6 Hidden Dangers Lurking in Social Media, Smart Phones, Facebook, Twitter, Communication, Messages, Health, Social Media Addiction

Lacking of Social Skills

People who use too much social media lack social skills. The other day I was conversing on the telephone with a man; it was a very old-school moment. We chatted for a bit and then I said something and he did not answer. I have seen that behavior a lot, mostly with store clerks who talk and then suddenly go nonresponsive. I have since determined that this is social-media-disease. In social media, you have the option to scan the input from a variety of sources; you are not required to acknowledge, much less respond to, any input that does not interest you at that particular nanosecond. This behavior—I’ll respond if and when you say something I find interesting—is creeping into our social interactions. And it’s not social or polite. It’s self-indulgent and irritating.

Recklessness

Social media encourages recklessness. One of the great tools in developing skills as a conversationalist and just a general human being involves direct interaction with other people. When you have a conversation with another person that you can see, that person’s reactions and responses help shape the conversation. We all learn what to say and what not to say by trial and error in real conversations with real people. Social media affords no such safeguards; most of us are more or less alone when we post on social media and we do not have the luxury of seeing how our comments affect others. It is no secret that people will say things on the internet that they would not dare to say to another person face to face. Social media also encourages reckless sexual commentaries and pictures. No teenage girl would be hanging around the school in front of her friends and suddenly take off her blouse—but how many teenage girls do the equivalent by sexting? (Boys, too, I just used girls as the example.)