***a blog I wrote for SavvyDaddy
Trust me, this article isn’t some kind of grassroots promotion to get our readers on our Facebook page or to help Facebook attain more traffic (I think they’re doing fine without our help). If anything, I’m using the whole idea of Facebook to drive a point. I could have just as easily used other examples such as Myspace, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter or whatever social network du jour that exists out there to convey this simple message: Get familiar with social networking on the Web, because if you’re lagging behind now, well, your kids are going to blow you out of the water.
Our generation was born into the inception and the growing concept of the Internet. By simple process of deduction, that would make our children the first generation to grow up completely immersed in what we know as the golden age of the Internet. If you were born circa 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s, you didn’t touch a computer until early teens, and you weren’t embracing the Internet until late teens or your twenties. We grew up looking at the computer as a pragmatic machine used for data storage, compiling file documents and processing information. Our kids are growing up looking at the computer as an outlet to their social life. We are modern, they are postmodern. In other words, we are cavemen of the Internet times.
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I have to disagree with you Wonki, I cannot embrace the social networking phenomenon that is happening with sites like Facebook and MySpace and the like. I feel that sites like these create a false sense of community and strip away real face-to-face interaction that man needs. It will indeed be interesting to see kids grow up totally connected socially on the net from birth on. Not all online communities are equivalent however: sites like Wikipedia, Mozilla, Slashdot, and dare I say Flickr are purpose driven and healthy forums that thrive with user contributed value and moderation. Though I love blogs, such as Wonkitime and Eatclub (shameless plugs), IMing, and Youtube, joining FaceSpace is where I draw the line.
online-communityless and proud,
bruce
i have to agree with much of what you say. i hope no one substitutes real community with what you get in a social network site, but it’s important to stay abreast with what kind of world our kids will grow up in. interestingly enough, you and i just connected online… so there is some benefit to this thing Al Gore created.
i rejoined facebook because it was an easy way for me to put up pics and connect with friends who i haven’t seen in awhile. unfortunately, there hasn’t been much followup to the initial “hi, how are things, we should catch up”…pretty sad but what can u do when you spend over 40% of the 24 hr day behind a computer or commuting to and fro the workplace.
thats why you gotta come over and play some cards or we gotta ball sometime. =p