When your college professor knows more about social networking sites than you do, there comes a feeling of awkwardness and even a slight sense of failure. Compared to most students, and even my professor, in my Digital Journalism class, it would be accurate to say I'm on the lower end of the spectrum of technology usage. On an online quiz from BBC that determined what kind of web animal I was, I was decidedly a hedgehog; I guess I'm a little out of touch with the smart phone/Twitter/Facebook/blogging craze. It all seems a little overwhelming, invasive, and even controlling of people's lives. The stats for the amount of time people spend on facebook or twitter according to Telegraph are a little absurd: "during the month of June, Facebook attracted 87 million US users, who each spent an average of four hours and 39 minutes on the site." But, if you have a lot of self control and are good at putting a limit on the time you spend on the Internet, the consequence is that you risk social isolation. It's lose-lose. Given that, why do people continue to practice behavior that is clearly detrimental to their productivity?
People, especially now more than ever, like to be connected all the time, to anything they can. Email, Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and texting, and now the new BBM messaging system lets this all happen. We constantly seek new and better ways to contact each other. It has gotten to the point of a cultural phenomenon. Ever since the establishment of our capitalist economy, Americans have always been pushing for more of what they essentially already have. I think we're getting to the point, or at least I am, where the Internet has given us access to everything that we could possibly want at our fingertips and as a result young people are actually starting to lose interest in social networking. We are starting to publicly recognize how the Internet is dominating our lives, and even joking about it amongst ourselves. Maybe the previous generation does not feel this way, but it is possible that teens and young adults have had a far greater amount of exposure than their parents have had to social media, and want to move on to the next big thing.
