Social Interactions in a modern society.

I was just thinking that over the years our definition of "socializing" has vastly changed, especially in modern society. Fifty years ago, socializing would have consisted of randomly dropping by a friends house, sharing cake, talking etc.
We do that all now, but a lot of it is virtual. Forums, MMO's, chats, social-networks. All this modern technology has made it possible to be famous, have friends, and essentially sustain a life without ever leaving your house.
You can work from home, socialize from home, have food brought home, pay your bills at home etc.
How do you feel about this? Would you be fine living your life behind the face of an avatar?

Ha, I found you :P currently using your laptop... hope you don't mind.
Didn't we just have this convo earlier?

I don't really use social media other then fakku and pinterst (don't talk to anyone on pinterest though). Never really got the whole social media appeal since I like being able to talk to and have fun with a person physically vs over a screen. I like the forums here because people seemed interesting and it's just fun for me (don't have a lot of nerdy anime friends irl). Made some pretty nice friends that I'll try to meet at some point in the future; probably a convention or if I'm in the area for lunch.

I don't really care if people want to make their social interactions online or offline, but I think it's important to get physical social interaction in your life. Too much of one with no balance can inhibit how you are able to interact in everyday society (social skills don't just come naturally to you). Staying in for too long can also make you feel depressed, withdrawn, and sitting around all day is bad for your health.

I think the one thing that annoyed me about social media (mainly facebook) is in relation to me not having one and how people react to that. I would make friends with some people and they would ask me for my facebook. When I told them I didn't have one there was this weird thing that would happen. Either the person would: A) think it was odd and grill me about why I didn't have one, B) would try to sell me on getting one since they couldn't possibly tell me about themselves personally, C) couldn't believe that I didn't have one and would insinuate that I was lying or was weird.

Thought to myself, "why is it so hard for people to talk to one another personally? Why do I have to read about it like I'm reading the personals of a newspaper?"

I'm just the type of person that likes getting phone calls vs text msgs, then meet up when the chance arises. Use to hate when friends or exes of mine wouldn't do so when they had the time to. Even had some people say how inconvenient it was since text msging suffices. I just look at it as impersonal and a lot of context can be lost.

Although I don't agree with everything the author has to say, Alone Together by Sherry Turkle is a pretty good book that discusses these issues.

I find that technology is relied upon to much in our daily lives. The smart phone has invaded every ones space. People can be so rude talking or texting on their phones when they really shouldn't be like when they are checking out at the gas station. Someone receives a text and all of a sudden its wait hold stop everything I have to check my phone.

Kids these days seem to do more texting and surfing the web on their phones even when they are with their "friends". I was working the other day and saw a couple of teens sitting at a table at my work with their eyes glued to their phones rather then conversing with the "friend" they were with. I happened to ask them how much fun texting or surfing the web was when they could be talking to the "friend" that was sitting across from them. I didn't get much of a response. I've seen that from a lot of kids that come into my work place. They may come in together with friends but they are not interacting that much.

^ I know eh? I hate those kind of people, its like they are trying to show you that they don't respect you enough to keep themselves from texting their "facebook friends", and to actually keep a conversation going...




Personally for me nothing changed in the way i interact with people, other than make meeting up in the weirdest of places so much more convenient because i can just give my friends a call whenever, ask where they are and if they want to meet, rather than have to set up meeting times at predetermined meeting places a day in advance.

These videos are fitting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINa46HeWg8


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY

I think a lot of people would be very lonely without the internet. Before, if you had no social skills or were out casted for whatever reason or maybe have some illness that prevented you from leaving your home...well that was it. Enjoy a life of total seclusion. You can argue that they should man up and just make friends but eh. Not everyone can. Easier said than done for some people.


Or for example, the situation of if your rl friend moved, back then, you wouldn't be able to really contact them much unless you spent money to go visit them if they were even within reach, or a phone call or maybe a letter. Now you can contact them with much ease and less cost.

Of course there's downsides but there seems to be a downside to everything. For example, people have trouble recognizing the fact that there is a person behind an avatar and they become emotionally..what would you call it...detached? Or they can more easily group together which isn't always bad but...if it gets bad...it gets baaad. Etc etc.

[color=#a510f5]^ Yep, it does help in this way, the bad cases would be when you 'give up' on normal interactions, preferring the simple-straightforward way. Or the idea of stunting/atrophying your non/sub-developed social skills.


I like the fact that I can use technology to exchange way more information than I would be able to IRL(videos, music, sending an article link instead of only citing the headlines/resume...). But the lost of physical interaction and expressions isn't worth it for communication with friends.
Ability to pinch friend's cheek >> Ability to send a link



[size=10]Also, cool links up there, interesting views.[/h][/color]

i gre up in the 90's and i do not like the way things have changed i dont have a phone and i do not have a need for one. i honestly like the idea of leaving the house and people not being able to bug the fuck out of me. no body calls any more ether they just text and i hate it. no body drops by to say hello any more it has got to a point to where society and socializing for me is really hard !

Lol Social skills, what are those? Naw, I'm probably awkward, very awkward. Sucks man, but I never really branched out and it's my fault. But hey as long as I am living I can learn. It's hard to branch out in the early 2000's with a love of anime/video games in a christian school. The friends I stuck around talked about sports and the army. It was boring, classes were terrible, and the music on chapel days was terrible. But, I'd probably try to do more sports, just never really connected and just wanted to go home.

you pretty much summed up my entire high shcool experince

Good, to meet someone with a similar experience to myself. Although I should probably change something that I was in highschool in the late 2000's not the early 2000's and graduated in 2012. Everything else was pretty much the same though.

i know how you feel, I thought I was the only one im my shcool who spent most of his free time locked in his room watching anime. also to add a little more to my experince i did two years of high school wrestling but that did not change to much