Firstly, I think we can lose sight of the
real meaning of friendship and chat when we devote too much time to online
relationships. Social networking platforms such as Facebook misuse the word
“friends” and can, therefore, make it difficult for users to distinguish
between meaningful real world relationships and the casual ones formed online. Three
or four close friendships, based on qualities such as trust, loyalty and
forgiveness, are worth more than a thousand Facebook “friends”.
Secondly, my own experience has taught me
that increased Internet usage shortens your attention span. The constant stream
of news and views is a distraction and reduces my productivity. Quite simply,
without Facebook and WhatsApp I would be a better student. Not only would I
concentrate better, but I also suspect that I would read more effectively. All
that rapid flitting between pages and posts has turned me into a shallow
reader. Nicholas Carr talks about this concept of shallow versus deep reading
in his excellent article Is
Google Making Us Stupid?:
“My mind now expects to take in
information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of
particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the
surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”
Thirdly, many of us surrender our privacy
on social networking sites. We wouldn’t walk around wearing a sandwich board
displaying our biographical details, work history, interests, likes and
dislikes – and yet we are prepared to share far more intimate details of our
lives online. What’s more, our posts (including that embarrassing photo taken
at the graduation after-party) remain in cyberspace long term. And I haven’t
even mentioned the ways that Facebook, Google and other big media companies store
and use our data. We give them so much data that they
can predict our sexual orientation, satisfaction with life, intelligence,
emotional stability, religion, alcohol and drug use, relationship status, gender,
race and political views. I’m not sure I want them to know so much!
Am I planning to delete my Facebook account
tomorrow? No. I will continue to value the many benefits of social media – such
as communicating with my family in faraway Finland, exchanging opinions about
books on the Goodreads site, asking university students for tips about
accommodation and even using Google Docs to collaborate with classmates on
learning tasks. Social networks offer us many exciting opportunities to
exchange ideas, learn and create, but like many things that make us feel good
they need to be treated with caution. Consume in moderation, but don’t get
hooked.
