Why is it that we now want everyone to know everything going on in our lives? Facebook, Twitter, even this blogger site is because we want as many people as possible to know our thoughts and activities. When did that start happening? I like to think of myself as a private person, but how can I say that when I have a Facebook? However, in comparison to many of my peers, I AM a private person because I don't write a status every single day or tweet whenever I do or see anything remotely interesting. This blatant sharing of personal information has become so popular thanks to the internet and social media websites and I don't know if I like it or not. Sure, I think Facebook is a great way of keeping in touch with acquaintances or making friends or networking. But it can easily become addicting and ties into our self-esteem more than it should. People try to gauge how "social" or "popular" they are based on the number of Facebook friends they have, no matter how shallow the connection. I fear that the younger generation will rely too heavily on these sites and fail to make meaningful relationships.
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Saying that, I also see the positive side to online interactions. I am apart of a site called Livejournal, which is basically a site for people to keep their online journals, much like Blogger.com. I don't know much about Blogger.com and perhaps it also has this feature, but the aspect of Livejournal I most appreciate is the addition of communities. Along with creating a personal journal, it is possible to create a "community" which is set up like a journal, and other people can interact and post on this community using their own journals as identification. Some of the unique aspects of Livejournal is that there are thousands of communities on the site but they are all connected due to a certain language and a certain type of user. It is a place where people can comfortable share their interests and their fandoms with others. I mention this site because I see many positive interactions and friendships created. Livejournal communities have even contributed to charities, currently there is a community called help_japan: that has already raised almost $50,000 by auctioning off art and services by their users for their users. A similar community was created for the disaster in Haiti, among other international crises.
So in short, I'm rather conflicted about these social media sites. In some instances, prevent people from making deep, real-life connections. At the same time there are other sites that can have very positive influences on people and even society. It's all a matter of how you use them.
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