(WIDK By Staff Writer BIANCA C.) – Why is it that people can’t keep in touch with you these days once you’re not on Facebook?
You know how many “friends” I’ve lost because they just could not make the time to call or so much as send me a text message? It’s “so much easier to hit you up on Facebook,” they say.
What did we do before the glorious days of Facebook?
I suppose this was the sentiment of the generation before cell phones and computers… and the generation before that one could have felt the same way about telephones and telegram. Who knows, maybe the ancient caveman loathed when pre- historic humans began using parchment and stopped chiseling figures into stone.
Well call me a Neanderthal because I’m beginning to feel nostalgic for the days before Facebook: Me want go back to old ways of real communication!
It’s not just Facebook either. Each electronic form of contact plays a role in deteriorating our interpersonal relationships whether it’s Twitter, cell phones, email, instant messaging, or the ultimate offender, the text message. It’s all too easy for people who can’t really say what they mean to go home and cyber bully you, pretend somehow to have mystically missed your email/text/facebook message/ tweet or to pretend to be saying something meaningful when they actually are not.
What happened to the days when you could get someone to have a genuine conversation with you? The days when expressions of adoration were more than text messages saying, “Cum c me,” or my personal favorite, “I<3”.
Not only do more means of communication not improve our ability to have real relationships, it obliterates our aptitude for spelling.
Is “I<3” an acceptable I love you nowadays? I don’t care how much of a rush you’re in, that is simply not sufficient for anyone over 16 years of age. And If I get one more sext message I’m going to lose my mind!
It’s amazing how something that brings us together can push us so far apart. How is it that you can have 800 “friends” that never forget to send you a party evite, but none of which you can call on if you fall on hard luck? What if salutations were more than a promise to ttyl, which never happens anyway? Don’t get me wrong, I think Facebook is perfect for business and professional purposes, but definitely not for making and maintaining real connections like it was created to do.
I’m going to coin a new term, like Tebowing. Next time you meet someone whose personal photo album you think you may want to look through once in a while, instead of asking them to “friend” you on Facebook, tell them to “acquaintance” you on Facebook instead. Trend it!
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
People on twitter are not your friends. Try Craigslist
I have Facebook and Twitter. Both have their uses and a positive influence on my life. Facebook allows me to keep in touch with people I might have lost. Old school friends, an uncle in Australia, a friend in Canada. It gives me an insight into their lives which I never would have managed to have before.
Twitter allows me to meet new and interesting people. It’s a huge world out there and without this outlet my social circle would be limited to people I meet at work or friends of friends. Why should I be denied the chance to commune with someone in a different timeline just because of a quirk of geography?
That said, I’m a social person and I can hold a conversation with someone sat next to me (or 1000′s of miles away via alternative mediums) and my spelling is pretty decent even if I do say so myself. I don’t “I<3u" I "I love you", and I don't lol unless it's being done with a side of irony. Get this; social media can be a gateway to better things, not just the rape of our language and destruction of our social skills. It's the same as anything. Keep it in moderation. Too much alcohol will kill you, but just enough greases the wheels of social interaction. The same can be said of social media.