Are social networking tools actually making us socially inept?
It kind of seems that way – at least in my world.
(I pray that I'm not alone.)
EXAMPLE:
IN FRONT OF MY COMPUTER
Status update ... Comment ... Tweet ... Tweet ... Tweet ... Upload Photo ... Comment ... Tweet ... Blog Post .... Comment ... Status Update ... Upload Video ... Tweet ... blah, blah, blah.
IN THE REAL WORLD
Friend: "So what have you been up to? Oh....nevermind, I already know. You update your status more than a college freshman"
Me: "Well, I've been ... oh, yeah ... duh .... I blogged about that last week. You probably read all about it."
These are slight variations on two VERY REAL conversations that I've had in the last week.
One was a random encounter that I had with an old college friend at the Ballpark on Opening Day.
We hadn't seen each other in probably 10 to 12 years, but after we hugged each other's necks, we had NOTHING to catch up on. Since we're friends on Facebook, we were already in the know.
There didn't need to be any:
"What are you doing these days?"
"Are you married? Kids?"
"We are you living?"
Heck, you can get all those questions answered just by visiting someone's Facebook homepage!
We did reminisce about seeing each other at another Ranger game years ago, but other than that quick story, our face-to-face reunion was kind of anti-climatic. (That sounds HORRIBLE, but I think she would agree.)
We had seen pictures of each other.
We knew which old friends we had kept up with.
We even knew what each other did over the weekend.
WE'VE BEEN RUINED.
(And not gloriously.)
There are other little quirks in the real world that I have to have a personal pep-talk about:
• In order to speed up a story OR avoid it all together, I HAVE to stop asking, "Did you read my blog post about...?"
More often than not... they haven't, my ego is now bloodied, and they're already disinterested in a story that I haven't even started to tell.
• I have to stop telling stupid Twitter stories.
Only 200,000 people actively use Twitter, so there is a GREAT chance the person I'm sharing this story with doesn't care OR know what the hell I'm talking about.
• "You don't have a Facebook account?"
If I EVER ask you that question with ANY judgment in my voice... you have my permission to PUNCH ME IN THE FACE.
Unfortunately, these examples are just the tip of the iceberg.
RUINED. RUINED. RUINED.
I'm not 100 percent sure, but I think I unconsciously started a 12-step process towards "recovery" with this blog post. It feels refreshing to acknowledge the gigantic purple elephant that has laid down in my personal life.
I'm not sure what step I'm on, but I think I'm on my way.
By the way...it was GREAT seeing you today, Ms. Carroll. Let's not let another 10 to 12 years get away from us.
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Opening Day 2009
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2 comments:
love it.
I agree - I think we are putting Newspapers out of business , BUT they will come full circle again in the next few years with a new model. Social networking is becoming overwhelming and we want to get back into CONTROL ! Petey
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