At the end of the recent Grey Cup victory, I saw a picture of a group of people at a party, all of whom were using their phones. They were, presumably, looking at the feeds for whatever social network they use, and updating it accordingly. It's telling that this is where I saw the picture myself, on a site that was flooded with happy people celebrating the Roughriders getting a decisive win.
A curmudgeon will, undoubtedly, say that this is pointing to a decay in society, as people are more concerned with online nonsense than people in the same room. While I certainly have been prone to curmudgeonly thoughts in the past, I don't see it this way at all, and instead we have an example of how celebration has changed, but not for the worse.
Everyone in that room was excited about the result of the game, that's clear. And they were glad to be in the company of all the other people in that room, that was also clear. They wanted to share their joy with friends and family who weren't there, and the quickest way to do that was to grab a phone and send some kind of message or photo to the people they know. That's why the whole social networking phenomenon has taken root in society, but it's far from a bad thing, and it's really not an example of some kind of decay in society.
Even if we're at the greatest Grey Cup party in the world, chances are that not everyone we want to celebrate with will be present. As people spread out around the world, this becomes more and more common, since it's just not physically possible to be near everyone you know. Social media is generally a tolerable way to connect people through most events, but it comes into its own at something like the Grey Cup, which is a major sporting event, one that was pretty much required viewing for most of a province.
Most of the messages of celebration weren't anything especially unique, but that's not the point. It's the shared experience, connecting to people from far and wide who are all experiencing the same event simultaneously. It's a quick and easy way to share the event with everyone you know, and it's probably the best example of why this new method of communication is vital. I can understand being leery about such services, and the people who grouse that one on one interaction is more vital have a point. Those people also have to realize that there are simply different ways to communicate, and different contexts for every event. Sometimes you want to share an experience with as many people as you can, and in this modern era that means grabbing a phone and making a post. It's not replacing one on one interaction, it's augmenting it, extending a party beyond the walls of a home and bringing other people in. Sure, you might be enjoying the company of the people you're with more than anyone else, but it's still nice to bring others into that celebration, and see how other people you care about are celebrating themselves.
It's events like this that prove social media has value. It's easy to get annoyed by it, dismiss it as a waste of time, or just sign off completely. But in the rare instance when a unifying event brings people together, there's a sudden realization of why these services exist, and why people got hooked on them in the first place.
