Social Networks On Vs. Offline: To Everything There is a Season

     Part of the appeal of online social networks is the ability to do more and to do it faster. One can catch up with hordes of friends in minutes. In our society and economy with its concomitant dearth of leisure time, this is a major bonus associated with online social networking.
Another aspect of this is the removal of inconvenient layers of access associated with offline social networks, such as the waiting time associated with a friend getting in touch with a friend of a friend for you. Online, everyone available is accessible - with their stats, pros, and cons on display for ready reference. One can determine whether a prospect is a "yay" or a "nay" in a New York minute, without the awkward experience of in-person rejection.
     Another attractive element of online social networks is simply pictures, pictures, and more pictures. People love pictures. The ease with with pictures may be shared via online social networking is unmatched and often irresistible. People can indulge curiosity, with nary a social faux pas to be had, in the comfortable anonymity of public or semi-private photo-browsing. Again - regarding the lack of leisure today - this ease is much appreciated. One can avoid the time and effort of dragging a large photo album to a far away friend by simply tagging the photos one wanted to share with that friend's name - whether they are present in the photos or not. The friend will simply sign on and view instantly. It doesn't get easier than that.
     Some important differences between on and offline social networking have to do with cost in time and money. Online social media tends to be free. It is also not time or location-specific. This increases convenience and the scale of the target reached can be global. Offline is just the opposite. It may cost one in both time and or money. It will be location-specific and probably not on a global scale in most cases. This, however, is not always a disadvantage. Your average mechanic, for example, would not benefit from networking on a global scale. Your average doctor is not able to showcase her wonderful bedside manner and ability to connect with your child via her Facebook page. In addition, many are still just leery of making connections online because of the multitude of scams, viruses, and predators in the online environment. There seems to be room for both types of networks in today's world.
     If leading neuroscientists purport that there are detrimental psychological effects of online social networking should we automatically assume that it is true? Warnings about our shortened attention span, our appetite for sensationalism, our lack of empathy and weak sense of identity sound oddly familiar. Perhaps it is because we have heard the same warnings throughout the years with regard to each new form of communication technology as it came to be. Each generation continues to produce its doctors, lawyers, Nobel Laureates, and Rhodes Scholars nonetheless - whether or not their respective social identities hinge on their number of online "friends."
     Sociological effects are more easily identified as they lack a necessary value judgment and can simply "be." The primary example is the blurring of the distinction between the public and private spheres of life. Philosophically perhaps there has been more of a seismic shift. "I think therefore I am," reportedly has morphed into "I'm online therefore I exist."
     Online social networking is all the rage with the buzz and the power of "now." Tomorrow, however, pledges no allegiance to entities on or off line at all. There is growing discomfort with Facebook, regarding its privacy policy in relation to security concerns. Two individual groups opposed to the world of online social networking are already in existence: the Neo-Luddites and the slow-media movement. Those who speak of a new world order existing solely online will most likely be proven wrong. There is, however, a new norm that has emerged:  A new mode of human social action and communication exists that society will have to contend and negotiate with indefinitely. Old modes may have to find a new niche and place among the current roster of books, periodicals, telephone, radio, TV, email, cyberspace, cell phones, SMS, and online social networking. As always, inevitably, things fall into place along the dynamic equilibrium of our humanity. Now, however, perhaps we may experience the phenomenon twice - in our first and "Second Life."