If you use Twitter or Facebook or Instagram, everybody already knows everything there is to know about you. That sailing trip you took? Liked. Breaking up with your girlfriend? Replied to on Twitter. All these over-sharing, always-on social networks create situations where there’s nothing left to talk about! [Shoebox Blog via Neatorama]
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Social Media Is Ruining Our Real Life Conversations
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This is only true if you actually do post up every significant and not-so-significant event. Why would you do that if you actually met with your friends regularly IRL?
My guess would be that the reason people are driven to post everything they do on facebook would derive from some form of narcissistic behaviour traits and maybe friends should recognise it and point them towards psychotherapy. I don't think it would be because they aren't necessarily meeting friends in real life, I think often those transactions would be very one sided and they wouldn't have much trouble finding things about themselves to talk about even if they have been posting them constantly.
Last edited November 23, 2012 10:47 am
I think it's a double edged sword. It makes situations like the comic portrays happen, but it also allows you to share that information with people that you don't see regularly.
I have cousins that I hadn't seen in almost 10 years, but I was friends with them all on Facebook. I feel closer to them now then when I was a kid and saw them every couple of weeks.
Agreed. Before I was on FB I had a friend explain it as a way to keep in touch with friends you don't catch up with that often. Also the whole being able to share photos and links and such with people easily is convenient too. If I meet up IRL with someone and they tell me I should check something out I'm likely to forget. With FB though they can post me a link (sometimes right then and there) so I can check out whatever awesome thing they're on about, without worrying about forgetting.
See I usually find that even if someone has posted about something on FB there are plenty of details left out to still actually engage in. If anything it sometimes seems like seeing a post on FB gives a good starter for an IRL conversation instead of the more general "how have you been?"
Obviously this isn't true for everyone, but for example I recently went on a holiday (to see the full solar Eclipse in Cairns, frik yeah!) and I did make some posts about it. Those posts weren't deep and filled with info though so after I've gotten back I've had heaps to tell friends about it, even though I posted about it. Sure some things can have all their details fit in the space of a tweet, but for plenty others there's just not enough space. That's my 2c anyway.
Exactly. It can give you topics to start off with. Because at least with me, when people ask me what I've been up to, I'll often say not much, when I've done a few things. They could then ask about a specific event that I've talked about.
Social media can be a great conversation starter, but not if you over-share. I went to Sydney earlier this year but I didn't post an instagrammed photo of every meal, or post hundreds of photos of everywhere I went.
If somebody came up to me and said "I see you were in Sydney." I'd still have heaps to tell them
I disowned most of my "friends" that use facebook/twitter, by not using it myself.
people on facebook/twitter arent your friends, there people who met you once at a party, or people who know someone you once shared a bus with, or family and stuffed if i want my family talking to me.
My real friends i see all teh time, even the ones i only see once a year, are closer friends than 95% of the people that added me when i did have a facebook account.
Speak for yourself.
With friends I see in person I don't pursue social media stuff about them, See, that's how you do it ;)