Is there a point to social networking on the internet?

Comments from a blog would seem to be coming back to haunt the actress Mia Farrow as she gives evidence at the trial at The Hague of Charles Taylor the former President of Liberia, accused of war crimes. Things she had written on her blog were scrutinised in extensive detail by counsel for Taylor. As this was taking place I wondered how many people are put off ‘blogging’ because what we say is there for all the world to see, pick over and perhaps subsequently hold us to account.

I certainly have many concerns over contributions to message boards. I regularly access ‘Clarets Mad’ a fans message board for all things connected to the greatest football club in the world – Burnley! I avidly follow the comments, good, bad and indifferent, frequently scanning for news of new signings and even rant to myself at some of the ridiculous comments made by some who ‘engage in debate’ on the site. I feel strangely drawn to observe, to participate in a non-participative way but I never do. In great part this is because quite often many things are posted that result in some very acrimonious exchanges, much of which I’m sure occurs as a message-board offers some form of anonymity through a pseudo-name and thereby desensitising the writer to what they say. In reply to others.

I have a ‘Facebook’ page, occasionally go on it to see what some of my friends who use it are up to; I never contribute. I’m not interested in what someone has for breakfast. I don’t understand ‘Twitter’; why would anyone want to know that ‘The first ever air-conditioned Tube train has gone into service’ which is what a brief foray into this surreal world revealed the other day. I think the whole concept is slightly bizarre and fills me with a touch of despair that for many, this is all they have in the way of communication with others. I have visions of someone sat behind their computer, their whole lives run via ‘logging-on’ to the internet; a metaphor for the person sat pulling their own cracker on Christmas Day – it saddens me if truth be known. The real concern for me is that social networking has encouraged a substantial number to use it as a forum to vent their spleen, resulting in such as ‘cyber bullying’.

Does social networking cut out face-to-face contact? I think it does. Does it diminish and reduce human contact when bizarrely it is supposed to increase it? I think it does. Has it some great uses and serves to keep people in touch with each other? I think it does. Of course many who I know on these sites genuinely seem to enjoy the process and in some ways their cheery, jokey exchange of pleasantries is exactly what friends should engage in. It keeps people in touch, which has to be good. Yet, a balance has to be struck between this and the real effort needed to engage in conversation where you can see someone’s eyes, a smile, tears, their despair and their joy.