Smart phone? Social butterfly?

Samantha Dent

Open laptop, connect to the web and the first site entered is Facebook, the fastest growing social networking site in the world. Social networking is growing faster than the Gautrain can reach OR Tambo from Sandton. It can be accessed from any portal, especially with the newest techno trend… The smartphone.

America’s problem?

America seems to be the biggest culprit where social media is concerned. We, in South Africa, mainly usually use our social networks for exactly that, social networking. The American lifestyle is quick and the people live on their phones. In a recent survey, created by Zach Epstein, it was found that 33% of the Americans who took part would “sooner give up sex for a week than go without their phones for the same period of time.” A further 70% said they would rather give up alcohol, and 22%would part ways with their toothbrushes.

New age

But why? Society, nowadays, is so career driven that the chance missing a call, email or reminder is inexcusable. Knowing that an email can be answered as soon as you get it is seen as “a gift from the technology Gods”. The rise in population of Smart phones has made it impossible to stay away from the office.

Multi-tasker…

The added incentive of accessing social networking sites such as, Facebook and Twitter on your Blackberry Torch while on a treadmill at the gym has made communication easier. Solving crises at work while at gym? Seems like a dream. In the same survey, Epstein learns that a shocking 66% of smartphone owners admit to taking their phone to bed with them; and 31% check their phones in the cinema.

Small world

Social media is easy to access, and any 10 year old with access to the internet probably has a profile on Facebook. Without Facebook, we wouldn’t have come in contact with that friend that moved to Australia in your youth, you wouldn’t see what half your Matric class is up to now through the photos they share. Let’s face it, social media has done two (if not many more) radical things to our lives, it’s made the world a very small place to live, as well as much less private place to live.

According to British blogger Jake Hird, Facebook claims that half of its users log into Facebook every day, that’s a cool 175 million people on one site in 24 hours. Twitter, according to Hird, has 75 million active users on their site.

Ask yourself…

Are you addicted to staring at the screen of your shiny smartphone? Do you love scrolling through your NewsFeed on Facebook every 5 minutes to see if anything new has appeared? If you do, then you need to stop and think about how much of life you are missing out on, in the real world. So step away from the laptop/ blackberry / iPad or whatever mode of technology you are using, and experience real life social networking… face to face with those close to you. Don’t become a statistic.