In case you haven't been apprised of the situation, your addiction to texting and email is ruining your relationship... with god. According to Vincent Nichols, head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, modern friendships built around (or involving) heavy SMS volley, electronic mail correspondences, and social networking sites create "transient relationships" which put users at the risk of suicide. Yes,
suicide. According to the British man of the cloth, using electronic communication to build friendships is causing humanity to lose "the ability to build interpersonal communication that's necessary for living together." Sure, it may sound like heavy FUD talk, but there is sense in some of his points. For instance, the Archbishop of Westminster believes that social networking sites encourage people to concentrate on their number of friends rather than build actual relationships, and they tend to view that number as a commodity. Anyone who's seen the growth of Facebook and MySpace shouldn't have trouble making that connection, but when it comes to SMS and email, your friendship has likely moved on, and lumping that kind of one-to-one communication in with the broad relationships of social networking sites seems like an unfair characterization. We put the question to our typically calm and even-keeled commenter community -- are we doomed, or what?
posted August 2nd 2009 11:58AM
biased
Why doesnt the church just leave us alone, we dont need them anymore, we dont need them to tell us what we should fear and such, just stay out of it church, nobody believes you anymore, deal with it
Yes, definitely the whole 'collection of friends' thing is bad. I quietly unfriend people on Facebook every once in a while if i notice i haven't spoken to them in a long long while, or never speak to them. the numbers don't matter, it's who I'm connected or close to that matters. (plus, if you have 100+ friends it's impossible to see the status updates of anyone you care about, because you'll usually have 5-10 people who update every couple of hours...). People really have to be wary of how they're using social networking sites, for sure.
but the SMS/email thing is just silly. if they tried to attack IM, like MSN, Google Talk, etc., that would make more sense. having a friendship primarily through those channels is just silly, and I've seen it turn people into zombies who never actually socialise or go out.
SMS and email, I've found, actually strengthen relationships. With people who you DO care about, but don't see often, there's no other way, really, to be in contact with them. Especially if they're travelling (no excuse for Snail Mail there). And with close friends or your partner, SMS is essential if you don't want to go insane throughout the day. I will admit that, personally, my gradual increase in SMS use (having my current phone for 18 months now, the frequency of my texting gradually went from a few times a month for the first, say, 10, to at least 20 times a day in the remainder), has probably made me more psychologically dependant on being in contact with people. But, having realized this in the last couple of weeks, it's not too hard to level off and become more stable in that behaviour.
Again, I think people need to be more aware of their habits, and when they have the potential to become bad ones...but then again I guess you could say that about anything :(
I think that social media outlets are the same as anything else in this world, it depends upon how you use them that really matters. Saying that this is an absolute truth is like saying anyone who drinks a beer is going to become a dysfunctional alcoholic. It simply is not the case, if you moderate your usage.
I have been using social media and networking sites for a very long time. On my personal account I have many "friends". Some of these friends are acquaintances who I casually chit-chat with and no more. Some have become what I would consider a real online friend, that I can talk to about life issues.
I will admit that most of these people are not "true" friends that are actually involved in my life on a daily basis; but they are also not the only friends I have, and I do not shun my true friends in favor of them. In addition, using these social media networks has allowed me to find several local people with whom I clicked that have grown into true, real life friends. One example of this is meeting another lady in my town that is very interested in one of the same hobbies as me, which we now participate in together.
I think that the problem arises when people hide behind social media, forgoing building real relationships. These services can be a great way to meet and talk to many different people you would not have met otherwise, learn new things, and kill some time. They should not be the entire focus of your life, nor should they (and your friend count) determine your self worth. Taking it to that extreme is the same as the difference between drinking a beer, and being an alcoholic. It is all in the way you use it, and how much control you let it have over how you live your life.