Saturday, July 27, 2013

Does Social Media Get A Bum Rap?

I've always thought so, but I had a sad, poignant experience last week that reinforced that feeling tremendously.

By way of Facebook, I learned that a close friend of mine from college had passed away after a long bout with cancer, leaving behind a husband and many, many friends.  I had known (again, by way of Facebook) for some time that she was getting chemotherapy, so this news was not a surprise.  But had it not been for Facebook in the first instance, I might not have had the opportunity to reconnect with her at all, to learn about her life in New York with her husband, her travels, and, mostly, how little she seemed to have changed in the past 35 years.

For me, as well as many others (my wife included), Facebook has been a way of having a virtual class reunion with so many people from so many parts of my life--college, high school and even elementary school--as well as a way of staying connected to my current circle of family and friends.  I realize that this may seem like a perfectly obvious point.  But the perfectly obvious sometimes has a way of getting lost in the pace of contemporary life, especially when we allow it to be filled with trivia rather than substance.

And the only real problem with social media, so far as I am concerned, is that people tend to fill it with trivia rather than substance.  Hence, endless pictures of cats and plates of food (full disclosure:  I'm a past offender), mixed in with pithier thoughts, ideas and experiences.  It's a reminder that technologies, no matter how simple or complex, be it a quill pen or a social network, is morally and aesthetically neutral.  Ultimately, they take on the values we choose to give them, be they beautiful or ugly, wise or asinine.  In the case of social media, they are mirrors through which, by way of the Internet, we are reflected to the rest of the world.  We can make that a reflection of real value, or one of emptiness.  Happily, my late friend choose the former, and both her life and Facebook wall reflected it.

Rest in peace, Reba.  Thanks for leaving behind only good memories, and good posts.  May we all follow your example, and fill the Internet with love.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

everything in moderation, social media included. Sometimes that photo of a cat or a joke is the pick me up you need during a stress filled day.