Here is an interesting article from Dean Obeidallah posted on CNN, Are Social Media Creating the Laziest Generation?
Obeidallah comments, “Observing events and then commenting about them on social media has become our national religion. We anxiously wait for the next celebrity to screw up, another politician to be caught in a sex scandal, the verdict in an even higher profile murder trial or simply a friend to do something stupid so that we can quickly begin worshipping at the altar of the social media platform of our choice to offer our (or read others’) opinions, jokes, jibes and the occasional insightful thought. In the past, people would recount where they were when an historic event occurred such as the Kennedy assassination, the space shuttle exploding or the 9/11 attacks.”
Obeidallah states, “In the future, we will instead recall what we tweeted, posted or read on social media platforms about such [historic] events.” Not in the future, that is happening now. I remember finding out that Osama Bin Laden had been killed via Twitter nearly an hour before news networks broke the story, many of us have had similar experiences.
Obeidallah concludes the article by stating, “I’m not in any way advocating that we stopping using social media — in fact, please follow me on Twitter or add me on Facebook andGoogle+ — but if there is an issue you really want to make a difference on, it will take more than a tweet of 140 characters or updating your Facebook status to do it.”
He is correct, a Tweet of Facebook post alone cannot resolve anything. The real value of social media is that it allows us to more efficiently collaborate, reach a broader audience and move ideas forward. Certainly social media has revolutionized how we communicate – but I think for the better.
What do you think – Is Obeidallah correct? Has social media made us lazy, or, have the tools allowed to us to be more efficient in how we communicate?