Thursday, February 17, 2011

I'm not on Facebook

I have said it before in posts on this and other blogs. But, yesterday, one of the impacts of this statement was brought home to me by my teenage daughter. She said she did not receive an invitation to a party because she was not on Facebook. The implication among her peer group is that everyone is on Facebook.  She isn't. We see no reason for her to go there an share the personal details of her life with the world and, perhaps, cause other harm by posting things that shouldn't be there. By we, I mean her parents and my daughter.

But this is one of the consequences of this decision. The question becomes, should it be a consequence? Should I be forced onto some social media platform in order to be included in the group? What is our society becoming that we can't communicate except by friending someone on a particular platform. Sure, it's a great deal for advertisers and others who make money off the platform, but is it such a great deal for the society as a whole?

I, personally, think that the more direct contact methods, e-mail, text, phone, even physical mail are preferable for this sort of thing. Heck, the user could even send and e-vite that comes to a person's e-mail, thus not forcing them to join a social media platform just to be part of the group.

Maybe we should form our own group . . . the "Don't force me to join" group . . . or maybe UNgroup.

No comments:

Post a Comment