IS FACEBOOK REPLACING FACE TO FACE INTERACTIONS?

There is a heavy debate that has been going on recently about whether Facebook is replacing face to face interactions.

Is the world’s most popular website slowly replacing face to face interactions?

Maybe, but only if you choose so!

FACEBOOK HAS IMPROVED MY SOCIAL LIFE

I am a huge fan of using Facebook to manage my social life. There are so many benefits of Facebook. Facebook helps me keep in contact with old friends. I can organise events more easily through Facebook rather than phone messaging everyone individually to see if they are free. And it makes it easier for my friends to invite me out to events as well through Facebook.

I actually believe that Facebook has helped our social life rather than damage it. It definitely has helped mine, and it can help yours as well.

I know a lot of people out there that claim Facebook has ruined face to face to interactions and social activities between people. I have heard the argument that people rely on using Facebook to interact with other people rather than actually getting out there and interacting in person. I strongly disagree with this. While it is true that some people can have all their social interactions occur only through Facebook and not in real life meetings, this is not always the case.

FACEBOOK IS NOT REPLACING SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

Rather than seeing Facebook as a ‘replacement’ for social interactions, I see Facebook as an ‘assistance’ for social interactions.

I use Facebook to keep in touch with old friends, and from there I will then move the interaction to the real world and catch up with them in the real world.

I use Facebook to set up group conversations or group events, and from there I can then organise an event at a time when most people will be free. I can then have a group catch-up in the real world.

Not only can I organise a group event myself on Facebook, but I can also have another co-organiser with me to help me organise the event. Or I can invite my friends and have a co-organiser invite their friends! Which can be a lot of fun.

I can also invite my Facebook friends to a public event being held if the event is on Facebook and the organisers have allowed us to invite other people.

Facebook also allows my friends to inform me of changes to their life. If a friend has gone to live overseas for a few years, and he will be returning to our hometown for a visit, he can post a status update to inform people of this.

If a friend has achieved something that he has been trying for a long time and posts about it, it gives me a chance to congratulate him for it, or have something to talk to him about the next time I see him.

The stories people post on their Facebook will tell you a lot about them, and give you a lot of topics to talk about with them. Facebook has made conversation between friends a lot easier. You will have more topics to talk to the other person about because of Facebook.

If an old friend of yours decides to let his Facebook friends see when his birthday is, you will get a notification on his birthday, and this will be the perfect chance to reconnect with an old friend you may not have spoken to in years.

Or someone you met that you are trying to build a friendship with but have not succeeded yet may be organising a big event through Facebook, and decide he may as well invite you because it is just a click of a button through Facebook. Opportunity to build a friendship!

So to me, Facebook is incredibly useful to help you have a better social life in the real world if it is applied correctly.

You have the choice whether you want to go down the road of having interactions on Facebook replace interactions in the real world. Or if you want to use interactions on Facebook to assist you in having more and better interactions in the real world. The choice is yours.