Are Social Networks making us ‘less human’?

As someone who spends countless hours on social networks for personal and business purposes, it was a given that the post on the BBC’s World Have Your Say blog would catch my eye. The topic: Do Social Networks make us “less human”?

Without a doubt, the use of social networks differs from person-to-person. The same is true of real-world communications. Ever heard the expression, a person can be in a room full of people and still be alone? Social networks have helped to fill a gap in interpersonal communications, not replace them.

But social networking comes with a dark side. It has a “special” way of exposing our human vulnerabilities – hubris, envy and the like – for all the world to see. We have only to think of the stories of people getting fired for having tweeted or posted negative things about their jobs, clients or bosses or of people leaking info from their friends’ private posts.

To be sure, these underlying issues existed well before the invention of social networks, and will surface again when the next big thing comes along that replaces them. So do social networks make us less human? No. If anything, they expose the flaws that make us even more so.

What are your thoughts?