Whilst trying to de-clog my reader on Monday after my trip to London, I came across this very interesting post from one of my favourite blogs, The Reflective Muse. It’s all about social networking, and how it could quite possibly be detrimental to “real life” communication, and how some people use tools such as Facebook and Twitter to paint a complete picture of somebody when they’ve only really scratched the surface. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to blog about it so here are my thoughts, and then I’d love to hear yours

I’ll admit; I’ll often judge people by the way they tweet or how their Facebook page looks e.g. interests, profile picture, status’. But then again, out in reality I’m the one who takes first impressions as a given. It’s a weakness of mine and often people have to do something spectacular to change my initial impression but in “real life” it’s harder to click “Unfollow” or “Remove from friends”. On Facebook and Twitter I often don’t think twice about scrubbing people off my friends list, which is slightly disturbing – it makes it easier for me not to give people a second chance but surely people deserve one?

Secondly, the social divisions on Facebook are out there for all to see. You know when you’re not included in things because you’re not invited to certain events – I’ve seen this regularly when university socials take place. I’m not one of those who makes themselves heard in class, I get on with things and concentrate on grades, rather than socialising – apparently that’s a crime. So when I go onto Facebook and half my class have accepted an event invitation to the “End of year social” and I haven’t even seen a sniff of an invite, the divisions become apparent. Inside jokes are also constantly entering my feed, confusing me, and then making me realise I don’t get it because I wasn’t there. Sure, these happen offline but you can turn a blind eye; with Facebook it’s hard to ignore these little snippets taking over your feed.

But, there are positives surely? I love how you can reconnect with people or even connect for that matter. I have met most of my closest, and dearest, friends online – granted, it wasn’t via Facebook but we got to know each other on message boards and over MSN. As time went on we recognised that we all have flaws that don’t show up in an instant message but it’s nice to know such a strong bond can form much quicker than it can offline. I have also been in touch with old friends on Facebook which triggered things offline – my singing teacher just recently stepped into the Facebook world and now we’re catching up with all the months we’ve not seen each other.

Going on to Twitter, you are also able to converse with people you wouldn’t normally dream of chatting to. You can get involved in heated debates and make an impact, if only small, on certain things. I remember a few months back a much loved UK singer died and a certain journalist wrote some disgusting comments in her column about how being gay killed him, and it was bound to happen sooner rather than later. Without Twitter I wouldn’t have known about this, nor would I have complained to the press complaints commission to air my views. I felt like I had a voice, and there was a large number of people on Twitter who felt the same – we were standing up for what we felt was right, and it felt good.

So, social networking can have negative impacts on communication but I make sure I have regular phone conversations with friends, and go see them when I’m free. We need to be responsible for realising that while social networking can be incredibly useful, it’s a tool – it’s not the solution. And while I step down from my soapbox, tell me what your views are.

Another interesting post about the same topic can be found at Campus Intel.