Jeff Lail

I’m not against technology, far from it.  I’m definitely that nerdy guy who has a blog, twitter, facebook and I’m completely addicted to email.

But on the same token, I realize this technology has it’s limitations.  I’ve talked to many people about these social technolgies and one consensus is that people are amazed by the things that people post on the internet.  They’re amazed at the openness and the face that people put out on the internet.  And they’re amazed at the bluntness of things like their profiles.

Frankly, the more I think about it, the less amazing I find it, and the more I think it exposes limitations of the internet as a medium and a communication tool.

Internet friendships create false relationship.  While you can bond to a certain level with someone by facebook or by Twitter, there are so many non-lingual communication tools that you miss.  In many ways, these mediums are more limited than the phone, because you miss out on even the simplest differences in tonality that a person can express with their voice.  We all know that the tone of a word can have a great difference in how things are said.

On a different level, I find social media very fascinating.  It is faulty to assume that the person that you see on the internet is actually that person.  Rather, you are seeing the face that person wants you to see without the benefit of non-verbal clues and body language.  When you approach facebook or twitter as an “information fair” of sorts, I think it takes on all sorts of interesting new levels.

For instance, what image is that person trying to project by their profile picture?  Or the quotes they put up?  Or even the places that they use sarcasm?

I’m not even sure a lot of people realize that they’re doing it.  But think to yourself, when was the last time you considered whether something would be “cool” before you put it on facebook?  How many times have you edited your profile?  Does your facebook photo tend to change with your mood?

And the most interesting question…how many of these people are actually real friends in your day-to-day life?

Despite social media’s limitations, it can be an incredibly useful tool for projecting yourself to a desired audience.  And it can be a toy.  But if you use it as a toy, I would bear in mind that you often project more about yourself than you realize and you have very little idea who that audience actually is.