Social Media Web Sites

About Face book and the rest of the social media sites or more specifically, about their usefulness. A decade ago before those social media web sites existed, no online profiles existed. There was no profile picture to choose, no status update to draft… no relationship status request to hope for. In order to actually be seen by others, one would have had to contact face to face. But with Face book and other social media sites, we always have an audience.

Now people find a sort of empowerment in being able to control how others saw and shaped their opinions of them. They use the sites to craft an image
(often distorted) of themselves. Some live vicariously through there social media profile. I think it's fair to say that social media in general has created a somewhat unavoidable compulsion to put ourselves up for public approval by a panel of often unknown judges. Unsurprisingly women are, according to a University of Buffalo study, more apt to use Face book as a means of self promotion than men are, especially in terms of crafting an ideal representation of themselves for those in their networks to see.

It is curious, and I wonder if it is a positive or negative thing. Just look at any social meeting site and you'll see far more women posting far more personal information and being far more active there. According to researchers, not only do women tend to have larger social networks than men do, and share five times as many photos, but also, women who seek approval based on others' views of them tend to be more active in social media.

I wonder if in opening that online door we've ultimately closed one of intimacy. Sometimes when we go on one of those sites it feels as if we are watching a movie with people we doubt exist as they have presented themselves. We have taken this social network so far that we've begun to lose the individualism of ourselves and our private lives. Yet, the do bring people together, do open new worlds and have many positive benefits as well as the negatives I have mentioned.

So I ask. Are the social media sites more beneficial or are they more injurious to our every day relationships in this confusing and cluttered world? You tell me....