Turning to social media, whatever the occasion
Posted: Friday 03 June, 2011
Keredy Andrews
I’ve been active on social network sites for a number of years, but this week I’ve wondered whether I, or we all, rely on these platforms as an information portal a little too much and just how important are they really? Monday was the first time I managed to get online following my wedding on the Saturday and the first thing I did was go to Facebook, change my marital status, my name and profile picture. Almost a week since I became a wife I haven’t seriously considered contacting my bank or utility providers but I was desperate to announce it on Facebook. If a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it, did it make a noise? If something happened and it wasn’t broadcast on the internet, was it real?
With hindsight, my actions were filled with excitement and immense happiness that I had finally married the man I love but was it really the most important thing I had to do less than 48 hours after I was married? Obviously it wasn’t and I’ve reminded myself of the attention seeking nature of personal social networking. None of my friends needed to see the changes I made, it didn’t really make a difference to their lives and the people important to me knew because they attended on the day but I wanted the attention.
On the other hand, there are times when purposefully seeking attention leads to a wholly constructive outcome and some friends of mine experienced this just last week. My friend’s boyfriend’s car was broken into and just a couple of days later she saw his name pop up in her news feed – ‘Does anyone know Mr XXX’. She replied and it turned out some of her boyfriend’s belongings had been found scattered on the next road and within another couple of hours they had been returned.
Every time we create an update or upload a picture we are doing so, not really for the benefit of others, but (often unsuspectingly) for our own sense of self and to prevent prolonged inattentiveness from our friends, or ‘friends’. I don’t think this is necessarily a negative activity but one should always be aware of the wider implications and be reminded of reality once in a while.
