X'ers and Their Social Networks

Social Networks have changed the entire dynamic of the next two up and coming generation, and perhaps, a couple more after that. Currently, young people in the US care more about looking good on their FaceBook page than having a car to drive, and consider social networks have only really been around 5-6 years as far as mass popularity amongst these generations. Now, everyone is getting into the act, as grandparents text-message their grandkids, and share pictures online.

We've watched attention spans, IQ levels, memory challenges, and it is affecting the kid's school work, and definitely their writing ability. Okay so, let's talk about this for a moment shall we?

Where is all this going? Is this healthy behavior? Are our young people missing out on the real world, trading it for the virtual one, and if so; to what avail, what comes next? It is time that we explore some of these questions, in a hard-hitting, fast paced inquiry. Am I calling for a Congressional Committee? No, I am not calling for the sort of investigation that Hilary Clinton called on the violence and sex in video games, but I do think we need to have a national discussion.

We need to have parents involved in their children's future, and everyone needs to consider this information, as we all ought to understand how the present, and thus, the future is changing as these social networks evolve and invade all aspects of our lives. Also we must address privacy issues, trust issues, bullying, cyber stalkers, and hacking attacks.

And, I would be remiss if I didn't note the challenges in modern day corporations and small businesses, where employees are posting stuff online when they should be working, thus, destroying the efficiency of the business. Human resource directors don't want to tell employees "YOU CAN'T" use social networks, because they will get angry and the employees will do it anyway. Still, the employees ought to know better - unfortunately, they don't seem too.

Some have said that these social networks are a great advancement in human communication, socialization, and one of the most awesome things to date on the Internet - yes, I can see where they might be highly praised, and 100s of millions of people using them, but as far as I am concerned the jury is still out, and we ought to all pay attention to the side effects and how it is mis-shaping our society, and affecting our younger generations. Please consider all this and think on it.