Considering the ways that social media opened communication/expression/information, it's not much of a surprise that it has gained a real-world presence. It isn't (and hasn't been for a while) news that online behavior can have real life repercussions. We're constantly reminded that an incriminating picture/video/status update/post can haunt you pretty much for the rest of your life. I remember fights between friends over passive-aggressive blog entries or away messages which have led to real-life confrontations.
It could have been teenaged ignorance. It could have been a naive hope. I just always thought the two worlds would/could/should remain separate, especially considering how easily you can get carried away. I mean, you're just sitting alone at the computer, right? There's no way this time spent in isolation can come back to haunt you. Online life and offline life are completely different things.
But that's never the case, and we now have a digital realm of expression to take too seriously. Like it wasn't enough to have to worry about what you do and say when you're actually in front of people. I think that there are plenty of positive things that social media has done for expression and the dissemination of information and ideas, but the way it's been handled by older media outlets is pretty depressing.
On the other hand, I think that this bleed over onto the real world has been pretty interesting--particularly, the cases in Mexico.
I was relieved to hear that the charges against the Mexican Twitterrorists have been dropped. I was also pretty impressed by the way people were using social media as a survival mechanism, in spite of the efforts to silence users.
Maybe it's just my concerns about the difficulty in establishing credibility, detecting sarcasm, and providing context that continue to fuel this mistrust of social media. Although it's great that just about everyone has a voice, it's still disconcerting that we haven't settled on what to do with it, or what it means.
You're absolutely right, Tony. The internet has become pervasive in everyday life, where sometimes our online and offline lives are blurred. I know that there have been times where it's happened to me as well, where I've had to deal with stuff in the real when the proverbial shitstorm occurred online. But, you're right also in the fact that the interwebs have given us all a voice, be it for better or for worse. Also, detecting sarcasm is incredibly difficult over the internet; I know this certainly for a fact.
ReplyDeleteI also share the same distrust of social media that you do. It is disconcerting that we have to worry about leading two lives (or, in some cases, more), not to mention everything that goes along with that. It really sucks.