Don’t Blame Social Media, TV Was Already Changing It

I remember my parents warning me that if I watched too much TV my eyes would become square! They lied! Can’t help thinking there are a lot of untruths circulating about social media too. Nowadays we alert our children to the perceived dangers of spending too much time online. The fact that TV, for the most part, is not social in the slightest and being online, even in gaming, can be socially enthralling is for later discussion.

The research is compelling, it is demonstrating that there has been a consistent decline in social engagement from the 1960′s to now Putnam (1995.) There are several reasons that determine this according to Putnam (2000):

1. Generational change – 50%

2. Television and electronic entertainment – 25%

3. Work intensity – 10%

4. Urban sprawl – 10%

His research also alludes to how, within the USA (and the UK follows similar patterns) that people who watch more TV are less trusting of others and are less engaged in their communities. Halpern, John and Morris (2002) found that the more young adults watched TV, the less they trusted others. Putnam (2000) considers that despite the other contributers “Nothing – is more broadly associated with civic disenagement and social disconnection than is dependance on television and entertainment.”

TV typically is broadcast, its one way, its not engaging. It is characterised by a lot of the nasty things in the world. We search for good news stories that promote the great things happening in the world. When was the last time you heard “And in other news, several million people had a great day today!”

We are still to measure the impact of time spent online, the possible repercussions of virtual social networking and the inevitable chain reactions that always come out of some new phenomena. Our ancestors were probably saying the same thing about the Gutenberg’s press and the telephone. Lighten up folks, what we really need to be concerned about is that we are looking, a lot of the time, at social media and social branding from the completely wrong angle!