With all this talk about Social Media, I thought to myself, “What is being social anyways?”. The way I was raised, it was about interacting with people. While it’s true that social media does indeed open new ways to interact with people, it also gives us  a way out of actually interacting with others. Oh and don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean. If you’ve ever been on Facebook, you know exactly what I’m referring to. How many times have you checked a friend’s Facebook (“FB” for all your cool cats) profile to see what they’ve been up to rather than to drop them a line? How often have you checked a person’s LinkedIn account profile instead of e-mailing them? Don’t know about you, but this seems pretty anti-social, no? (I’ll bet a few of you check out my LinkedIn account in a few minutes… prove me wrong.)

Social Media: A shy extravert’s friend?

But I guess there is something to be said about the fact that some people simply are too shy to start mingling with strangers in person on a whim. Social media provides… a distant-intimacy that many enjoy - a way to be close (read: Direct Message) with people, yet comfortably far (read: hide my geo-location from stalkers) at the same time. Perhaps social media leverages the “latent social” segment of the population (in case no one has claimed it yet - I hereby claim the term  ”latent social” as my own, feel free to contact me for license agreements). This “latent social” (cha-ching) segment wants to get out there and “get social” but sweats at the idea of small-talk. Perhaps it’s this face-to-face small-talk barrier that channels many wannabe socialites towards social media. Just speaking for myself here, I enjoy the fact that no matter how quick Twitter or GTalk is or becomes, I will always have a few moments to ponder my thoughts and type something eloquent (as opposed to the verbal gunk in this blog post). In this context, social media, in the form of instant messenger, is akin to butterfly repellent for your stomach so you can calmly collect your thoughts.

Hey Rommil, social media also brings people together physically y’know…

Good point my friend. I admit, that whole events have been spurred by the very existence of social media. Events like Tweetup are prime examples of how a medium has promoted mingling and elbow-rubbing in a tangibly physical way. Even phone numbers are exchanged at these things (gasp). But I can’t help but think that every advancement in one direction is balanced by another extreme. As people are meeting to cheer Twitter and all that it’s done to bring them closer together, two other social media platforms come along to essentially keep us more apart.

There was a time, not so long ago, when if you wanted to know where someone was, you had to call their cell phone (or page them, you dinosaur). But today, you just need to check out their Gowalla or FourSquare status. In fact, if you think about it, as we move on, we can know more and more about someone without ever meeting them. With Gowalla (or FourSquare, relax people), I can track a friend’s movements (plus or minus a few metres) and know that he is having a coffee and then switch over to Blippy and track what he bought today. Hello? But am I the only one that thinks this is a touch creepy/stalker-esque?

Ok Rommil, I’ve read three paragraphs already, what’s your point?

Firstly, you’ve already read four. Secondly, I don’t have a point actually. I just wanted to share some of my random thoughts while multi-tasking. Essentially, I’m trying to think of something witty to reply to my friend on GTalk… speaking of which, GTG. TTYL. We should meet up sometime. *air kisses*