30-Day Writing Challenge - Day 1 - Five problems with social media

Introduction

A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook a 30-Day Writing Challenge. I thought it would be interesting to participate in this and post something to my blog each day in the month of April. Each day will have a new topic.

Day 1 - Five problems with social media

1 - It lasts forever. While those who have lots of "friends" see things fly by and so the impact of what you write can be pretty fleeting, it does remain there essentially forever and cannot be recalled.

2 - You can't recall it once it's been released. Even those forms of social media which have been designed to disappear shortly after being viewed have been shown to be able to be compromised by taking screen shots, etc. If you change your mind later, it's already too late.

3 - It falsely puts all relationships at the same level. Research has shown that the number of "close" friends we have is not very large. But when I see people in Facebook who have hundreds, or even thousands, of "friends" it diminishes the value of the real friends that one has. I try to keep my friend list relatively short and to ignore all the suggestions of "friends of friends" that are recommended to me. I want to have a connection outside of Facebook that my friend list is a mirror of. I would like my friends to know that they are really valued, not that they are just one of a long list.

4 - It tempts you to share things that you would not typically share otherwise. I am very sparse when it comes to sharing pictures, but I see other individuals who share multiple pictures every day with all the myriads of people on their friend list. If these were actual photographs are they ones that you would carry around with you and share with practically everyone you meet?

5 - It often inappropriately elevates the importance of what you are sharing. I know that the great dinner you had was appealing, but I really don't care about the pictures you took of it. And I know that your kids are cute, but seeing what they look like at every week of their development gets a little old after a while.  How am I supposed to know what is really important to you amid all the other daily trivia that you are posting?