Is social media making people less sociable?

[vwkittie]

Maybe its the inordinate amount of time spent on laptop or phone. I like to go out in spare time and socialise.

 

Who said the time spend using it was 'inordinate'? Personally I look at FB on my phone when I'm on the tram mostly, I suppose starting out the window instead or reading the Metro would make me more social

[Cyclone]

Ah, that comment was only meant to apply to himself, despite how it appears otherwise.

[ubermaus]

Let's see, I know everyone on my social media accounts, regularly chat to many of them. I've made plenty of friends abroad and here that I would never have made otherwise. Some of whom I've met and visited as well.

 

 

 

You seem to be saying that if you use social media for chatting to friends that it doesn't count. Why is that? I have friends that I regularly see/chat with and I'll use SMS/WhatsApp, for those that I don't see so regularly other methods are easier. It doesn't mean I'm any less social. I'm far more social that I ever would have been without it.

 

Posts like yours come along every so often by people that seem to like to knock social media and actually have no interest in other people's opinions on the subject, only telling them that they're wrong because they don't see it the same way as you.

 

Over a thousand on twitter.

800 on fb. Although i cancelled first account and now have 300 deliberately.

Prob friends with about 5 of them. Know a few from school. The rest are just contacts.

 

Im not knocking social media. I question it.

For instance facebook was started as a way for uni students from one campus to keep in touch with each other. Now its just one big global advertising platform.

 

---------- Post added 09-03-2015 at 13:28 ----------

 

Who said the time spend using it was 'inordinate'? Personally I look at FB on my phone when I'm on the tram mostly, I suppose starting out the window instead or reading the Metro would make me more social

 

Forget to include 'i'

Not speaking for everyone..

 

---------- Post added 09-03-2015 at 13:29 ----------

 

Talking to people instead of staring into a screen would make you even more sociable than that.

[tzijlstra]

Thats interesting. All the people i know and contact, i didnt meet them on social media.

For me the social benefits are less than just a channel to share media.

 

Over a thousand on twitter.

800 on fb. Although i cancelled first account and now have 300 deliberately.

Prob friends with about 5 of them. Know a few from school. The rest are just contacts.

 

Judging by those numbers and combining it with the first statement, you used to run around telling people to add you on Facebook Very sociable of you!

 

Im not knocking social media. I question it.

For instance facebook was started as a way for uni students from one campus to keep in touch with each other. Now its just one big global advertising platform.

 

Social media needs to be challenged, it is not a matured and well understood part of society yet, especially in a social interaction context, but you seem to be asking the wrong questions from your usual binary view of the world (right or wrong).

 

Talking to people instead of staring into a screen would make you even more sociable than that.

 

This is where you are demonstrably wrong. There was a time when it was impossible to maintain more than 100 to 200 weak-tie connections effectively, especially if you had a big strong-tie social network. I have over 300 second-degree family members, most of whom I meet once every two or three years (therefore definitely weak-tie), yet I know far more about the major events that are happening in their lives now than I used to before the rise of social media, simply because they all added me on Facebook.

 

There is also a degree of conversion from weak-tie to strong-tie which is very valuable. I can't remember the last time I met my cousin Anton in real life, but since we have each other on Facebook we have been gaming online together, had several Skype conversations about things and he has managed to pick my brain about something he needed to know for his job as IT manager. Last year my cousin Miranda and her new husband stayed with us as they were travelling across the UK using AirBnBs, we hadn't seen each other since a funeral 4 years before.

 

Just goes to show things aren't black and white, it isn't how the world operates.

[ubermaus]

Judging by those numbers and combining it with the first statement, you used to run around telling people to add you on Facebook Very sociable of you!

 

 

 

Social media needs to be challenged, it is not a matured and well understood part of society yet, especially in a social interaction context, but you seem to be asking the wrong questions from your usual binary view of the world (right or wrong).

 

 

 

This is where you are demonstrably wrong. There was a time when it was impossible to maintain more than 100 to 200 weak-tie connections effectively, especially if you had a big strong-tie social network. I have over 300 second-degree family members, most of whom I meet once every two or three years (therefore definitely weak-tie), yet I know far more about the major events that are happening in their lives now than I used to before the rise of social media, simply because they all added me on Facebook.

 

There is also a degree of conversion from weak-tie to strong-tie which is very valuable. I can't remember the last time I met my cousin Anton in real life, but since we have each other on Facebook we have been gaming online together, had several Skype conversations about things and he has managed to pick my brain about something he needed to know for his job as IT manager. Last year my cousin Miranda and her new husband stayed with us as they were travelling across the UK using AirBnBs, we hadn't seen each other since a funeral 4 years before.

 

Just goes to show things aren't black and white, it isn't how the world operates.

 

One thing remains...which youve not bothered to think about..

Only interacting in the real world will teach you social skills! You cant build connections only through the internet. Not a forum, not social media.. you still have to meet at some point.I agree all about keeping in touch with relatives in australia etc. Great..thats a function like business.

 

So does social media make you more social?

 

---------- Post added 09-03-2015 at 14:36 ----------

 

Id say not to the degree that people think it does.

[tzijlstra]

One thing remains...which youve not bothered to think about..

Only interacting in the real world will teach you social skills! You cant build connections only through the internet. Not a forum, not social media.. you still have to meet at some point.I agree all about keeping in touch with relatives in australia etc. Great..thats a function like business.

 

So does social media make you more social?

 

---------- Post added 09-03-2015 at 14:36 ----------

 

Id say not to the degree that people think it does.

 

What makes you think that only interacting in the real world will teach you social skills? What makes you think that using social media stops you learning social skills in the real world?

 

Rather contentious point of view.

[Cyclone]

Over a thousand on twitter.

800 on fb. Although i cancelled first account and now have 300 deliberately.

Prob friends with about 5 of them. Know a few from school. The rest are just contacts.

 

Im not knocking social media. I question it.

For instance facebook was started as a way for uni students from one campus to keep in touch with each other. Now its just one big global advertising platform.

 

---------- Post added 09-03-2015 at 13:28 ----------

 

 

Forget to include 'i'

Not speaking for everyone..

 

---------- Post added 09-03-2015 at 13:29 ----------

 

Talking to people instead of staring into a screen would make you even more sociable than that.

 

Isn't this down to how you make use of it though. I don't have 800 friends in real life, I probably barely know 800 people. But I restrict FB to people I do know and that are friends. I even remove people if years later I realise that we are no longer friends.

Current count is 215, there are about 10 close friends (which is about as many as anyone ever has apparently), then there are probably 100 friends who do the same martial art as me, who I seem on a varying basis between every few weeks and a couple of times a year, there are a few people from school, technically they aren't really friends anymore I suppose (I'm just a bit nosey), and there are ex sports people, I only keep them if we are still in touch and finally a very small number of people that I've worked with (and I only add them after I've left the company).

 

---------- Post added 09-03-2015 at 14:47 ----------

 

209 now, since I was looking.

Oh, and family of course.

 

---------- Post added 09-03-2015 at 14:53 ----------

 

One thing remains...which youve not bothered to think about..

Only interacting in the real world will teach you social skills! You cant build connections only through the internet. Not a forum, not social media.. you still have to meet at some point.I agree all about keeping in touch with relatives in australia etc. Great..thats a function like business.

 

So does social media make you more social?

 

---------- Post added 09-03-2015 at 14:36 ----------

 

Id say not to the degree that people think it does.

 

I'm not sure anyone ever claimed that it made people MORE sociable, that's a strawman.

You asked (claimed) whether (that) it made people less sociable, something I don't think is true for the majority.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Cyclone

[ubermaus]

What makes you think that only interacting in the real world will teach you social skills? What makes you think that using social media stops you learning social skills in the real world?

 

Rather contentious point of view.

 

You can't learn social skills online. Not possible.

 

---------- Post added 09-03-2015 at 14:57 ----------

 

Read about it. Yes. Learn and apply. No.

[Cyclone]

Using social media is not a substitute for interacting in real life though. It's complementary, and given that most social skills are learned as a child, it's not likely to reduce the amount of social contact that people have, it's an addition to it.

[ubermaus]

Isn't this down to how you make use of it though. I don't have 800 friends in real life, I probably barely know 800 people. But I restrict FB to people I do know and that are friends. I even remove people if years later I realise that we are no longer friends.

Current count is 215, there are about 10 close friends (which is about as many as anyone ever has apparently), then there are probably 100 friends who do the same martial art as me, who I seem on a varying basis between every few weeks and a couple of times a year, there are a few people from school, technically they aren't really friends anymore I suppose (I'm just a bit nosey), and there are ex sports people, I only keep them if we are still in touch and finally a very small number of people that I've worked with (and I only add them after I've left the company).

 

---------- Post added 09-03-2015 at 14:47 ----------

 

209 now, since I was looking.

Oh, and family of course.

 

---------- Post added 09-03-2015 at 14:53 ----------

 

 

I'm not sure anyone ever claimed that it made people MORE sociable, that's a strawman.

You asked (claimed) whether (that) it made people less sociable, something I don't think is true for the majority.

 

Well if you spend 16 hours a day infront of a screen you are not getting out into the real world. I know that for a fact.