For every positive impact that Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and other internet based social media networks have on Western cultures and societies, there is a negative which must be considered.
Social networking and tagging have played important roles in disseminating information within the context of recent political unrest in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. They have also been instrumental in assisting businesses to grow. Public relations firms have entire divisions devoted to using social media networks to benefit their clients, including entire countries. But at what cost to the indivudual and to society?
Social Networks Not New in Societies Cross - Culturally Through the Ages
The concept of social networks and their application is not new, especially within the cross-cultural context. The essays contained in J. Clyde Mitchell’s 1969 landmark anthropology text, Social Networks in Urban Situations – Analyses of personal relationships in Central African Towns, illustrated the potentialities of social networks as a tool for examining the structure of social relationships. Research focusing on this side of the Atlantic has produced a plethora of literature centering upon the importance of social networks in easing migration both to North America and within the continent. Regarding the latter, Alvin Gary Starkman’s Nova Scotian Black Migrants in Toronto, for example, examined how maintenaning kinship networks of inter-locality enabled residents of eastern Canada to migrate west, from a position of strength.
Individuals have probably been creating and managing social networks since the earliest of human interaction. Inter-disciplinary writings regarding contemporary societies (beginning in the 1800s, although modern anthropological study began in the early 1900s), stressed the positives of social networks. The functionalist school of Bronislaw Malinowski and structural functionalism of A. R. Radcliffe-Brown were used to explain their impact on particular non-Western cultures.
Social Media Networking in the 21st Century
But social media networks are different, and while they have positive attributes, the adverse impact on the individual, face-to-face social functioning, as well as business, economics and Western society in general, is remarkable.
Computers and the internet were touted as the answer to reducing workload and freeing up leisure time. We all know that the opposite has been the result. First it was bringing home the laptop, reducing family time for social discourse and other interaction. Then it was texting via cellular, destroying face-to-face interaction with one’s friends, family and even conjugal partners. Cell phone texting in restaurants is a prime example.
Now there are the handheld electronic devices with wireless internet access to Facebook, Linkedin, and the worst of them all, at least today, Twitter. Is one’s ego so inflated that one truly thinks that the world wants to know whether it was corn flakes or oatmeal in the morning? Or one’s very personal opinion of a rock concert, as it’s happening. The culture of self-aggrandizement has become insatiable. Is it everyone’s goal to become an Ashton Kutcher with well over a million followers?
If it’s not for the ego, then it’s for business interests. But when has one achieved enough of a following and topped the bank and investment accounts sufficiently, to stop? The ability to accumulate more, more of everything, is tearing down as much as it's building up.
It’s now acceptable practice in some social and business circles to tweet while in the midst of face-to-face conversations and meetings. Conventions (i.e. etiquette), now lacking, are surely required for managing acceptable, normative behavior regarding the use of handheld electronic devices. Texting while out for dinner is much the same as putting someone on hold when another call is coming in – the call might be from someone more important. There does not appear to be any sense of guilt or embarrassment. But for some of us who sit across the table from the texter or tweeter, there is loathing.
There are still those who continue to resist the pressure to conform. However, if It hasn’t already begun to occur, how long will it be before companies require their employees to be active on social media networks while in social situations: “This company is paying for your dinner meeting, so you had better be tweeting while talking.” Would failure to comply constitute valid grounds for dismissal?
It’s now part of some job descriptions to be active on social media networks. In fact SMT (Social Media Networker) has become a job unto itself.
Businesses must keep up with their competition. Much the same as computer companies have been outsourcing telephone call centers overseas for years, now SEO (Search Engine Optimization) firms are outsourcing email linking programs. Businesses regularly receive emails from Russia or India suggesting link exchanges between one North American company and another. Perhaps Donald Trump has something to say about this, in addition to his tirade about Chinese manufactured goods.
How Then to Balance One’s Life in the World of Facebook, Linkedin , Twitter, and Other Social Media Networks
One must deal with the feeling of being compelled to buy the latest and most expensive handheld wireless product on the market. The financial pressure can be reduced by waiting a year or so, but the psychological pressure to conform may require therapy. A balance can, however, be achieved:
- Restrict membership to three or four social media networks
- Interact as if still living in the year 2005
- Set an annual budget for the purchase handheld electronic devices, whether for work or pleasure, of .5% of gross annual income
- Turn off handheld electronic devices while interacting with other human beings, driving a motor vehicle, and at the cinema or theater
- Attend a 12 step program
On the other hand, one can throw up one’s hands and keep up with all the gadgets, get a job which pays well and requires their incessant use, and lead the life of a lonely, socially inept, soulless creature – with 3 million friends.
Social networks have been a value analytic tool since the beginning of academic inquiry. They have existed since the dawn of humankind, and been instrumental in the development of society. But the 21st century ushering in of social networks using the media as a conduit, may be the downfall of contemporary modern society, unless checks and balances are instituted.
Alvin Starkman - Alvin Starkman runs Casa Machaya Oaxaca Bed & Breakfast. He is a paid contributing writer for Mexico Today (http://www.mexicotoday.org).
