What do I think? We'll get to that in a moment. First to someone who spent a lot more time studying this kind of stuff than me.
S. Craig Watkins, an associate professor of radio, TV and film at the University of Texas, studied 900 college students and recent graduates on their social media habits along with their just plain ol' social habits.
What Watkins found (which you can read about here) is that people who spend a lot of time on, say, Facebook, spend a lot of time socializing with people in real life. This shatters the perception that Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and phone texting is creating child shut-ins who spend all their time communicating in a virtual world and hardly any time experiencing personal connections with friends, classmates, etc.
In fact, Watkins found that joining social networking sites was almost necessary. Read what one of his research subjects said about joining Facebook:
"It's hard to relate to the people that you are friends with, if they have this big force in their lives and you are not a part of it ... it's the impact that it has on real life."
Watkins' research was released in January of this year.
So what gives? Once again, we see an unexpected reaction to new stimuli. This reminds me of discussions 6abc as a station had early on about the value of having a website that offered free news headlines. Our fear was that if our viewers could get it for free online any time they wanted, they would not bother watching Action News (remember, this was a discussion VERY early on).
In fact, we have found the exact opposite. 6abc.com has only enhanced our viewers' news-consuming experiences. Many will watch our newscasts and gather more in-depth information on 6abc.com - at the same time!
Now to my thoughts. Is Social Media Making Kids Anti-Social?
No.
In fact, this is how I answered the question posed by those high schoolers. Social media has mirrored what the internet as a whole has done for our brains. I believe online news and research resources have served as conductors and amplifiers for our innate curiosity of learning new things. Quite simply, I go on to believe that sites like Facebook and Twitter have enhanced our yearning for interaction with other people.
What do people like? Where are they going? What do they look like? What are they thinking? What is his/her favorite color? What movie are people watching? What new song is everyone listening to?
The answers, for those who are actually seeking answers to those questions, is in the millions of Tweets and Facebook postings sent out every day.
Of course, online interaction is very different from one-on-one communication. Words and phrases can be interpreted in different ways when spoken, as opposed to being typed into an empty box on a web page.
But think of it this way. How many ways do we communicate as humans? The ways are countless. I could walk over to my co-anchor's desk (Tam sits right next to me) and rip a piece of paper in front of her face. Am I communicating? Yes. Am I confusing Tam? (I thought I would – she calmly looked at me and said "that's one way to say goodbye.").
A twitch of the nose. A raise of the eyebrow. A stomp of the foot. A long exhale. The drawing of a picture. A quick acceleration while pulling out of the driveway. Serving your spouse a cold meal. Even ignoring is communicating!
And since 2004, when it first surfaced, Facebook is another way we communicated.
Yes, children are spending inordinate amounts of time using the internet, at least compared to use as children.
And no, this time is not making them more introverted.
No, quite the opposite.
They're just communicating. OMG, get over it!
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http://www.astramatch.com/blog/social-networks/social-media-making-social/
http://www.utexas.edu/know/2011/01/18/watkins_facebook/
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