Without
a doubt, social media appears as an important tool to help us to get connected
with many people. It could provide an immediate access to communicate instantly
with millions of people and provides the opportunity for those people to spread
your message even further. In this modern era, people are not
necessarily required to meet up face-to-face in order to keep in touch or build
a new connection. Just with several ‘clicks’ you could become a friend with
someone that you never met before. Thus, it is really important to question
whether social media could negatively affect our quality of life.
According
to Sam Laird from Mashable website, approximately Facebook users would to spend
10.5 billion minutes each day on the site to share their thoughts or activities
which doesn’t even include mobile use. Interestingly, based on the survey conducted
24% of people admitted that they have missed precious moments in person because
they were too busy trying to share their moments on social network site. In my
opinion, spending too much time on social media is not a good way to build up a
new connection with others. Communication skill is a basic skill that a person
needs to learn in order to interact with others and it can only be obtained
through life experiences. Without a proper communication skill, people would
become socially awkward when they interact with others.
Have
you ever imagined what it would be like if your life on social network become
real in the real world? I would like to share with you guys this funny video
that I just found. Basically this video is about a man asking random people he
met and perform social activity based on Facebook. If you look closely, you
will notice that some of those people give awkward responses and some even walk
away.
Controversial - especially given the subject we're studying, but I'd be lying if I said it hadn't crossed my mind before. Particularly when you're out with friend/s and you're all on your smart phones checking FB - I'm not sure it gets any more anti-social than that but we (myself included although not proud of it) still do it.
ReplyDeleteRegardless what we think though SM is happening and it doesn't appear to be going anywhere any time soon and as marketers it's becoming increasingly clear that we need to know if and how to use it.
BTW great video!
Good point Anna! it is true that marketers should pay more attention to know and how to use it. =)
DeleteGood article there John. I use facebook almost 1 to 2 hours a day and after reading your article I feel that I actually can do many "real" things with my friends in the real world. Well, I think the most important part is to be aware of your own limit. People should separate real life and online life and hope try to get a balance of both. Because I am sure that there are negative effects if people cling too much in the online world. By the way please take a look at my blog as well http://jimmyulianto.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/social-media.html?showComment=1344177662545#c2916033607649382162
ReplyDeletethank youu
Haha good article john, i myself is a social media addict, it's true that those stuffs happened to me, but it's just that sometimes what happens in social media is more interesting than my actual life and it's a great way of escapism from my boring daily activities.
ReplyDeleteRegardless traditional way of 'socializing' is still as important as social media, especially in doing business, building networks and face to face interaction with clients is still essential.
I like to think of SM as supplementing "real life", rather than replacing it! ;)
ReplyDelete