As a 60 year old ex techie I still embrace the magic of the personal computer. It is a part of my daily life as I use it to get my news, pay my bills, get me to the right place at the right time with its calendar, write letters, answer questions that arise, entertain and the list goes on. With those capabilities the personal computer also steals my time. Facebook, Twitter, and the other myriad of social networks creep into my productivity. I am sent information (gossip) that I sort through to see if any is essential to me. Seldom does a tweet or post meet that criteria. Call it egocentric but I do not care who does what on farmville or which high school in of 40+ years past are meeting for a beer.
There are exceptions to this. On several occasions these outlets have been the only source of news coming from places where freedom of the news is nonexistence. At these times I will follow an uprising through the only eyes available and praise the networking for making the news of the world available. There are also social networking sites that are quite educational and promote exchanges of valuable knowledge, spur healthy debate, provide a safe place to touch base with others and are valuable to participants.
I am not one of those adults that see no value in these networks for the youth. For years adults have complained that the youth do not know how to read or write because of the television and telephone. They say these arts are lost. Our youth are reading and writing albeit with great abbreviation. It is an active participation rather than passive where participation is required of them. The drawback here is that some use poor judgment in what they make available for everyone to see. They lack foresight into how this will have an impact on their future and even current relations with peers. This is not only true for the youth but for networkers of all ages.
Social media websites were designed by geniuses with little insight into how they would be used. They multiply on themselves and have very few regulations which in my opinion is good. However if it is to stay that way care must be taken to keep more than modicum of social integrity.
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