Social Media or Anti-Social Media?

I’m a better person because of social networking.

Social Media, aside from being part of my work regiment, has enriched my life in ways that far outweigh the negatives.

Those are my thoughts, but they follow rather closely with the findings of the latest study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project: The Future of Social Relations. According to the study, “The social benefits of internet use will far outweigh the negatives over the next decade.”

Further:

…online tools offer ‘low-friction’ opportunities to create, enhance, and rediscover social ties that make a difference in people’s lives. The internet lowers traditional communications constraints of cost, geography, and time; and it supports the type of open information sharing that brings people together.

While many are decrying the social breakdown of society and pointing to technology, this study paints a very different picture. And it’s a picture that truly mirrors the anecdotal evidence of myself and many of my peers.

Here are a few quotes taken directly from study respondents that truly get to the heart of the matter:

“The enemies of social connectivity are silence, disengagement, distance, and
abandonment. In the past, how many individuals and families have suffered from these
degenerative influences? Now we have the internet. High school sweethearts are
reunited. Strangers meet and form personal unions. Families are brought together.
Adoptees find reunion, too. Interest groups thrive. Businesses leap borders. Genealogies
are learned, and one person in his lifetime can place himself into history, and
comprehend his place in the span of time. On the internet, social alienation remains a
factual force. But never before has a person had more opportunity for social integration.
More than ever, being inside or outside now is a matter of personal choice.” —Eric
James, president of the James Preservation Trust and publisher of Stray Leaves, author and
lecturer

“The internet has actually helped with human interaction by providing a wider range of
ways to communicate such as Twitter and Facebook. These allow some interactions that
are better not done face-to-face. And the internet frees up more time for social
interaction by making things like shopping faster.” —William Webb, head of research and
development, Ofcom

And these just scratch the surface. This new Pew report deeply explores the ways in which we utilize Social Media and other online tools. I encourage you to read the full report as it is filled with information that might make you look at Social Media in new and different ways.

And if the Social web isn’t enhancing your social life, why not? Perhaps you need a fresh perspective.

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