Social networks under fresh attack as tide cyber-sweeps us scepticism

An American student control on his smart phone. Critics of social networking to say, it has an insulating effect on users. Photograph: Najlah Feanny/Corbis

Way, as desperately people communicate online via Twitter, Facebook, and instant messaging can be seen as a form of modern folly, according to a leading American sociologist.

"A behaviour that has been typical can still express the problems, once caused us to see it as pathological," writes MIT professor Sherry Turkle in her new book, alone together, which leads an attack on the information age.

Turkles book, published in the UK next month, has caused a sensation in the Americas, which is usually more obsessed with the merits of social networking. She appeared in the last week on the Stephen Colbert late night Comedy Show, The Colbert Report. When Turkle said, she had been at funerals, where people controlled their iPhones, Colbert leave: "We all say goodbye in our own way."

Turkle's thesis is simple: technology threatens to dominate our lives and make us less human. Illusion to allow us to communicate better it actually isolate us from real human interactions in a cyber-reality is a bad imitation of the real world.

But Turkles book is far from the only work of its kind. An intellectual backlash in the United States calls for a rejection of some of the values and methods of modern communications. "This is a major setback. The various forms of communication, people are using has been something that frightens people, "said Professor William Kist, expert training in the Kent State University, Ohio.

The list of attacks on social media is long and come from all corners of the academic circles and popular culture. A recent bestseller in the United States, the legislative proposals, by Nicholas Carr, suggested that the use of the Internet changing the way we think, to make us less capable of digesting large and complex datasets information, such as books and magazine articles. The book was based on an essay, Carr wrote in the Atlantic magazine. It was very clear and was headlined: is Google making us stupid?

Another strand of thought in the field cyber-skepticism is found in the net of delusion, by Evgeny Morozov. He claims that social media has produced a generation of "slacktivists". It has made people lazy and enshrined the illusion, clicking a mouse is a form of activism equal to real world donations of time and money.

Other books include the Dumbest Generation by Emory University professor Mark Bauerlein – in which he claims "United States intellectual future looks dim" – and we have met the enemy by Daniel Akst, which describes problems with self-control in the modern world, where the proliferation of communication tools is a key component.

Downturn has crossed the Atlantic Ocean. In Cyburbia, published in the United Kingdom last year, James Harkin inquired of the modern technological world and found some dangerous possibilities. While Harkin was no clean cyber-skeptic, he was found many reasons to be concerned, as well as happy about the new technological era. Elsewhere, is the hit film social network was seen as a thinly disguised attack on the social media generation, suggests that Facebook was created by people who could fit into the real world.

Turkles book, however, has triggered the most debate so far. It is a cri de coeur to put BlackBerry down, ignores Facebook and Twitter disclaimer. "We have invented, inspiring and improving technologies, yet we have allowed them to reduce the US", she writes.

Colleague critics point to numerous episodes to back up their argument. Recently, focused media coverage of his death in Brighton by Simone back on a suicide note she had posted on Facebook, which was seen by many of her "friends" 1,048 on site. Yet no one reads help – instead of the traded insults with each other on her Facebook wall.

Turkles book has also hit home, because her earlier works, the other Self and life on the screen, seemed more open to technological world. "Alone together reads as if it were written by Turkles evil living twin," joked Kist.

But even setbacks now have a setback with many kreering in defence of social media. They point out that e-mail messages, Twitter and Facebook have led to more communication, no less — especially for people who may have trouble meeting in the real world because of the great distance or social difference.

Defenders say their is just another form of communication, as people may have difficulty in getting used to. "When you walk into a café, and all is silent on their laptops, I understand what she is saying about are not talking to each other," said Kist. "But it still communicates. I disagree with her. I can not see it as so black and white. "

Some experts believe that the debate is so sharp, because social networks is a new field that has yet to develop rules and etiquette, as everyone can respect and why events such as Simone Back death appears so shocking. "Let's face it, I see no signs of any link," said Kist. "But, perhaps, we need to involve a ' Netiquette ' to deal with the whole".

He also pointed out that the "real world", as many social media critics hark back to never actually existed. Before all raised on the bus or train with their heads buried in an iPad or a smart phone, traveled the normally only in silence. "We do not see people spontaneously talk to strangers. They just keep itself, "said Kist.

View the original article here