Rose Pulido
The Signal
With every click of “share” on Facebook, or “send” on my cell phone, I am apparently conforming to a social and digital networking cult with no hope for salvation, unless I refrain from use for one week or minimally one day. According to some members of the older generation, anyone who uses social networking or any type of digital communication as a sole means of interaction should take a moment to realize how these applications affect their lives.
Social networking increasingly becomes a target of debate the more it evolves. Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, texting and any type of digital communication between people that does not involve a 3-D encounter is arguably confining our forms of communication.
I can’t help but recall history lessons which taught how rock’n’roll caused such a large controversy when it was first introduced. It was labeled the devil’s music. The souls, humanity and the future lives of teenagers who engaged in listening, according to the older generation at the time, were in danger.
A recent social experiment conducted by a senior academic adviser from Harrisburg College in Pennsylvania prevented students from accessing Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites for one week. The students were asked to journal their experiences.
Last month, Pastor Kerry Shook from the Woodlands Church, located in The Woodlands, Texas, called for his congregation to participate in a Facebook fast for one day and suggested they take time to write a letter and turn off all digital devices for the day.
Jaron Lanier, a journalist and artist, among many other professions, recently gave an interview to NPR where he said social networking sites are anti-human and cause people to lose their individuality to fake personalities created online. He also said he hopes the post-Facebook generation will consist of renaissance Americans who will rebel against conformity, because people are subordinate to the media that creates caricature versions of ourselves.
I have never compromised my beliefs or my individuality for anyone, and the thought or suggestion that I have done so for a social networking site is preposterous. There will never be any individual, much less a social networking site that will govern the decisions I choose to make in my professional or personal life. Ever.
Choosing the convenience of socializing online with my supposedly digitally generated friendships versus mailing a letter, does not make me a follower. Having my friends all in one place for which at any spontaneous moment we can gather, makes us efficient, not conformed.
If I choose to slow down and take a break from social networking, it will be on my terms. It will be on my time. It will be based on my standards and not academically, spiritually or philosophically influenced.
Pardon the cliché, but the only thing that remains the same is change. Change in our culture, change in our beliefs, change in our politics and change in communication methods are inevitable.
It shouldn’t make a difference whether I want to personify my non-human avatar, or update my Facebook status 20 times a day or have a text conversation with my friend who is sitting right beside me. Contrary to Lanier’s belief, it is my choice, therefore, an individual act.
The assumption that we get lost in a virtual illusion with metaphorical friends and phantom relationships is just that, an assumption.
I intend on utilizing the convenience of social networking for as long as the internet allows. If the day approaches where social networking magically no longer exists, I will consider my options at that time.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.