I especially love your point about social anxiety – I personally know some of those folks.

You’re right on about teens and preteens and interpersonal skills. My own girls are older (20 and 23 now), so social networks weren’t an issue during those years for us, but we did have AOL chat and I limited their time for those very reasons.

You analogy about the vitamins is apt – it’s all in how you use it.

I think parents need to clue in about technology and get on top of it – kids need guidance and oversight as they learn to navigate online.

Thanks again for your great comment!

Put another way, does social media enrich our connections to each other? If social media serves as the foundation for our relationships, the nature of the medium can have detrimental effects on our social life. But if we use it as a supplementary tool, it is a great and enriching thing.

The prime, at-risk people are pre-teens and young teenagers who are in the process of learning how to socialize and socialize well. If they use social media as the principle form of connection, the nature of the medium will serves to weaken aspects of social relationships that are automatic but very important for healthy relationships (such as awareness of facial expressions and tone, regulation of negative emotions, etc.). Social media does not really require or make possible those behaviors, and thus they will not be as well developed. And the already present downsides of internet communication for many users (lack of empathy, anonymity and lack of physical presence fostering anti-social behaviors, etc.) will be amplified for them.

On the flip side, persons with high social anxieties and few natural social skills can connect more easily via social media, which is a good thing for them. It can serve as a bridge to relationships that may hopefully blossom to more fruitful, warm, and personal contact.

And ditto your last sentence – I miss Abbye too!

As far as willingness to chime in – sometimes good, sometimes not. Downside si that it’s definitely easier to contribute an uneducated, ill-thought-out opinion. But often I read a controversial post and I’ll read through all the comments – it helps me see that there are other points of view, and that some of those I disagree with may have :: gasp :: really thought out their opinions and have ideas I can still learn from.

Thanks for your comment!

Beth has very good ideas about the good things social media can be used for, and they’re going to be all the more important with where it looks like the church is heading. Wish you were around the offices for it!

However, I am a voice for caution against social media, networking, etc. I’ve never claimed for it to personally disconnect me – I agree with you, it often begins/strengthens relationships. What I do see is that, as a culture, it makes us (and this is only an argument/theory) more apt to chime in on, speak opinionatedly about, etc. topics or people’s personal issues in a way the we would never do face-to-face.

Is this a new thing? No, we could still be opinionated about people behind their backs; but along with our free speech culture, we take this to the Inter-waves.

But your article is a good reminder: It’s probably us who’s the problem!

Funny you should mention Twitter – I started there in 2007. Tried it twice before it actually stuck! But at least for me, it’s different than with Twitter. Twitter at the time was breaking new ground, creating an entire new platform and changing the way we communicate online. I have a much better understanding of social media than I did in ’07 – and get paid to do it – but Pinterest just doesn’t hold that fascination.

Like you, I like it just fine and (judging from my pins in the sidebar) I participate – but I could honestly take it or leave it.