As college students, we all need technology to function, but some of us crave it. Whenever one of my professors doesn’t use Blackboard, students get annoyed because the system makes accessing study materials and grades much easier. Cellphones have gone far beyond making calls and texting. I personally get lost and frustrated without a GPS, and the games and apps on smartphones have given many of us the means to kill time.
Smartphones are so prevalent that providers are reportedly worried about the possibility of a spectrum crunch — (the idea that we could “run out” of airwaves)[http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/spectrum-crunch] for data signaling because of increased smartphone and Wi-Fi use. Even if that never happens, our fears of a theoretical spectrum crunch reflect how technology use is being taken to the extreme. As a result of our increased consumption of technology, social networking in particular, we have to deal with aspects of our social identities that never have existed before, and it is starting to have an unhealthy effect.
Online networks place a pressure on us to be available at all times. Of all the social networks out there, the one that seems to have nearly universal membership is Facebook. With its more than (901 million users as of March 2012)[http://newsroom.fb.com/content/default.aspx?NewsAreaId=22], Facebook’s massive social network is severely distorting how we perceive our relationships with others. Some openly fret about their number of “friends” on Facebook, which is often in the thousands for more prolific users.
The idea we can maintain a contact network of this size in which people are anything more than a number on a web page is completely implausible. Research has shown (the brain cannot handle more than 100 to 150 meaningful connections)[http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/mar/14/my-bright-idea-robin-dunbar] with other people in one’s immediate day-to-day life. Social networking has its purpose, but it is important we keep the purpose of sites like Facebook in context and avoid using it as a replacement for meaningful social interaction. Solely communicating with someone via text can get boring, and a lot of nuanced emotions can get lost when not communicating in person. Because of this, these sites should primarily serve as a sort of Rolodex, not as a social register or replacement for direct interaction.
Another distressing side effect of our increasingly large electronic identities is once you put something online, it exists indefinitely, which could be harmful for younger generations. If every thought I had as a 14-year-old was documented on Twitter, I would be living under a rock from embarrassment.
What’s more, the legacy you leave on the Internet could outlive you, giving others the freedom to manipulate it. At the Coachella Music Festival this year, holograms of the late Tupac Shakur and Nate Dogg appeared onstage. Though this performance helped increase the sale of Tupac’s records by nearly 600 percent, some privacy advocates voiced their disapproval, and rapper Waka Flocka Flame complained record companies were (“getting paid off a dead man’s body.”)[http://www.vibe.com/article/v-exclusive-waka-flocka-tupac-hologram-i-hated-it]
Most of us aren’t particularly worried about being regenerated as a hologram postmortem, but the increasing size of the average person’s online presence is making it increasingly difficult for us to control the information we choose to share with people. As society increasingly judges people based on their online identities, this lack of control can be extremely frustrating. Because of the unhealthy effects of online social networking, I suggest we leave our laptops and make an effort to connect more with our friends face-to-face.