious problem. You all know who you are and we all of at least one in our circle of friends. Those that are out with a group of friends and cannot stop checking their Facebook or Myspace page through the iPhone or Blackberry. I see it occurring more and more every where I go but it seems the ability to stay connected with others whether you barley know them and haven’t seen them in ten years or you just saw them last weekend seems to be consuming peoples lives. I personally know people that when they are out they are glued to their mobile device responding, updating friend lists and i can’t help to stare at them and wonder just how bad this sickness has spread. How bad is it effecting their lives at homes with wives, children what ever their situation maybe.
Don’t get me wrong I enjoy using social networking website like anybody else but for some people it has reached a very unhealthy point in their life. Am I the only one that notices this? Some would rather be connected digitally online than actually live in person with people they know. I mean if you are out with a group of friends and you have someone that constantly checks their Myspace every few minutes they would clearly rather be connected with their “web friends” than their real live friends. I wouldn’t write this post if I didn’t see this happening more and more. The social networking websites are not to blame because they are just the tool and it is up to us humans to show some self control. What happens when your social networking takes over your life? Some people are so obsessed with becoming social networking celebrities that they become out of touch with real life and everything around them is effected, their job, school everything important to them outside of their PDA or computer.
So this leads to another question, is this becoming a full blown condition? If so, how do you treat it? Like weening of a junkie at a heroin clinic? the ability to be so connected with total strangers has truly become a historical change in social behavior that will be someday studied with great scrutiny. Right now we are at the very nose end of it. We know meeting people out in person can sometimes be very difficult but the ability to hide behind a computer has revolutionized the social interaction landscape as we know. You can find everything from a pizza to a wife online and this alone fills many different voids for people.
Is it just me or does anybody agree or disagree with me? please let me know how you feel about this social networking disease that is slowly infiltrating our generation and generations to come.
“Like weeing of a junkie at a heroin clinic?”
Wow, is that how you do it over there?
I absolutely agree with you. You couldn’t have put it into better words.I am currently in a situation where “social networking” has become a major problem in my life and i didn’t realize it. It was brought to my attention that I need to put more time to my life and my family rather than facebook and the internet. I have been deactivating my account when I go places so that it is not accessible from my mobile device when I am away from the house. This method has helped me a great deal. Everywhere I go I hear about Facebook to a point where it has become so annoying that I don’t even want to log into the site anymore.