Educational Origami

I read an interesting article in the Australian computer magazine APC called “Say ‘No’ to facebook”. The article is talking about curing the addiction. teh addiction in this case is the preoccupation with facebook, but applies to most social networking tools.

The Author Samantha Rose-Hunt outlines 4 steps for this:

• Setting boundaries
• Ceasing notitifications
• Thinking of the other thinks you can be doing
• if all else fails blocking it.

This is good advice but it raises some wider questions for me as well.

There is too much of a good thing, Internet addiction is real and causes real issues. Games can be compelling and engaging and yes addictive. So the guidelines above are appropriate for many situations where people want to change.

But I wonder too about what is being percieved as too much time spent on social networks.

As a teenager my sister was notorious for occupying the Phone for hours, too the point of frustration for many of us and eventually rules were established to curb what was seen as excessive use. There were boundaries set for length of use, my sister had her calls filtered – mum or dad answered the phone, she (and also the rest of us by default) had specific times where we were able to talk.

At the time this was a major issue about the house. There was frustration and angst. I remember many comments that mirror the ones I hear now about social networks being spoken about my sisters “excessive” phone use.

Now of course we have cell phones and often more than one and we are forever on the phone.

I suspect that we are sitting in the same position now with social networks that we were 20-30 years ago with telephones. My sister by current standards was not being excessive in her use of the phone and in reality she was not spending a huge amount of time on the phone back then. But! But it was a change from what was deemed to be normal.

For many of us observing digital natives on social networking sites, those of us who are not as adept, it is easy to say they are not really communicating, it is a poor cousin to face to face communications and that this is a trivial waste of time.

But I suspect that the reality is different. The circle of friends and peers they interact with cover the globe. They are knowingly or not exposed to a wide range of cultures and experience that would not be available to them if they played F2F with their neighbours. In a world often dominated by media driven reporting of violence, conflict and war such social interactions have immense benefits.

I am not saying that a person should socialise only through social networks, far from it. There is a need for balance and moderation, but I suspect that what we are currently seeing as “excessive” will only be seen as this for a short period of time as we as a people and as a culture adapt to this new medium of communication.