Facebook, Myspace, Cell Phones, and You

Fifty, even ten years ago youth of the world had to actually leave their house in order to communicate with their friends. Today there is a very different world where conceivably someone could never leave their house and still be almost as in touch as they would be otherwise. Why is this? Well, it all stems from the amazing advances over the past years in the field of computing. Now, I’m not going to tell you that computers are evil, or that they are destroying the youth, because they aren’t. I am however, going to explore the issue and hopefully leave you with a bit more in your brain than when you came.

There are many devices and services that all offer one thing: the ability to communicate faster and more efficiently than ever. There’s the cell phone with its texting abilities, facebook and myspace with their promises of community, and Gtalk and MSN messenger that offer a way of quickly “chatting” with people. These have evolved over the years from simple devices and chat rooms reserved for the rich or the universities into devices and services that fill every part of our lives. Facebook for example, a service which I find incredibly useful and entertaining, has become a place where people could conceivably spend their entire lives if they wished, chatting with their friends, playing games, throwing food at people, poking people, flirting, and whatever else they felt like.

This all seems well and good, but does it come at a price? Many youth have grown to where they use these goods and services more than actually speaking face to face or on the telephone with their friends. This is not inherently bad, but it poses several possible problems. The youth could not be used to dealing face to face with people, and instead become slightly reclusive. Also these activities could easily become obsessions that could take away from the rest of their lives. Granted, these are not likely, but there are many stories of youth spending more time online than they do in offline.

On the other hand these services are very useful and have greatly helped us. For instance, the cell phone has allowed us to become more mobile and able to be more productive without being tied down to one location, myspace and facebook have allowed us to keep up with friends and classmates more easily, and chat services have allowed us to talk to our friends faster and more efficiently than ever.

Now, what I am trying to say with all of this? It is very simple. I am not recommending that people stomp their cell phones, cancel their facebook accounts, or go back to the Stone Age. No, I would recommend people to always exercise moderation and never allow themselves to become obsessed with something to the point where it takes away from engaging with people in a conventional, face to face way.