I now have Facebook and one thing that has amazed me is that some people on xanga are on Facebook and Myspace constantly. Not to mention that some of you are on youtube all the time.
I am wondering in the grand scheme of things if there is any redeemable value to time spent on the Internet. I am not talking about time spent researching homework or doing assignments. I am talking about this time we spend interacting with others on the Internet using social networks.
Is there any value to spending time on social networks?
Comments (72)
FIRST
you must be on a lot yourself to notice these things.
Yep— You’re on here all the time too… your answer is yes, as well?
second bitches!
i think society has embraced a seclusionist lifestyle that involves remote interaction. no matter what nothing ever beats real human interaction though.
wow. actually first.
and no…especially if it’s myspace.
Yes.
I have friends who live a while away and that’s the only way I have to communicate with them most of the time- through myspace. You CAN actually have meaningful conversations on there beyond ‘hi lol’. >.>;
heck no!
now I take this personally Dan! there really isn’t any redeeming value but it does pass the time…… and you forgot things like AIM and the like……
Nothing of great value, entertainment along the lines of watching TV.
I would say some of the blogs on xanga are somewhat educational. and socail interaction is good for you to an extent. Just don’t do it to the exclusion of real people.
Some people communicate better through written word, or are at least able to express themselves differently than in a typical day-to-day situation. That being said, time on the internet should be spent as a supplement to real life interaction, not the main event.
None. It’s total vegging.
Hi, Dan! I place a great deal of value on the considerable amount of time I spend on the Net. But then, I suffer from agoraphobia, so the Internet is my primary social interaction. Your blog is my favorite…..keep up the good work! ~ Ray/Lobo ~
Occasionally.
I got a full score on the anayltical writing portion of the GRE. I owe almost all of it to arguing online in a semi-logical manner. =)
Also, composing online keeps my writing style sharp. Most engineers/scientists have their writing degrade to mush by the time they get to grad school.
Yea, Spiritual enrichment thru making friends.. Sometimes we come for moral supports and socializing in cyberworld.
Absolutely not.
Except Xanga.
Xanga. keeps me sane.
Yes, for me. I have met amazing people online, and I love those I have known for a long time. Though we’ve all never met, there are connections that have been made throughout time and with loyalty and trust. I just hope that one day we can meet.
And THANK YOU, Dan, for ridding of your Xanga video ad!!!!!!
It got to the point where I wanted to very much kill that black-guy-with-a-British-accent-from-MTV.
i hope so, otherwise u are saying its worthless
and that i am wasting my time
Myspace and Gaybook are wastes of time phsh!! Xanga is not.
To a certain point, it can be.
Most of what I use facebook for is communicating with friends I can’t see daily, posting on group discussion boards, and strengthening my friendships with friends I can see daily. Also, it is the most efficient way to spread social news: ending a facebook relationship is much easier than calling all 200 of your friends to tell them you’ve broken up with so-and-so.
But it really depends on what you use it for. A large part of my involvement is political or intellectual. Some people just use myspace(especially) and facebook(increasingly) to blahhhhhhhhh about their life, and read the same from others.
Oh, and btw, I just saw “I Am Legend”. I thought it was pretty good! Worth watching, at least. (And you forgot to mention the workout scene where Smith is shirtless. That was worth the $10 admission on its own!)
I’m a member of a Christian writers forum, and I’ve been instructed there on many a subject. I wouldn’t call that a waste of time. But, Facebook & Myspace have very, very few redeemable qualities.
I am on Facebook a lot though.
I guess it depends on what you are doing on these sites… I have met so many awesome people in person because of Xanga and MySpace… Facebook is just novelty fun… but the friendships I’ve made will last a lifetime…
Hugs!
well, xanga’s my blogging site, i keep up with my high school friends on myspace, and for college friends there’s facebook. so, yeah, for me anyway.
Alot of us literally have nothing better to do, especially during the holiday break.
I guess it depends. I keep in contact with my high school and college friends through Facebook. We’ve been able to plan parties and get-togethers that way, otherwise we’d probably rarely call each other. And on Xanga, I’ve met some of my best friends who I value more than most friends I’ve actually met. For me, my time on here is well worth the effort.
So I just reunited with myspace. I use it to network with the elite so that one day when I choose to rule the world, I will have the powerful on my side.
Yes, definitely, I think it’s wonderful. You meet all sorts of interesting new people, exchange ideas and gain new perspectives. Genuine, life changing relationships can form. It’s a great hobby. Just a few years ago, so many of us would have spent our evenings vegetating in front of the television. Now people are online. They are thinking and interacting. The internet is truly a new horizon for mankind in countless ways.
I say yes when it comes to long distance relationships/friendships. I’ve had both and it’s easier to “mail” things over the computer and to communicate through messengers and emails/comments. I really do think it makes it easier to stay in contact with the people you do not get to see daily.
Plus it’s fun.
Well, for me I can keep up with my friends while I’m stuck on a crazy work schedule.
I have actually asked myself that same question many times. I don’t really have an answer.
As for spending so much time on those sites, you have to consider how much time the person might be logged in but not actually engaging the site.
some times…
Yepp. Relationships (not just intimate) can develop over the internet. I’ve made new friends through myspace with people I’ve seen around my school but never had the chance to socialize in public.
not really. that’s why i’m not concerned when i’m offline for a week or two at a time.
It’s better than watching tv.
I think the Internet does get boring sometimes, I prefer a doing a mixed thoughout the day.
I use it to and try and improved my writing skills.
I spend a lot less time before I discovered Xanga,
but less time on My**** and face****
I think it’s very valuable, because on myspace, I get to meet people who are closer to my age, if not a little younger. I get the chance to talk to people who I normally wouldn’t, because I’m not in high school, anymore. On here, I get to talk to older people, people who might not talk to me simply because I don’t look 18 – so they’d never hear what I have to say, and I’d never hear what they have to say. :] I don’t have a Facebook, though.
I am definitely a Facebook addict. I’m not on MySpace as much, but I’m definitely on Facebook a lot–actually, I check it on my phone all the time, just in case anything new happened.
There is value in spending time on social networks…there are several people with whom I would be completely out of contact without them. There are a lot of people that I wish would give in and get Facebook because I have no idea what’s going on with them since they’re not on it. It’s pretty sad.
Darn facebook and its telltale timestamps!
I receive no real value from these things personally. But I do know people that use them to meet people, a friend of mine met her boyfriend on facebook, and others use it as a public social calendar. I just have no friends or social life so I only use it to waste time during my insomnia.
I think it’s wonderful time spent for people who love to write (Xanga, anyway) and for people to connect with others. I have made some amazing friends on Xanga, some of whom I have met and others I hope to meet someday. It’s a very important outlet and learning and growing experience for me. I don’t, however, do myspace and facebook. Everyone should have a Xanga. I wish more of my distant friends would get one. It’s a great way to share photos, families, and other tidbits, and the Christian community on Xanga is incredible – Connie’s Heartbeat, for example.
Xanga is awesome, and as I enjoy writing, it allows me to have a creative outlet. I’ve met some great people here as well. As for the social networking sites…for me personally, I’d have to say no, they don’t have any redeemable value for me. I hardly have enough time to update my Xanga sometimes, I can’t imagine trying to maintain friendships on a networking site. Besides, I have kids…they’d die of embarrassment if their mom was on MySpace.
Interaction with other human beings is always important. Iteraction is how we get to know each other on some level.
If it leads to a date?
Yes.
I do not have many friends in real life
I use facebook to see what people say about the secondary school I went too and to see if I can find about colleagues I could be working with in the future
A lot of people prefer to go on social sites then do their studying and re-search first for assignments (I am glad I did not have the Internet in a way when doing GCSE’s even though I did not as well as I hoped, I will have got some U grades because I would have done no revision apart from the assignments set by the teacher.
Value is relative. For me I think only eternity will tell. If I can influence one person for Christ, then it had value.
Blessings to you Dan.
My chilcren can waste an incredible amount of time, but the value is in having LOTS of friends and acquantences and excelling at social skills. I’m not sure kids of this generation have much work ethic, but they sure do have social skills.
Time is the only thing of value we really have.
I would say at most 10% of internet time is valuable. I wouldn’t know about certain events at school or with my friends, if it weren’t for facebook.
Yay! No annoying MTV dude!
I like that I can re-connect with old friends on social networking sites. I think there’s value in that. Otherwise, Xanga keeps me up-to-date on what my family is doing and what’s going on around the world – in the news. Otherwise, it’s just entertainment and a way to kill time. I’d rather be out with “real people.”
It make’s my day more interesting and it does pass the time
Some of the time is quality time that is invested in lasting relationships,a lot of it is wasted.
Yes there is. It’s kept me in close contact with my far-flung family and I’ve made new friends. My husband’s site is devoted to theological discussion and prayer, which has been of great value to several of his subscribers. My daughter has been able to keep in touch with some of her high school friends and I have reconnected with the only friend I’ve kept from my nomadic childhood. I would say all of that is very worthwhile.
it allows me to keep in contact with friends around the country that I dont get to see or talk to everyday…so yes.
Moderate amount of time, yes, but… too much isn’t great.
Yes,internet can sometimes be time consuming especially if you kinda addicted and visiting multiple sites at once can be very tedious.But again,in this mordern world,you just cant live wthout the net.it is such an important tool,that the world cant do without it.Yes,we have to communicate with our friends,family, business partners etc.I think that evrybody should now get used to this kinda life,cause tell you what,there is no going back.Soon another kinda internet is comming and computer geeks are busy working trying to come up with something good for everyone to enjoy.So you better just be internet compatible.SO what do you think about it?
Not a lot. You can make friends and express yourself, but at the end of your life, I doubt that you’ll say “If only I had spent more time online…”
Is it useful? Yes, sometimes. Although in the past couple of days I logged in to facebook for the quizzes.
Social networks are largely responsible for the success thus far of a campaign to save this nation from the path of tyranny.
Not much, they’re tools for entertainmentand self expression. I don’t spend much time on Myspace or Facebook, but I do spend a lot more time on Xanga, because I’m more interested in people’s words and ideas, than in racking up ever increasing numbers of friends.
I think so; if you make posts and you interact with a community you affect their lives – you share new ideas and life experiences with each other; or even cheer up when you spot a funny post and get angry when you spot a dumb one.
Hey, I met my husband on the internet 6 years ago…..does that answer your question? Now I have to stay in contact w/ all my san diego ppl since I relocated to his state out into the middle of nowhereland WI.
I guess it depends. For me yes as it allows me to- broaden my views, keep in touch with those going thru the same issues I am, give my mood a boost, etc. Don’t spend a lot of time online anyway.
More of my friends have Facebook, so I go on there a lot. Nobody really goes on Myspace anymore though. Or Xanga. It’s like they all migrated from Xanga then to Myspace, and now we are all on Facebook.
Yeah. I found you on one of these “social sites.”
I think there is value to it all. The point of these sites — MySpace especially — was to help people get in touch with people they know, and meet people they didn’t know before. So if you consider talking to people a good way to spend your time, of course there’s quite a bit of value there.
I see some value in social networks; it all depends on how you utilize them. If you spend your days pretending to be a professional wrestleror a Disney character, I don’t see much value in that. But I think there is something to be gained from interacting with others who may share similar interests. I also see value in forums like this.
except for xanga, though I’m a member of others, I usually don’t spend much time on any “social network” . I usually go around forums.
Too much time spent on the internet is just a waste of time. However, xanga is a great place to go on to vent. I think it’s a great place to go on when bored. hehe. definately not productive, but it can help people stay sane.
Yes I believe there is because we all need human contact and for some people it’s just easier to do it online and it can be a great life life if you happen to suffer from depression. As for Myspace I’ve never been a big fan of them although I have a page which I’ve stopped using since the strike to show my support for the writers. Not much seems to be going on at Facebook but I do have a page there too. I get more interaction through blogging sites.
Your irony is slacking….