Being Social

Back in January, I did a 21 day challenge. (READ: Miss Perception) I deactivated my Facebook account and attempted to be more involved in my relationships in real time. I felt like every time I had a spare moment, I was checking to see what my friend’s statuses were… so, I turned off that world for 21 days. The first few days I was a bit curious what I was missing, but by day 4 I had no urge to re-login. I felt less stressed and I had more - T I M E, what? Can you imagine? Use a stopwatch every time you log in to a social network and keep a running tab of your daily time spent online. The only downside to being offline was not getting updates from friends that were sick, etc. Seems like no one sends out email updates anymore. 

This past weekend, my sister-in-law graduated from college. As the family and I were sitting up in the stands listening and watching, I glanced down to the family in front of us and three ladies were on their phones. One was scrolling through Facebook, one was on Twitter and one was texting. Since I could see the time on one of the phones, I noticed that she would turn her phone screen off and then turn it back on before a minute had even passed. The ceremony was an hour and a half. Do people really update that often that she had to check it that often? The graduation speaker even made a joke about how social networking was so important in this society and there were probably over half of the audience texting right now. Everyone laughed. No one stopped. I was completely baffled at the thought that they felt their online network was more important than their family member who was getting a Masters degree.

The other part that gets me is “networking” while driving. Even if your commute is an hour long, is it really worth risking your life – or another’s life to “be in the know” on so-and-so’s online life? I have been known to check my phone at a stoplight, but if I need to write something to someone, I pull over or wait until I am at my destination. Besides, it is against the law!

Anyway, I guess my question is, are you more social in real life or online? Are your relationships based on online banter or get-togethers?