Social Network
noun
1. a network of friends, colleagues, and other personal contacts: Strong social networks can encourage healthy behaviours.
2.
Computers.
a. an online community of people with a common interest who use a Web site or other technologies to communicate with each other and share information, resources, etc.: a business-oriented social network.
b. a Web site or online service that facilitates this communication.
Also known as a place to dispel meaningless information, self gratifying jargon, senseless provocations, and personally pleasing images. A place where you can argue with other 'interwebbed' socialites about whether or not Aladdin is the best "before bed" movie choice that one could possibly make. A place where what I like to call 'cyber stalking' was the very basis of its animation and if ever there were a finer example in the processes of the lethargic psychological framework all the way up to the genuinely strategical use of a medium made by observant intellectuals, you certainly could not show me better. I would even go as far to say that social networking has become a step in the evolution of our species. What the big question mark over our heads is asking is; Progressive or regressive? Instead of evolving physically we are absolutely evolving outwardly. We are feeding all of our feeling's, emotions, dream's, fear's, and so on into this ever growing social machine... and let me tell you, the thing is hungry and is getting it's fill. It stores our lively hood's in a massive database with which it can look back on and analyse with great precision. It's now integratable with any piece of modern technology, visa vi; cell phones, game consoles, television sets, tablets, laptops, home PCs, etc. Making it portable, accessible at any desired moment, prominent, and remarkably efficient. Possibly more so then us. One is now considered an outsider or unusual if they do not at least dip their hand into the social networking pool, so of course the fascination to do so is ever present to the minute few that have not.
Where did the fascination come from? I think deep down at the core of every human being is the active need to feel a sense of adoration or at the very least a need to be heard. Who can blame us? We've been raised in a culture and society that is virtually conditioned to adhere to the consumerist ploy for your pockets, follow the plot line laid out by the wealthiest lineages whom of which are also the least noble among us, and we must admire and respect these grandiose figures. This conditioning has taught us to hold figures like politicians, the heads of corporatocracy, religious preachers, models, actors, what have you, in high regards because of their attractive and appealing lives. They live with seemingly endless platforms to be heard and seen from. In fact when you look back on human history, we think of or were taught mainly, of these people who have either made a positive or negative impact on the advancement of humanity. We talk about the accomplishments of hero's or the devastation brought on by evil foe. The performance so and so gave in that film or how Christopher Columbus saved savages from the perils of their primitive ways. We don't have discussions about the uneventful existence of Joe Simpleton, his wife, and his 2 children who all lived mediocre lives in the farm house down country rd.3. No. Throw that family into the Great Depression or better yet have Joe die after acting in a few movies or recording a couple of albums in the turn of the 20th century and you have yourself a story for the ages. Joe Simpleton is then suddenly admired, loathed, praised, what have you, but he is spoken about none the less. We were taught to behold these individuals with such dedication that we end up discerning very little toward the man or woman content with the bare minimum. Hence we are put in a state of perpetual competition with one another. A battle with the mass collective to be more different, extreme, famed, loved, more, more, more, than the last. We aren't admired unless we are heard, seen, read, or spoken about.
What social networking employs is a platform in which one can express whatever opinion (however important or meaningless) to a mass group of people at the click of a button. This gives us a tangibility of importance. I say it gives us a 'sense' of importance because obviously our degree's of substance vary from person to person. I can't count the number of times I've held my head in my hands after reading some of the seemingly endless vapid posts that clog up my social 'wall'. Now, I'm not excusing myself from the senselessness of this attention scouting tendency because I'm sure that not everything I consciously decide to submit to the network is full of sustenance and importance but I AM undoubtedly aware of the reason's I am posting these things. I mean the entire premise of doing that is to seek out attention from someone. To aspire to wake up in the morning and post thing's such as "Just woke up" or "Shower then breakfast" or "Way too early" is just astoundingly alien to me. Just the other day someone had posted "Beep. Boop." as their status. It presents a whole other kind of civil division between how much commitment is dispersed into ones 'web personality' as opposed to ones everyday personality.
'Web Personality'. I chose these words to define this kind of newly adapted system of cognition. I like the term for a few reasons. The word 'Web' is defined as such:
noun
1. something formed by or as if by weaving or interweaving.
2. a thin, silken material spun by spiders and the larvae of some insects, as the webworms and tent caterpillars; cobweb.
It is also an English short form word used often to refer to the Internet or World Wide Web.
"Something formed by or as if by weaving or interweaving." This is exactly what is happening to the way we regard our personalities with the presence of social networking. We have conflicting personalities. The way we choose to act in the social network environment is seemingly in an extreme and unconstrained fashion. We eternally have something to say, we feel the need to express gratitude for others, we argue for the sake of arguing, we are quick witted (or apparently so), we befriend people we don't know, we act, we lie, we put on a show. It relieves any sense of judgement or feelings of wrong doing whilst looking deep into random or familiar people's lives, which has subconsciously developed into second nature for most of the general population. "Have you seen the new picture Megan posted?" (If you haven't of course you will be shown). "Can you believe what so and so said to so and so on that status they posted?!" Then the picking apart happens... "It's hideous!", "it's beautiful!", "I can't believe someone would say that!", "Loser", "Sadist", "Blah, blah, blah." and this judgement takes effect because one has no emotional obligation to be kind in a situation of that domain. The person in question is not physically present therefore, anything goes.
So... If you are feeding so much of yourself into this 'Web Personality', does it eventually start leaking into your everyday interactive persona? The answer is decidedly, yes. Many conversations in the present date end up revolving around how one acts or conducts themselves through this medium. It does lend a lot to the novel significance of self reflection and intellectuals have harnessed this creation marvelously. Social networking for many of them is used for artistic or creative growth and in many cases monetary gain. With the competency of prolonged self reflection before action we are all given the opportunity to craft our liveliness. I find, personally that my mind often precedes the rate of my speech in most cases so given the opportunity to reflect upon which I am inclined to say is ideally appealing. If I were to be having a conversation about this very topic in the flesh I might have a few slips of the tongue or I might get caught up or preoccupied with certain positions I am trying to take or idea's that I'm trying to form but not in a social networking environment. However, not everybody exercises this tool in the corresponding way. Much like the invention of the automobile people seem to jump at the chance of progression rather than fundamentally instilling reflection. In lieu of considering the safety of themselves or others, they postpone the possibility of accidents or hazards to grab on to something new. With that proposition at hand I am assured that the use of social networking for several people may be ultimately destructive or in the long run, damaging.
It will not be destructive in the sense that it will physically hurt you, that's impossible. The way in which it will be damaging to certain people will be (if it hasn't been already) effectively psychological. Social networking is consistently nurturing that burning desire to have the admiration of ones peers at the click of a button. Several folk often toss their emotions onto a social networking website hoping for reactions or answers as an alternative to facing them head on. They may get hundreds of responses corresponding with the exact backlash that they were looking for, they may get nothing, or in a worst case scenario they could receive multitudes of negativity. Any of these circumstances effect the psyche antithetically. The social network reality is creating a false sense of importance within the minds of man. It's almost as if you are now balancing the presence of two corresponding realities. Your conscious, physical, day to day, and one that is solely web based. Each influencing the other.
Another introspectively terrifying thought is what this network is utilizing with the knowledge it is provided. It flourishes with you. It learns unquestionably and swiftly about who you like to talk to, what your interests are, and what appeals to you. It provides links based on its interpretation of what you might enjoy. It correlates to your needs. It becomes a friend or a sort of background ally to aid you with the betterment of your social networking experience. So in retrospect the website is discovering for itself what it is like to co-exist with humanity. Soon enough, with the perpetual advancements in technology, I'm sure it will start to express harmonizing emotional responses fixed with the appropriate groove of what you are feeling based on the information you constantly nurture it with, of course. Would that be tolerable? Would the birth of something like that shock people for a week or so and then just become another 'shrug of the shoulder' update that's too far out of our hands to control anyway? Or is privacy something we are willing to give up in order to attain the ability to infringe upon the privacy of others? Food for thought, I guess.
