I didn't want go be the only anti-social person on social sites.
I sort of take a middle ground. I'm sort of anti-social and can sound grumpy about this stuff, but I can definitely see the value, if used reasonably. I've also seen people become literally addicted to Facebook and I find that mildly alarming. Then again, when I first started hanging out on specific internet forums before they were forums in the moderns sense - back when it was list-serves and all email-based, plenty of people thought I was crazy and had lost my mind. And now most of us accept these types of places as a given, what would be do without 'em, etc, so I try to keep an open mind. But I'm getting older and I often fail.
But you have to admit there's a certain irony associated with a bunch of people using one type of "social media" on the internet griping about an very slightly newer type of "social media" on the internet when, only 20 years ago, this ALL would have seemed like the space age!
But my kids, who are now young adults, keep in touch with friends through Facebook in a really natural way and I don't see anything wrong with it. They don't spend hours a day on the site, but they check in periodically like most of us check our email. They don't bother each other with "I'm brushing my teeth now" type garbage, but note life events, travels, and stuff like that and often connect with each other in person because of keeping loose track of each other there. My daughter lives in Seattle now. An old high school buddy happened to note that he and his family were visiting the northwest - they were able to get together and in fact she and the whole family (who we're a bit friendly with as well, but wouldn't have known their travel plans) got together for dinner and an evening out. A fine time was had by all and it probably never would have happened with my friends and I in our day because we just wouldn't have known each other's whereabouts except for our very very closest couple of friends who we kept in touch with via mail and the very occasional (and expensive!) phone call.
So I don't see much downside if its used like that - its rather nice. The downside I see is people for whom Facebook becomes their life and accumulating "friends" becomes almost a quest. I recently got friend "requests" from a couple of people I'm very distantly acquainted with and have no desire see their daily movements on FB. I asked my wife about one of them (she sort of knows this woman a bit) and she said, "oh, that's just how she spends her time, on Facebook". Well, ok, but I don't have any desire to see her comings and goings. And then people get sucked into the games and that can get pretty silly. My wife briefly got into one of them but had to bail after a few weeks because she saw what it was doing to her. I've had to start ignoring one of my favorite family members because she's CONSTANTLY sending out status notices on some game she's playing. Bums me out - I'd love to keep in touch with her generally, but I don't want all of that garbage coming over the transom.
I've actually re-established contact with several long lost friends. A few of them I quickly remembered why they'd become long lost and have almost no contact with them now either, but a couple of them have been really good to be back in touch with and we'll no doubt see each other when we're in each other's parts of the world.
So, its technology, and like any technology, we can use it appropriately or abuse it and I guess we each have to define where that line is for ourselves. But I sort of doubt its the end of the world, any more than email was, or cell phones were, or the printing press was. There are changes and we all adapt to whatever degree makes sense to us. I adapt minimally, at best, to this one. But I can see its upside, even if I rarely feel much of the benefit personally.
-Ray