sabotaging your social skills

when i went in to get my hair done on monday i was handed the latest issue of cosmo to read while they put the colour in. i havntnt read cosmo for years and was shocked to find 3 articles related to facebook, and blogging - obviously the last time i brought an issue there was no myspace/facebook and blogs were the new things. 

the first article was how socail networking is sabotaging peoples social skills and facebook dosnt count as catching up with a person. 

they covered three areas 

friendships that people need to still meet up for coffees to get the hug and catch up and while instant messages can be easier and less intimidating, tone of a message can be misleading (this is why we use emotions ;) ) some of my family and friends i only communicate with via msn and facebook but that is basically due to location and my close friends and i hardly ever msg each other over these devises in-fact i often dont instant message them at all when they are on line simply because i see them all the time 

work. that often email each other cos they cant be fucked getting up out of their chairs. well this also comes down to productivity when i was tempting in jens office we sat next to each other and yet will still email each other. you can have conversations with out your boss overhearing and if you get up out of your chair you run the risk of running in to the office chatterbox or gossip and spending 30 minutes relaying something to someone where as if you stayed put it be 5 minutes while you multi tasked 

love - this concerns people that meet online but that chemistry is not translated to real life and while internet is a great way to met people and get to know them initially the real dating should happen old style in the flesh 

this next was about status despair and that people are having real anxiety not having hundreds of online contacts and they go on to say (yes contradicting themselves) "online communication is no different to what happens in real life" and good relationships on line can lead to confidence and hight esteem while being ignored can be devastating  then they say that online relationships are more intense and fast, easily accessible and available at all hours so when people dont receive instant response they are instantly disappointed (note to all my post yes i get anxious if you dont respond asap ;) )  and when things turn sour your reactions are heightened they even state that people have gone into therapy over an online relationship in second life breaking down (i went into therapy when i got rejected from a facebook group ) 

and the last one was about online confessionals and salvation and hour there is hundreds on online sites where people can confess their sins in secrecy and blogs fall into this category as celebrities post apologies to their fans via  their myspace blogs and also release their latest press statements about pending marriages, babies and divorces. i know im a tad more candid on line then in person and a bit more of my whole self is often displayed on net where as i sometimes censor those aspects around different groups of people but most people are like that 

our whole life is on line these days and everything is posted and relayed via facebook and this has been happening for years it definitely not knew yes i still remember 10 years ago when i  married a friend on line .... i never got that divorced oops