1 - RELEVANT INFORMATION :
In these times of globalisation, speeds have gone up and distances
have become smaller. Technical progress and individualization
have made man more independent and more aloof. […]
Modern man does not seem to be greatly interested in his fellow
humans. Today people are mainly concerned about themselves.
We tend to look away from the other and shut our eyes and ears
to the environment. Sometimes even neighbours are strangers
nowadays. People speak to one another without having a conversation,
look at other people without actually seeing them.
They communicate through fast short messages. Our society is
becoming more and more individualistic. Personal freedom has
become unrelated to solidarity with the community. But without
a certain sense of “togetherness” our existence is becoming
empty. That emptiness cannot be filled by virtual get-togethers;
on the contrary, distances are increasing. The ideal of the liberated
individual has reached its end point. We must try to find a
way back to what unites us. BY Queen Beatrix
2 - FACEBOOK DEPRESSION
Medical practitioners now observe depression in teenagers
that is not brought on by typical teen angst, but by Facebook.
Researchers coin this symptom “Facebook Depression,” and
teens who experience it are at risk of isolation and depression
and may turn to inappropriate online resources that promote
substance abuse, unsafe sexual practices, or aggressive
or destructive behaviors. Unless parents monitor their child’s
Facebook usage and ensuing behavior, they won’t know their
child is depressed.
Source: Diagnosis: Social Media Syndrome (2011)
3 -ADDICTION IN THE ATTENTION DEFICIT ECONOMY
Our feelings with regard to social media are best characterized
by ambivalence. This is only natural, for we intensify
our own behavior by means of social media. We may aim to
create as much co-operation as we like, but in many cases
the behavioral intensification ends in a caricature rather
than anything else. As we know, much social media behavior
is not particularly intentional. Most of its manifestations
are outpourings: status updates, feel-goods or feel-bads.
For the most part, social media behavior is letting oneself
be carried along by a gulf stream of new incentives: “social
interaction on top of social communication”, as the English
Wikipedia aptly puts it. This may all too easily evoke a feeling
of inspirational serendipity, and that subjective experience
is a major reason why social media behavior is turning
into social media addiction. In a positive case, that behavior
or addiction intensifies the intended focus and flow, in a
negative case the opposite is true — when it distracts us
from what we should really be occupied with.
4- SOCIAL MEDIA IMAGE
Because we register everything and do not need to remove it, we
are approaching a turning point where viewing our photos and
reading all the opinions we leave behind on the Internet consume
more time than the life that remains to us. […] We keep
things not because they are memorable moments but because
we do not dare to lose a moment. We are increasingly afraid to
lose our importance if we are not constantly experiencing special
moments and are showing that to others. […] While we are
attempting to find ever-more moments and to store them, we
are changing into spectators of our own lives. We are watching
rather than actually experiencing. […]
The memory becomes more important than the actual experience
of the moment, while we build digital walls around us. The
new human being is no longer the leading actor but a voyeur
in his or her own life. […] Exactly because we are converting
everything into something memorable, each moment becomes
less valuable than the next one. We consistently seek the confirmation
of a moment that is even more beautiful and significant
than the previous one. But if everything becomes equally important,
everything gradually becomes equal to nothing.
We all have multiple identities. And that is not something that
is abnormal. It is just a part of being human. Identity is prismatic.
There are many lenses through which people view you.
We are all multifaceted people. Google and Facebook would
have you believe that you are a mirror. There is one reflection
that you have. […] But in fact we are more like diamonds. You
can look at people from any angle and you can see something
totally different and yet they are still the same.
According to Poole, we have arrived at a crossroads, where
we have to choose how we wish to deal with our online
identity. Should we opt for the path that Facebook and
Google have paved for us, or will we choose 4chan, the
path of anonymity, the path on which nothing is fixed, the
path where chaos rules?
What’s really at stake now is the ability to be creative and
expressive on the Internet. And I especially worry about young
people. Part of growing up is finding out who you are, what you
are passionate about, what you are interested in, being an idiot.
Making mistakes.
Poole is talking about identity and anonymity and about
creativity and expressiveness on the Internet. About being
human. In Poole’s view, if there is no longer anonymity on
the Internet, this will entail the death of creativity.
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