Is social networking ruining personal relations?

We are the most “social” generation of all times. We have access to the modern technology; we are today, on almost every social networking site. We are on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Hi5, Pinterest, myspace, Google+, LinkedIn, orkut and others. Phew! There are so many of these.
However, I am active only on twitter and facebook only (still my mum says I am always busy with my phone!) Talk about facebook, as more than half of the population has a facebook account. (I am sure you guys will have one too!)
Yesterday, I went out with a friend, we had met after a long time, and what I noticed was that she was busy with her phone texting and surfing. I felt a little awkward at first but then I realized she was bitten by the “facebook bug”. This is not an actual bug (sic) but is a term named by me! She, at first, checked in “Enjoying at Kebab Express” and tagged me along, and I thought “Are we really enjoying? Not me!” and then she were fascinated by the number of “likes” on her post. Well, the evening went fine. I enjoyed with her and her mobile phone! I frankly don’t like the idea of revealing everything to people. You need to have a personal life where certain things need to be kept private. Seldom do people understand this thing.
Just when I entered my house, I received a phone call, a friend of mine called up to seek some advice about her relationship. She was upset because her boyfriend has a facebook account and he chats with other girls on the internet, and she has a problem with that. I was amazed! Well, I think there needs to be some space in the relationship and you can’t tame or control the other person, but keeping this issue aside, I concentrated on the problem at hand. I asked her why was she so insecure and tensed about it. she was worried because this social networking that had played a role in getting them close was also the reason why they were drifting apart. Her boyfriend, not telling her where and with who he was, put everything on facebook, check-ins, status updates and pictures. Well, I realized it’s something serious and I suggested her to keep calm and sort things out.
And, the story doesn’t end here. The day wasn’t over and there was something else for me to witness. Someone sent me a screenshot of his follower count on twitter. Well well well! Fabulous. Wasn’t it? I asked him why he sent it to me. He sent it to brag his followers to me. I don’t understand why people consider “likes” and number of “followers” as a big thing. Why are we drawn to such things so easily? Social networking sites are rather distancing people from the close ones.
And then, I had this really annoying friend who I was trying to avoid and I made an excuse of sleeping early but I forgot the “last seen” feature of whatsapp and you can imagine what had been the situation for me when she confronted me. We all have been through this. Haven’t we? That’s why I prefer to stay a little distant to social networking. And I always get complaints from my friends for not being active on facebook and replying late. Well, this is my way of being happy; others may not agree.
(Now, you know what made me write this article? Lol)
We care about what people will think about us if do such and such thing. There’s a competition kind of thing in us now which is good, but to a certain extent. We are slowly drifting apart from people and that’s why the feeling of “depression” and “loneliness” seeps in. having 1000s of friends or 2000 followers won’t help you, but having 2-3 RL (real life) friends will surely do.
Our conversations are becoming shorter day by day and wish list and demands are going up. We all want to be updated to the modern technology but what we don’t realize is that what we are losing in this process. I still remember the time when I was 5-6 years old and my mother used to write telegram/letters to my maternal grandmother, what joy I used to feel in waiting for a week for the reply from her and then finally reading it. ah! That was bliss! When we all used to go out on streets to play with friends, cycle rides and cricket and hide and seek. And when I look at the kids now, I don’t see anyone playing in the streets, the parks are empty most of the time, I see mobile phones and tabs in the hands of 9-10 year olds. Well, when I was 10 years old, I din’t have such things but I had a lot of friends to play with. Nevertheless, we all need to accept and adapt to the present technology and dynamic environment.
I am not saying that I am not at all social. Of course, I have a facebook account, I have a twitter account too, and I also have whatsapp. But, I know to use them in limit, I am not dependent on all such things, and there are people who are! We, all know at least one such person who can’t live without their phone (Well, I know quite a few!)
We are living in a world where we don’t meet people personally, but we message or skype with them. We don’t get our photos framed; we put them up on facebook. (What about privacy?). We don’t call people to wish them; we post it on their facebook wall and upload a photo collage along with it with a long caption. We don’t bring cakes for friends, we wish them on facebook. We don’t compliment people for their looks, we “like” their photos. We don’t fight with friends (and then sort things out); we delete them from facebook.
It’s really sad to see how we are losing contact with our dear ones and are moving so close to the modern technology. All this has made us more irritated and less-patient. We are losing our tolerance and we tend to avoid things rather than solving them.
Sometimes, I wish to back to the time when we had no technology; at least, back then, people had love, compassion, friends and kindness!