Social Media, Is It 'That' Social?

The word 'social' simply relates to us intermingle in the society. As an individual, we dwell and interact in the mass in order to live the life. And being social is everyone's innate desire. Though few prefer not so social and we somehow attribute them as anti-social individuals. 

As the world of technology really touches our private life. Internet has its means and breakthrough to create or facilitate people to become social and easier. Nonetheless, now it somehow has rule people. Especially when it comes to the term social. 

The web serve us, you, me and everyone, as medium to become social creature. But is it 'that' social? 

To cater this social aspiration and dynamic, developers create the platform called the social media. There are numerous social media platforms available in the internet. The basic micro-blogging like (the late) Friendster is one of the examples. But it had somehow lost its members since the social media mogul Mark Zuckerberg and friends created Facebook in 2004, and went worldwide around 2007. 

In 2008, there came a simplistic 140-ish characters social media platform, Twitter. It is where users can actually 'tweet' like a twitter bird all day long. And the growth of social media platforms become bulkier since the hype happened. Numbers of people joining have been growing exponentially since. 

Then, can we still whether social media is 'that' social? A new kind of hangout mode occurring IRL since social media boom. It is somehow awkward. Commonly, when some people or friends came to a table to start a chit-chat. But now, they sat and pulled out their gadgets. They would stare down to their cellphone or tablet. 

The supposedly-friendly situation among friends was mute for quite long pause. They were too busy checking stuff in their gadgets. Then, they talked to each other for about 5 minutes. Just to make sure everyone was still sitting. 

Then, they went back checking their gadgets for whatsoever things going on in their timeline or continuing their game. Sadly, this mode repeated throughout the hangout session among them. 

Do such interaction can be attributed as social interaction?

Social Media, Imaginary versus Sensing Proposition 

What I could see most often for people who think they are 'social enough' in social media, is that they prefer imaginary proposition to sensing proposition. 

Imaginary proposition is where friends or user accounts in the social media are more attractive and sociable than the real ones. This imaginary condition is yielded by the term social media itself. 

Friends or people who are not present in person are a matter preference. People choose who are communicable and inconversable through the platform like Facebook or Twitter. And social media filter bubble algorithm worsens this deliberate social preference.

People prone to share their current emotional state or condition to users account labelled as 'friends or followers'. In their mind, the nonexistence friends are real friends to hear and see our suffering, happiness, and even boredom. And this imaginary proposition is what actually social media emphasizes. 

Further, imaginary proposition is amplified by the use of photo tagging and emoticon. Sharing special moments or places are the accepted ways to become social. And for friends or followers, the photo tagging feature is priceless. Tagged in a friend's graduation photo is an exclusive feeling one could undergo. 

While the emoticon or emoji is the way to share and represent the feeling to friends or followers. Thousands types of emoticon are available. Some social media platform add stickers to personalized expression. These stickers are bigger and lush with color and character portraying our emotion. 

These emoji or stickers are as imaginable as our existence oneself in the timeline. The illusion of interacting as human being is merely depicted with photos, emoji, stickers, and now stories. 

While the sensing proposition is the actually five-senses involvement in interacting between people. When we chat face to face, we actually involve our five senses. 

Sight is for seeing our friends' facial expression and eye contacts. Hearing is to hear and discern the real and hidden message in our friends' speech. Olfactory is to smell and remember, if any, our friends special fragrance or bodily odor. 

Touch is the medium to embrace the emotion as we hug or hold our crying friends. And taste is to taste and remember our friends favorite food or beverages. However, this proposition tries to be replaced by the social media interaction. 

Social gesture like giving like/hearts, comment, or share are common ways user reach out each others. But do we really see our friends' smiling and happy face when they put smile on their comment on our post? 

Are We 'That' Social Now? 

Then the question arises. Is the sensing proposition has been shifted by the imaginary one? From time to time, both proposition are in duel. Not that I said the other would defeat its opposition. It maybe that these two propositions are struggling to survive. 

However, the sensing would still prevail. Because our social blueprint is made to meet and interact each other. Though, while imaginary interaction serves for friends separated by time and location. 

So, can we say whether the social media is 'that' social? In present time, we still can say not 'that' social. In future time, with the rapid growth and innovation of technology, being social can be like that of the Surrogate movie depict. 

Regards, 

Solo, September 7 2014 

11:20 pm