Myth Busted: Internet Use Doesn’t Lead to Isolation

Myth Busted: Internet Use Doesn’t Lead to Isolation

http://mashable.com/2009/11/05/social-networking-isolation/

I asked few of my friends some questions on New Media just to get me started. Questions like “How often do you watched TV?”, “How long do you spend online each day?”, “Preferring Facebook or Twitter?”, “What is the first search engine that comes across you mind?”, “When you think of blue in the context of media, what comes to your mind?” and stuffs like that. Yup, it was a ‘need’ more than a ‘want’ for me because of the NEED to know how new media affects us all. There was this particular question I asked that strikes me most, “When you think of New Media, what comes to your mind?” And they all answered the same thing – INTERNET. In the end, the whole situation became ironic; I’m asking those questions via MSN, Internet drives it.

Internet – a shared global computing network in which PCs can interconnect anywhere around the world at any time. I’m in awe on how far the Internet has come. How it affects people around the world then and now. It affects people mentally and emotionally. So much so, it becomes very much a part of our lives. We have to technologies and software/s to get us wanting to communicate, for example, I’m using MS Word to type this post out. But getting the message (or this post) across is a whole different thing. How and where do I share my message? Where do I get an audience?

Let me share my thoughts when I first came to know “Internet”. It was back in year 1995; I was at my granny’s place when my uncle used this off-white, bulky-yet-sophisticated-looking machine called a computer. Accessing files like games in that computer was pretty complicated. No proper Operating System at that time yet. While being curious as to what he was doing, I heard something – ticking sounds, at times it sounded like Morse codes. I asked my uncle what that sound was and he answered with a smile, “That’s the modem (I didn’t know what a modem is back then) and I’m talking to someone, someplace else”. Then I went “Woahhh” like some amazed cave kid. But I didn’t use internet until around 1998. The year when 512k dial-up modems and IRC (Internet Relay Chat) are like the coolest things on earth!

Now Internet has become the most indispensable thing. We find, we observe, we share over the internet. That’s the way of Media right? To communicate? Then, came a category under New Media, called Social Media. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace to name a few. We spent so much time socialising over the Internet without realising. Even when we’re offline, we socialise with people on or about things that are online, the latest trends, news and funny videos. Many years ago, we were all worried that internet will isolate and deprive us from socialising. But it is not true at all. With technology advances (i.e. mobile phone, applications) there is even greater ease of communication outside our social circle, people from any parts of the world.

“Social media activities are associated with several beneficial social activities, including having discussion networks that are more likely to contain people from different backgrounds. For instance, frequent internet users, and those who maintain a blog are much more likely to confide in someone who is of another race. Those who share photos online are more likely to report that they discuss important matters with someone who is a member of another political party.” (from article)

I personally think that the above statement is true. We are indeed socialising more when we’re online, especially the younger generation. Socialising with an even bigger audience. Blogging, e-mailing, participating in forums/reviews, Twitter/Facebook updates via mobile phones, are the common things now. And the ability to get more opinions and views across all age groups. Link below is an interesting survey report.

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/18–Social-Isolation-and-New-Technology.aspx?r=1

However, although the myth is busted, are we isolated from people close to us, our family especially, since we socialise more with people online?