Thursday, January 5, 2012

Do social networks make us think less?

How many times have your parents rebuked you for being hooked too long on the social networks? Are they saying that you are having lower grades because you happen to spend too long on the social networks than on solving math puzzles?

It is a sure bet that every time the parents rebuke a teen for being too attentive to social networks and being too less attentive on their studies , they can expect their children too ignore them.

Wait a minute before as a teen you just ignore what your parents are saying to you about the social networks because they could be right about what they are saying.

It is certainly possible that social network may not be an unmixed blessing.

Many sociologists and historians have earned their P.hd-s by writing eloquent essays on the positives of social networks but at times we also need to look at the other side.

The reason that people go to social networks are many but here are two that I would like to highlight. First of all what social networks have done is publishing things easier sometimes a lot easier than we may want to.

It is very easy now days to publish your thoughts, your feelings and even your intimate moments on the social networks and what more to find a lot of followers very quickly to give you feedback for them.

In the pre-Internet days, it used to be really difficult for any author to publish any document without a lot of traveling to meet the editors and get something published.

In the pre-network days aspiring writers and authors had to not only burn their proverbial midnight lamp oils but they would have to be prepared that despite giving all their best , their efforts may not see the light of the day.

To get any feedback live aside good ones meant laboring for years for any types of authors. An aspiring author not only used to wait for their names to appear on the print. They also had to be prepared that their best efforts may die in the wilderness of the publication houses.

Social networks have undoubtedly saved a lot of traveling costs of aspiring authors and surely it may have saved a lot of lives of frustrated young talents also.

But making things simple and easy also has meant that the author would not find that extra amount of motivation that draws the line between mediocrity and excellence.

Is that the reason that we may have a lot of bloggers and posters now days but very few classics and masterpieces? Have we as a species, crossed that evolutionary threshold whereby we are unable to be patient enough for thinking and writing classics and masterpieces.

Becoming successful in any craft or becoming a part of history demands not only demands hard-jaw determination but it also demands a lot of patience and perseverance.

Now when you are sure through your social networks that irrespective of whatever you write, you will get a lot of views and likes from your committed network, thus you will feel that less reason to study that extra book or most importantly think that extra bit.

Quick likes that these days one gets at the social networks and the blogospheres also have the potential to increase the anxiety and frustration of the writers and posters at the blogospheres and the social networks once their success at the blog does not turn out to be successes at the real world of printing world.

When you are used to having quick successes of publishing that means it is more difficult for you to fight hopelessness and depression when failure comes in the real life.

Your social networks may give you company in your leisure but they are no match to grid, patience and determination that are your best friends at any juncture in life.

So next time when your mother rebukes you for your falling grades it may be time to listen to her. After all, she may not be too far off the mark?

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