Anti Social Networks

Let's be honest for a minute:  Social networks were created by the anti-social for the anti-social.

Just the term social network itself is an oxymoron.  If most of us were social, we wouldn't spend so much time on a social network. 

In fact, most of our behaviors online do not even mimic our behaviors offline.  Back in the days of Myspace, it was not uncommon for people to beg others to comment their pictures.  But in real life, no one would dare walk up to strangers and ask them to comment their face or tell them they are pretty,

Here on Facebook or even on Twitter, we share the most mundane aspects of our lives.  Who hasn't posted a picture of their dinner?  Who hasn't stopped what they are doing to let everyone know, via a status, that they have a headache? 

These are all things we don't do away from our computers.  I certainly have never called a friend and asked him to come over and look at my bowl of spaghetti I made for dinner.   And when I have a headache, the last thing I want to do, is talk about it. 

But here online, our lives are dictated by self-imposed narratives, photo ops and soundbites.

I am sure most women who have been online long enough have been subjected to the random penis picture from some unknown man.  Offline, if a man opens up his trench coat and flashes a woman, he is committing a crime.  Online, it's simply shrugged off as an expected occurrence.

Social networks are anything but social.

It's an oxymoron.

Social networks have just about replaced conversation with memes.   Rather than debate someone using intelligence on political matters, we use memes.  Often times, we don't even fact check the image we use to do our debating.

Now, we have a whole generation of self-described inspirational gurus who post incessant cliches, quotes and glitter infested adages.  It's as if kindness or acts of compassion have been reduced to the posting of other people's words on these anti-social networks.

People have found a lazy method of finding self-satisfaction without leaving their self-imposed bubbles. 

Imagine if Mother Theresa abandoned her good works and simply spent her time posting memes on Facebook.  She'd be as ordinary as the rest of us.

It seems to me that anti-social networks have caused us to lose the ability to rely on original thought.  They have bred a whole network of people who lack self-awareness and even delve into some shallow existence where an oxymoron is mistaken for wisdom.

A land where tiny women believe they are fierce and tough while large men believe they are soft with hearts of gold.

A place where insomnia is mistaken as an attribute of intelligence while bloggers believe they inherently deserve to be heard.

Anti social networks have caused the quiet reserved types to feel emboldened where voicing an opinion is incorrectly believed to be courageous. 

A place where being a humanitarian is as simple as posting an anti child abuse picture on your page which in reality is about as meaningful as drinking from a milk carton with a missing child on it.

Anti social networks have caused us to be calculated in our compassion all for the sake of a false perception by an audience filled with strangers.

These places manifest the self-serving needs of well intentioned people because ordinary people are given an opportunity to feel extraordinary in a virtual world not defined by cities, streets and pavement.


It seems to me that anti social networks are better suited for cynics like myself because in the real world, it is us who keep things real.