Hostage by Social Networks

While doing research for my paper “CelebTweeting” (Celebrities who Tweet) I came across a fascinating article by Paul McFedries about Tweeting. A fantastic article all round, what caught my eye though, was the term ‘virtual omnipresence’. The truth be told, if look behind the veil of a true Twitterer, you’ll find that not only do they Tweet, they blog, Facebook, use friendfeed and they just might even possess a Second Life avatar. I was discussing Twitter with a friend of mine a few weeks ago and I said to him we are held hostage by these social networking tools and it is true. Twitter is in-between blogging and social networking resulting a social networking and microblogging platform. One hundred and Forty characters... that is all you get, with which to broadcast yourself to the world as often as you like.

Social networks come with their own set of netiquettes and we find ourselves consumed by the need to comply and behave well within these virtualspheres that we don’t even realise we’re doing it. I have been obsessed with new media since I was able understand what it meant, I am the quintessential cyber child, I don’t even remember the last time I wrote anything a pen, I was elated when I purchased a writing pad that I Tweeted about it, which I am yet to use it by the way. Society is held hostage by these tools, we must Tweet because we feel it is an extension of ourselves, we must Facebook because how else will our friends know what we are up to and we must blog because our one and possibly only reader in Bosnia is in desperate need of our sometimes dry humour and wit. These are the basis with which we live our lives, it doesn’t matter that no cares whether we Tweet, Facebook or blog. What matters is that we for some inconceivable reason think that it does. We have a burning desire to adhere to the rules of cyberspace, reply to Facebook message, blog comment and Tweets directed at us or simply mention something we are vaguely interested in, it never stops. Technology is advancing to catch up with our social media/networking demands. We must Tweet, Facebook and blog from our mobiles when we are not at our desktop.

I refused to join Facebook when I was first introduced to it in 2005, after a year of protest I finally caved in 2006, the same year, I joined Twitter and began a proper blog, while trying to maintain my MySpace account. And I am part of many more. Everything I do is online, my thesis is about blogging I am writing a paper on Twitter and my primary means of communication is email and text messaging (which I do mostly from my computer). It’s easy because my life is organised perfectly on my laptop, so much so that if it’s not my Gmail to-so list it won’t get done. I must Tweet, Facebook and blog. I enjoy reading my friends Tweets and I adore the people who follow mine. I am able to get to know them without really entertaining a conversation that lasts longer than a hundred and forty characters.

There might not be a necessary need for all this technology but we NEED them, we’re held hostage by them.