A New Definition of "Social"

In class the other day, we were read an article claiming the Internet made us less social. I strongly disagree with this. Some may argue that the Internet is keeping us locked indoors, kept to ourselves, our eyes growing red from looking at the computer screen for far too long. This is a very small percentage of the human population. They exploit the use of the Internet, which can be a bad thing if it makes us less social. However, in most cases, I don't believe it does.

Sites like Facebook, YouTube, or any sites that facilitate blogging actually make us more social, but in a very different way. These sites allow you to create a relationship that involves no physical contact or smiles and sometimes makes it difficult to read tones like sarcasm, but are nonetheless, relationships if you constantly chat with these people. I talk to a friend on Facebook once a day online. We have never met each other, but we both have a mutual friend who we "met" each other through. Though I am sitting upstairs in my room whenever I talk to him, it is still a new way of socializing.

YouTube allows people to get to know one another through commenting on videos. We can easily make friendships with people we have never met by watching their videos and responding to them. This way, we can physically see one another, though we are talking at different times and may continue the discussion in anyway we see fit.

Blogging allows one person to share their opinion, and then, like YouTube, we can comment on their posts and they can comment on our posts.

These sites create a new definition of the word "social." Socializing doesn't have to be physical, because our generation has allowed there to be friendships by online means. This allows people to socialize in ways much different than imagined previously. I still have my friends at school, but now I have online friends too, and that is a new way to define being "social."