Social Networking and Mobile Devices

Today I was kind of hit flat in the face of how far we’ve come as a society but at the same time how far we’ve regressed. I was sitting in the commons of my school just listening to some live music while drawing in my sketch pad. After my first drawing was complete I decided to pull my iPod touch out and check good ole Facebook. A friend of mine said she would be at school soon on her status and a friend of hers mentioned how she was missing a pretty great live music performance. I also commented and said they were pretty good. As I hit post I paused…

I had just had a short conversation with a friend of a friend who happened to be somewhere in the same room as me listening to the same band playing…We’ve never met and we may never meet in our lives, but we learned a little something about each other. We liked the music bring played in the commons. Just think about that for a second. We live in a day in age where I’ve been “friends” with people for over 5 years and I did not meet them face to face until the beginning of 2009. What kind of society is this? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Is it bad to take the entire personal interaction with people completely out of the equation? These are questions that are running through my head.

Back in the day you’d probably see your friends every day because they’re your friends. Today you might not see them for a week…or years, but they’re only a click away. I’m the kind of person who needs that personal interaction with another human, but it seems the rest of society is fine with this new artificial interaction. Don’t get me wrong I love the fact that people are able to be connected like never before and I embrace the fact that I can be in contact with my friends almost 24/7. I think that with the way social networking and the internet is going now so many creative people can get noticed, but please for your sake and humanity’s sake go out and spend some time with people in real life…go give someone a hug.