How Social Media Can Makes Us Antisocial

  By Tac Anderson | February 9, 2012 - 3:03 am | Comm

Lego In CrowdThe more prevalent social media becomes and the closer we become as a society we seem to be more and more stuck on the differences. Quick social media interactions also seem to be replacing deeper, real life relationships and interactions.

The theme’s been going around. Mahandra Palsule (@scepticgeek), who’s an editor at Techmeme also wrote about the topic and sparked my comment:

I’ve actually been pondering how the ubiquity of social media + data with mobile context has turned “social” into something seemingly unsocial.  It’s cool that I can open an app and pull up information about locations aggregated from thousands of other’s updates, rating and pictures, but their just data at this point, there’s nothing social about it. Then add to this the shifts in the Web from open to proprietary platforms. and all of a sudden social media is starting to indeed look anti-social.

But I’ve been thinking more on the topic and decided to record a video yesterday while I was in Brussels. I apologize for forgetting to turn off the music and some bad framing. My only excuse is that this was really early in the morning.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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About Tac Anderson

Social media anthropologist. Communications strategist. Business model junkie. Chief blogger here at New Comm Biz.
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  • http://twitter.com/LinkYeah Joel Windels

    I don’t tend to use social media for real social interaction. I interact with my friends through other means, like phones, IM and in real life, whereas social media networks I find myself conversing with those I don’t know so well (or at all) in real life.

    I also have heavyweight as well as whimsical discussions on social media platforms, so I suppose it’s a case of which circles you’re in. I think major issues (Arab Spring etc) prove that some of the debates and nourishment do still occur on these sites, as well as anecdotes about marriages etc.

    I think there certainly is some truth to what you say about the depth of relationships, though I also believe that is perfectly fine, allowing true relationships to build offline rather than on. 

  • http://www.newcommbiz.com/ tacanderson

    I’m a HUGE proponent and believer that social media is great for making connections and sharing ideas but I think we can get lulled into this false sense of “being social” if we fail to keep up those real connections. Thanks for the comment Joel. 

  • http://www.skepticgeek.com Mahendra

    I’ve observed more and more people are realizing that the superficial one-liner birthday wishes they get on Facebook mean nothing even if they’re in larger numbers than before social media arrived.

    In my side of the world, I have been consistently trying to evolve casual friendships developed over Twitter/Facebook first into real-life meetings through events, and then evolving a select few of them to a deeper level where it involves family with spouses and children included. I have been successful in developing a few good friendships this way and I am grateful and happy about it.

    Overall, I think what you’re describing is true. When the mediums of communication proliferate and become more easily accessible, the average depth of each communication will naturally fall as a result. I think a similar phenomenon must have occurred after the telephone became popular, and we’re witnessing the same thing all over again.

  • http://www.newcommbiz.com/ tacanderson

    Lots of loose ties are very, very valuable, personally and especially professionally but we can’t lose site of the importance of strong ties. You’re a great example of that Mahendra, and I hope we get to actually meet IRL someday. 

  • Colin Walker

    I posted myself recently that we are facing a paradox where the more social we get the less time we have to be social as we spread ourselves ever thinner trying to be everywhere rather than focusing on the important stuff.

    It’s not just with social but in society as a whole that we tend to seek affirmation and are drawn to those with similar ideas as a means of validation so, whether it’s Facebook v Google+, Mac v PC, iPhone v Android, we end up in competing groups when we should all be working for the greater good (horrible expression but it’ll serve).

    Online acquaintance is so easy to establish – we can just start following someone and hijack the conversation but these acquaintances are generally fleeting and there is still an overwhelming urge to amass numbers regardless of the cost.

    As a brand, numbers are important as you need reach to maximum return but as individuals we don’t have the same requirements but still get hung up with the same routines.

    Quality of conversation drops and we end up becoming the “me too” crowd who just wants to be loved and look cool.

    I’ve also been thinking recently about how online influence measurement is fundamentally flawed and, as a result, introduces additional pressures as influence doesn’t mean the same thing to all but we are tarred with the same brush.

    Although it is flattering to be “popular” and having thousands of followers appeals to our base instincts we do not generally gain from it so should take a step back and reevaluate our priorities.

  • http://www.newcommbiz.com/ tacanderson

    Brilliantly said Colin. 

  • http://pallet-management.weebly.com/ pallet supply

    That’s an interesting topic for sure… This reminds me of an article that I recently read which was explaining that Facebook users tend to feel less confident and more depressed while watching on their “friends” ‘s picture of the last party they haven’t been invited…

  • http://about.me/jkiss James Kiss

    From my perspective, the notion that Social Media can you make anti-social is interesting because Facebook started out as an augmentation of real life interactions. I remember when Facebook came to my University in 2005 (I think) and it was my freshman year. If you weren’t on Facebook… no one really knew you. We’d all friend each other after parties or initiate some kind of interaction before/after meeting an individual. It was a way to supplement our social connections during our most social times.

    Of course FB has now evolved into many different iterations and means something different to each person who uses it. I see older generations using it to connect to one another.

    To your point about about losing out on deeper relationships… I do think there could be a cause for concern but at the same time, I do think humans regulate rather well between real life connections and those that are supplemental (digital). I see a lot of people intertwining these.

  • Pingback: lamiki » Blog Archive » Sunday Serial: Babies, Wanting & Antisocial Behavior

  • http://www.newcommbiz.com/ tacanderson

    For the most part I believe that people do regulate this rather well, but like you said, social networks are just an extension of real life so therefore, why should this be any less likely to make people antisocial or depressed than anything else? I also think that people will have to go through an adjustment period where they figure out how all their connections fit into their life. 

  • http://www.newcommbiz.com/ tacanderson

    I do find it ironic that the more friends we have the more channels we need to manage our friends. (Phone, Facebook, Twitter, email).