The Great Social Media Report
As a young 24 year old gentlemen growing up in the new age of social media, I’ve come to find that social media engulfs a large majority of my free time/life. Whether it be through Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, etc., I always seem to find myself immersed in one of these platforms. I’ve never gone as far as staying home on a weekend night, ignoring actual human engagement with my friends, to instead browse social media sites – but I’d be lying if I said I haven’t at times preferred communicating with someone through social media rather than over the phone or face-to-face. In fact I can recall a time where I’ve been annoyed that someone was ‘actually’ calling me, rather than continuing the current conversation we were having through Facebook chat (I think this largely has to do with the fact that, just like texting, you can focus on multiple tasks – as opposed to talking over the phone, where the main source of your focus is towards the call/caller itself… maybe that’s just me though).
Either way you slice it, this is undoubtedly an issue, and I’ve decided I’m going to do something about it.
I feel that this social media dependence, or ‘social crutch’ as the Therapists and Doctors are calling it (I just made social crutch up) is something that’s becoming more and more common for people my age. I think that people’s social skills/activity are being handicapped by their constant reliance on social media sites as forms of communication. In fact one of my friends just told me they were taking a break from Facebook because, “I spend way too much time on it, I feel like friends neglect to communicate with me because of it…like they always know what I’m doing - I want to weed out some people and see who can actually try other means to communicate with me”
I thought that quote was fascinating. Fascinating not just because I couldn’t believe such an intelectual quote could be based on Facebook, but fascinating because it was true. Are social media sites like Facebook robbing of us of human interaction? Slowly turning us into robots who can’t comunicate/interact without some sort of screen being involved? I know (through friend’s siblings) that kids in high school are going to parties in other towns based solely on conversations/invites they received from other kids on Facebook. They haven’t even met in person, much less spoken over the phone – they’ve chatted and seen pictures of each other, thus deeming that the other is worthy of a hangout. That’s crazy to me – I remember when it faux pas to even FRIEND REQUEST someone on Facebook if you had never spoken to them in ‘real life’, much less attempt to engage a hangout.
In an attempt to make some sense of it all, and to see if this growing reliance on social media is an actual reality – I’m going to conduct a study. I’m going to research my social interaction for the next 75 days and I’m going to keep a running log of my interactions with friends, both online and offline. The 75 day layout will look like this:
- First 25 days: No Facebook (Twitter allowed)
- Next 25 days: No Twitter (Facebook allowed)
- Last 25 days: No Twitter and no Facebook – I’ll be completely ‘dark’
I’m going to be keeping track of my interactions with people – here is the first version (I’m sure new means of interaction will appear, and be added to the list throughout my study) of my list of different interactions:
- Interactions engaged (any attempt to communicate with me)
- Plans Scheduled (any plans scheduled through communication – plans can be anything from scheduling a phone conversation to a physical hangout)
- Plans generated (this is essentially if plans are acted upon – this is important because I’m interested to see if online vs. offline plans have a higher/lower success rate)
Throughout this study, I’m going to be keep a live journal (on this site) to keep everyone in the loop on what’s happening. I’ll be making notes of things that I find interesting, tasks that are more/less difficult and just an overall log of what’s going on in my mind. For those of you that are curious – No, I will not be informing people of the REASON behind my ‘fasts’ from these social media sites; I believe that it would alter my findings (alter my findings is arguably the most scientifically inclined thing I’ve ever said… right behind scientifically inclined! – I think this ‘fast’ may be already increasing my brain productivity/efficiency). If anyone were to ask the reason I’m off these sites, I’d just feed them some excuse to extinguish the conversation (if any of my friends come across this, PLEASE don’t try to sabotage my study! This will be really great/informative for all of us!). Also, I’m going to be keeping track of how I reach out/get in touch with people as well).
The study starts today, so keep an eye out here on Nealadv.com for my future updates. Look for new/different types of interactions to be added to my list, as I’m assuming new areas of study will unfold. When all is said and done, I’ll publish my findings and we’ll be able to see how impactful these social media sites are in my everyday communication with people.
If you’re still reading – Thank you, Tebow bless you, and lets see how this thing goes!
I am launching a new collaborative graphic design firm, and have been researching new thought in the field.
I question the relevance of social media, and the “shoe-gazing” self absorption of most of the essays I have read. It seems much of what I encounter is all about the writers angst and desire for self expression. Little has to do with positioning and selling products.
I wonder, if instead of fretting about the nature of design and communication, more graphic designers should be developing advertising, packaging, and environmental and interactive content. The idea here is to spend less time parsing through consumer choices and more time interacting in real time with friends, family and nature.
PS: It is no surprise to me people would rather talk on the phone, or even better, meet face-to-face. The tragedy of texting, and to some degree email and social media is the lack of deep personal connection that comes with increased attention.