I sometimes wonder about the actual real uses of facebook and other social media. I mean I’ve been guilty of procrastinating on it from time to time (taking those stupid quizzes and seeing what people have been up to lately). I’m sure I’m not alone either, in fact I know I’m not because I have had conversations confirming it. I went for a drink with a few friends recently and somehow facebook came up in conversation. One of my friends mentioned how he had a rather disturbing moment with an acquaintance of his who was a friend on his on facebook. They meet randomly in the street and begun discussing what they had been up to over the last few weeks. Quickly, my friend discovered that he knew what said acquaintance had been up to because he had seen pictures on facebook. Regardless, he played along pretending that it was the first time he had heard about what she had been up to. Not surprisingly he felt deeply unsatisfied by the lack of authenticity of the whole affair.

No doubt social media is beneficial. I’ve caught up with old school friends and kept in contact with friends who aren’t located in Auckland, for instance. But what happens when social networking goes too far? When people spend a good few hours a day on it or perhaps the time one spends on facebook replaces normal (personal) social interaction? That’s got to be detrimental to the normal development of the human person right? There’s something about personal presence that you just can’t substitute.

I admire those who gave facebook up for lent though, that is truly heroic!