There’s a neat Doonesbuy flashback cartoon where two friends are weighing up the dilemmas of social networked content.
‘What’s your favourite quote?’ one asks.
”I wish i could help, but i don’t want to” Phoebe from ‘Friends”.
‘That is SO You!’ comes the reply.
What this little interchange shows is the way in which being online and as a member of SNSs has significant consequences not only for how you see yourself but others view of you too.
The singificance of which is not lost on Liza Campbell’s latest take on ‘Internet Addiction’ published in HapersBazaar (UK ed). Campbell claims how the ‘knee-jerk response to your Crackberry allow cyberspace conversations to intrude upon those you are having with people in ‘meatspace”.
Aside from the over-journalistic ‘style’ of the piece (too OTT for me, ‘meet’ instead of ‘meat’ puh-lease) I feel that Campbell has missed the point about this level of connectivity. Viewed as ‘damaging’ and ‘harmful’ we’re harking back to the old days of 1990s cyberspace, where round every chatroom and MUD corner there lurked danger danger!
Campbell goes on to cite the American and psychologically led Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) that is at epic proportions. Ok media sensationalism aside, the main point that people are connecting in more ways and with an assertive graceful proficiency than ever before has completely been overlooked. Campbell’s later reference to South Korea where ’80% of the population have broadband connection’ (good for them i say!) and where ’10 people have died from blood clots after sitting for extended periods at cybercafes’ only makes Campbell’s case fall into the category of the over-hyped ridiculousness.
I suppose by typing this post what I am seeking to establish is that we have got beyond such standardised risks when the Web was viewed as a portal for ‘menace’. Surely we have taken on board how our relationships with others are now an integral part of how we make connections, interact and live out our lives connected to one another.
Or should such journalist displeasures set us up to take more seriously the dangers that lie ‘out there’?
About Dr Mariann Hardey
I hold the position of Lecturer in Social Media Marketing at Durham Business School. I also spend too much time enjoying social technologies, media+ stuff. That'll make me a Geek then. And a gal.
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