Casualities of the technological revolution

The internet has fundamentally changed the way we live, and social networking tools such as MySpace and Facebook have similarly revolutionised the way we communicate and interact with others. There have been many advantages to this process, but these have not come without a price and I believe that there are casualties of this revolution that have been ignored.

Let us consider the first victim of the technological revolution – human interaction. In a world were we can access alphabetised lists of everyone we’ve ever met on our mobiles; links to our ‘friends’, ‘family’, ‘co-workers’ and that elusive category ‘other contacts’ via MSN; and pretty much everyone in the developed world through MySpace, it may seem strange to you that I name human interaction as a victim – surely there has never been a time when we have been more connected to other people? But let me clarify, I am talking about actual human interaction, not that mediated by screen and modems. Social networking technologies have fundamentally changed the way we interact with people in the 21^st century. We no longer need to open our mouths to have a conversation; we no longer need to move our faces to express emotions. And as we sit, alone and silent behind our computer screens – busily connecting with hundreds of online friends – are we really are any more connected than we have been in the past?

Secondly, and more disturbingly, are cases of actual human victims of the prevalence of social networking technologies in our everyday lives. Sites such as MySpace allow users to create personalised web pages all about themselves as a means of enhancing social interaction and connectivity. Perhaps in our eagerness to share our lives with the world however, we forget that the world is watching, and sometimes it’s not such a nice place. In July last year it was revealed by a US Attorney General, after examining the results of an internal data base review of MySpace, that at least 29,000 registered sex offenders had My Space profiles (Schwankert 2007). Imagine that – 29,000 registered sex offenders just a click of the add button away from your own personal friends list. And that’s just the ones who used their real names. Have you made friends with any sex offenders today? A quick Google News search revels numerous cases of sexual assault where the victim and offender have been connected through MySpace.

The main message here is to give a little consideration to the negative sides of social networking, especially when your own safety is concerned. It’s not all friend pokes and smiley emoticons in the world of social networking.

References

Schwankert, S. 2007. MySpace hosted 29,000 sex offenders. http://www.macworld.com/article/59133/2007/07/myspace.html (accessed May 2, 2008).