I wrote this article about social media (http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3629624) Friday. Would love some comments.

Posted this from an email I got this morning:
Roe Pressley wrote:

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

As an avid reader of SEW blogs and articles, it is great to finally find someone who shares some of my views about the hype and over-inflation of the social networking trend. I'm so sick of everyone talking about how it's going to revolutionize the way we communicate and disseminate information without talking about the fact that it's going to dumb down the way we communicate at the same time. Sure, we can now spread our opinions to millions of readers in the click of a button, and if enough idiots read it and Digg it, more idiots will follow. These same idiots--people in my generation (23 y.o.) and younger--seem to no longer care about, let alone have any skill in, traditional communication. How many people have blogs that they update regularly? Now, how many of those people can give an effective speech to an auditorium full of people without stumbling over their words, wringing their hands the whole time, or relying completely on Powerpoint to illustrate all their ideas for them? The so-called social networking "revolution" is simply facilitating things like social anxiety disorder, attention deficit disorder, and general laziness, while completely neglecting the methods of communication that stimulate critical thinking and other important mental and social functions. It will be real interesting to see what happens when this generation takes power... if we're still here. Thanks for reading my rant.

From Kevin's rejoinder:
In short, it seems the latest group coming into the world is extremely adept at sending e-mails, blogging about every miniscule detail of their lives and, in general, communicating -- as long as they aren't asked to speak to anyone.
Amen! I notice this multiple times per day. My apartment building is home to a sizable number of young budding baby bankers who work in the midtown Manhattan financial district. Pass them in the lobby, ride with them on the elevator, stand on line with them in a local store and they're heads down thumbing an e-mail, twittering, stumbling or otherwise digitally being "social."

But they can't make eye contact, no nod of the head in at least some recognition of others' existence. They find it impossible to say "Hello," "Good morning," "Good afternoon," "Have a good evening." No basic face-to-face social skills let alone being able to carry a conversation.

Though social media apparently serves some purpose in their lives, are they actually going to count their social success by the number of push-button "friends?"

Exactly there was a few hours between games Sunday at my 15 y-o daughter's soccer tournament and all the girls on her and other teams were sitting and texting not talking to their team mates

bravo. thank you aussiewebmaster for posting the email you got from roe pressley. i agree totally, and what kills me is the lack of etiquette and mostly just the replacement for words.
i use a lot of social media tools; it's something i'm interested in more for a research stand point though it's handy to get in touch with people quickly when that's your only method of contact. anyway, i use social media tools and i do find that it's become a crutch for person-to-person communication (have you heard of someone breaking up with someone over myspace? i have, it's pretty sad).
i'm scared to see what life will be like when kids that have known nothing but being able to txting and use social media applications take charge...

aussiewebmaster - are you sure the girls weren't messaging each other? i saw a group of girls doing that once over lunch at the mall.

more than likely texting each other about the others in the group

I think more people need to practise yoga. Seriously. Some alone time would do a lot of people some good. When are we ever really alone thesedays? We need to be sometimes, to recharge. To make sure we don't lose perspective over life.

Hehe I used to tell to friends a few years ago that in a decade or so, guys wouldnt ask girls for their "numbers" anymore, but for their "myspace" or their "msn". I bet that's really going to happen.

I agree that sites such as digg, etc. kind of sucks. I don't use anything like that (because I dont have enough time anyway), but I wouldn't refer to it as social media in general. This right here is social media/social networking, too and I really think it has revolutionized our lives. I remember when I was into programming computer game in elementary/early high school and at some point I'd always have a problem with the code I just couldn't seem to solve no matter how hard I tried and wasn't able to do what I wanted to.

Today I'd just go to WMW or some other place and post the code and what I want to do and I'll get reply the same day (of course the same is true for most SEO questions!).

I really think we should make a distinction when we talk about socializing on the web/using the web as nothing but myspace and digg. I used to have a (serious) social phobia problem until I was around 21, when I started going outside every day and just try to greet strangers and finally make conversations, etc. and now 4 years later Im probably better at socializing (offline ;)) than most of the people, I know.

I guess applications such as myspace, digg, etc. are really not that good, but I think socializing online is more than that..for example the SEO community or other communities, it helps you get in touch with countless people with the same interest when a decade ago, you would have had a hard time finding anyone like that...or at college, we have an online forum, which is pretty helpful for studying as there's always somebody wholl give their input and answer questions about a class/an exam, etc.