I’ve been thinking about our lives and social media. Since the two seem to be one in the same…
I got to thinking about the time before social media. Do you realize that most children to be born within the last five years will have their lives completely documented online? They will literally will have no idea what being “off-line” actually means… what it represents.
Let’s take a trip down my memory lane. I can distinctively remember when AIMchat was the obsession…When computers were a want versus a necessity…When only college kids were on Facebook…When e-mail was never going to work….The plug-in carphone (gasp!). The children of today’s generation will be brought up in a world full of advanced technology. They will never truly experience being turned off. (unless your Madonna’s kids who aren’t allowed to use the Internet) From the time they are newborns their parents post, share pictures and document their child’s life online. Our identities… the way people define us… are being determined by our online activities, profiles and what we share to others, which for many are mostly people we’ve never actually met. It’s funny I remember growing up and knowing all of my friends personally.
How interesting is to consider that theoretically 10 years ago the average person had 20 friends and now they have 200? Granted it’s all in how one defines a friend but some of the “friends” on my profile I have never once had a conversation with.
I’m just curious to know where people drawing the line…if they do. What constitutes as too much information? It’s something to chew on. If a child has had their life documented online before they even “know” who they are does it affect how they later define themselves? You can argue that posting a picture or a sharing a story is the same as showing everyone you know your child’s picture and so forth….however, in that case you at least see and know who you have shared this picture/story with…Essentially, our future of tomorrow will be able to track entire lives online. Can you imagine that?
When do we let our online presence rest and our real life exist? Do you ever actually separate the two? Or are you only relevant when your online?
Personally I'm not particularly concerned about future generations ability to separate social media presence with "real life." What I do wonder about is the ability of future generations to think abstractly and understand the architecture of the world around them. I'll use an analogy of a pilot, to better explain my point. Nowadays airplanes come with auto pilot and radar features that allow planes to be programmed to fly in a certain direction, at a certain speed and altitude and have a HUD of the surround airspace. However, in order to get a pilot's license, one must fly without such tools to prove that they are ready to handle an emergency. They essentially need to be prepared for the tools to fail at some point in the future.
I wonder if future generations can be prepared for tools to fail. Will they be able to handle emergencies in their work and personal lives without resorting to social media? Will they be able to form and maintain relationships without hiding behind a wall of digital text? I could probably go on and on about all this, but I'll wrap it up by saying it will be very interesting to see where we'll end up.