Social media change how people interact

How often do you check your e-mail, update your Twitter, or comment on Facebook? How many hours are wasted on Skype counting friends, posting pictures on Myspace, or re-bogging an interesting YouTube video?

Social networking has expanded in recent years to involve much more than seeking out long-lost high school friends. It has become a means for essential communication. Business owners lure in potential costumers, artists seek out a name for themselves, and housewives and college students share their daily exploits with an ego driven assumption that someone out there cares. We have taken this too far.

What began as instant chat has expanded to things like Facebook and Myspace, sites devoted to the life of the individual. Soon after, pages like Twitter and Dailybooth were born. All of these networks revolve around the publication of personal information and ideas and it is not unusual for a single person to use several of these services to project them.

But because of the excess use of digital communication, the norms of our physical interactions are shifting. Language and relationship values have taken a leap into the digital realm. Words like "lol" and "btw" have been added to casual vocabulary and relationship statuses on social networks seem to carry more weight than the connection between the two people in reality.

And with the expansion of social networks new problems have presented themselves. Cyber bullying and online stalking plagues our young generation. There have been kidnaps, murders and suicides in direct correlation with social networks, and cases are often left unsolved because of the anonymity the Internet offers.

Another big problem manifests itself in the sensitivity of digital information. We fear the idea of "big brother" watching our every move but with people posting all sorts of personal information over a digital service we willingly subject ourselves to global observation. Blackmail, fraud and identity theft often stem from information found on the Internet as well.

So is our need for instant gratification and large-scale acknowledgment worth the price tag it comes with? We have lost any sort of collective unity. People as a whole are too obsessed with advertising themselves; they have forgotten how to work with a group.

Our society needs to rediscover face-to-face meetings, allowing those we interact with to base their opinions on those interactions. There is nothing wrong with a Web site telling someone's life story, but that should not be the only way people hear it.