The pressure to share and broadcast is too much. Yes, I realize the irony of writing this on a blog, but since this is a thought-out post with actual paragraphs and grammar and more than 140 characters and no option to “like,” I think it falls into a different category than what I’m about to talk about.
The pressure to share and broadcast is too much. I read an article in the New York Times a few months ago about Foursquare’s popularity and the battles for mayorship of certain corners, streets, desks, and square feet of buildings. This quote from the article was especially ridiculous: “It would also not be too early to see a mashup with Foursquare to validate fulfillment of those (social, in real life) plans and perhaps penalize persons who stand up the others by failing to show up.”
I would posit a virtual penalty for standing someone up is ridiculous. If a person doesn’t care enough about you “in real life” to show up, a virtual hand slap isn’t going to change things. (And shouldn’t change things. Our society puts way too much credence in something that “happened” online as if it were some huge event, when nothing really “happened” at all. But that’s another post.) And if a virtual hand slap does prove effective, I think it says something about the priorities of those who care more about keeping up their Foursquare reputation (only one stand-up rating for me!) than they do maintaining a genuine friendship.
To me, social media does not enhance or enable relationships, it gives us all new ways to be rude to one another and more interested in ourselves.
