THE essay - Is Social Networking Reality?

Before I start writing this piece, you will have to wait for a second. I have to twitter that I am writing. Press ‘Send,’ and done, thanks for waiting. To start off, this piece is about, oh, just a minute; I received a text message on my mobile phone. Where was I? Oh, yes. This essay is about social networking. Social networking is… excuse me, I have to react to a message on MSN. What I was trying to say, is that - I am very sorry, I just got an invitation from somebody to become his friend on Facebook, I really should accept that first.

This is not exactly what an essay on social networking should look like, is it? Is this social networking about keeping in touch, or is it losing touch with reality? Is it just to make friends, or has it completely lost connection with what the real world is like?

First of all people busy with social networking are very absent. You actually can say anything to them, and they will just agree; for they have no idea what you are saying, but find it rude or disrespectful to just not respond. Social networking and being busy with your profile on Facebook, or chatting with people you barely know, has become addictive. Their eyes are fixed on their computer screen and if not, they are fixed on their mobile phone. At those moments they literally lose connection with reality. To be honest, even though it is quite funny that they agree with you all the time, this kind of behaviour actually annoys me.

Secondly, there is the matter of four hundred friends on the Facebook profile. There is absolutely no way that it is possible to know four hundred people quite well. Many people do not even know the last name of half their Facebook friends. Of course, not all of your friends have to be very close friends, but four hundred? Is this not more a competition about who has the most friends? Mostly people add someone as their friend; because they have a friend that has a neighbour that has a niece they know. In real life most people would not even talk to twenty-five percent of their Facebook friends, just because they do not really like them.

Finally, there is this immeasurable depth of the conversations while people are social networking. Just kidding. If the truth were told, conversing while social networking on the Internet is probably not that useful. Most conversations are about nothing and only held so you will not look like you have no friends, just because you are not talking to someone. Sure, it is not necessary to have very deep and useful conversations all the time, but the percentage of conversations on the Internet that are absolutely useless is high, which is not like reality.

As you can see, I am obviously not in favour of social networking. Of course, there are some good sides, like remaining friends with people from your former school or job. But mostly networking has become addictive for many people. Social networking and maintaining it has become their reality, which is just not the way it should be. In real life you should not permanently be needing a computer screen or mobile phone to make contact with your friends, if they are real friends. It makes contact easier sometimes, but it should not be your only way of keeping in touch. Reality differs slightly from virtual social networking.
In fact, reality is life outside your virtual social network.