- "Students can't even learn to speak properly to each other face-to-face. We need to get that straight before we focus on communicating online."
- "If I want to speak to someone, I'll pick up the phone or make a plan to meet them."
- "I prefer real connections."
- "Social media is making people less social. They don't go out in the real world anymore."
My response is generally that our online behavior is usually an extension of our f2f behavior and that social media doesn't change that, rather it offers new ways to connect. Well our friends at Pew Internet & American Life Project released a new report about Social networking sites and our lives which supports beliefs like mine and disputes the perceptions of the nay sayers. In the report they answer whether or not social networking hindered off line activity and interactions. The answer is clear, it most certainly does not. Not only do social networks fail to retard offline growth, they actually help users develop connections and form stronger relationships in the real world.
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