Is social media really affecting our culture?

Do you find yourself substituting real life connections with online? Do you ever find yourself commenting on your friends wall post or tweet when they are sitting right next to you or in the room above you? It is all kind of strange to me that we do this, but I will be the first to admit I have. I have been sitting in the library with a group of people and one of them tweets something, so I respond via Twitter as well. Kind of strange, however I recently came across an article that argues whether or not social media is having an impact on our culture.

"How Social Media Is Having a Positive Impact On Our Culture (Opinion)", written by Josh Rose and brings up that he asked his friends on Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare to answer, "is all this making you feel closer to people or farther away?"The responses he received were varied, but one response was that he feels, "Closer to people I'm far away from" and, "but maybe farther from the people I'm close enough to." I would have to both agree and disagree with this statement. I have friends that go to school in other states and I do enjoy having social media to keep in contact with them. However, the friends that I have here in Tennessee and I talk with on social media are people I do not see regularly and without social media I most likely wouldn't see them very often. I feel like the people who I comment or tweet at and I am sitting next to is usually just a joke. I am by no means holed up in my room hunched over my computer typing away instead of talking to people.

Josh Rose continues in his article that we are, "filling the spaces with connections." He brings up that the Internet is more complex than we give it credit for. I would have to agree with him. It is an amazing thing to be able to have an open free space to voice yourself and to connect with people. Josh states in his article,

"The Internet doesn’t steal our humanity, it reflects it. The Internet doesn’t get inside us, it shows what’s inside us. And social media isn’t cold, it’s just complex and hard to define. I’ve always thought that you really see something’s value when you try to destroy it. As we have now laid witness to in recent news, the Internet has quickly become the atom of cultural media; intertwined with our familial and cultural bonds, and destroyed only at great risk. I think if we search our own souls and consider our own personal way of navigating, we know this is as true personally as it is globally. The machine does not control us. It is a tool. As advanced today as a sharpened stick was a couple million years ago."


All in all, I would have to agree with Josh Rose's article and argue that social media as a whole is changing the way we as humans interact. While it may seem to be cold and icy, in reality it is anything but that. The social media tools that have been developed allow us to connect and stay connected with thousands. It allows for us to have a platform to voice our own opinions and thoughts. Social media is a tool that can help mankind. While not everyone currently using social media probably thinks of it this way, but as an individual who doesn't accept any random friendship on Facebook or Twitter, I would argue that social media is helping to maintain, build and strengthen relationships. Social media is our personality (well what we choose to show) put out for all those to see.