Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Weibo and Douban have transformed the way people interact, as lives become more and more intertwined with computers and the Internet.

MIT technology and society expert Sherry Turkle argues in her latest book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, that online connections lead to solitude. She asserts that social media is bad for us as a society, because it prevents us from having "real" conversations and connecting with other human beings. 

Yet, some people believe that the Web and social media are just tools: They can be used to create connections or to create distance, just like any other technology. Zaheer Cassim, a South African who owns a video production company in Johannesburg, and Song Meifeng, an editor at Beijing Office of Norstar Media & Communications Inc., give their perspectives on social media and its impact on their lives.

Staying Connected

by Zaheer Cassim

The first time I logged onto Facebook was August 26, 2006. My first posts were sent to my friend Alfred, who was in art class with me during my undergraduate studies. Over the years, we have lost contact, but I still remember all of the times we used to make fun of people who couldn't understand why Duchamp's Fountain was art. Six years later, Alfred and I are on different continents. When he is online, the chat bar pops up and we go back to our usual banter and make fun of people. 

If it were not for Facebook, I don't know whether we would still share this bond. 

As I left university and entered the workforce, social media became less about my identity as a person and more about my brand identity. My Facebook and Twitter accounts give the outside world insight into Zaheer the journalist, or Zaheer, the sports fan. It became less personal and more professional. But this didn't stop me from sharing real opinions with my friends. If I thought something was too taboo, it usually went into a message body instead of on somebody's wall. Technology allows me to build a persona as well as stay in contact with people that I really care about. 

I don't buy the argument that social media is making us more lonely. Technology has helped us keep in contact with people throughout the world without even trying. I know what is happening to my friends in the States or India by just scrolling through their Facebook pages. When I recently got engaged, I put up a picture of my fiancé and instantly people wanted to know who this woman was and why we were so dressed up. It took about 10 seconds to notify all of my connections that I was getting married; if I had to e-mail or call everyone, I would have probably missed a couple of hundred people. Conversely, when somebody posts pictures of their baby or announces something big on their Facebook or Twitter, I am connected with them through that post. 

Another advantage of online posts is that if someone is not interested in your news, there is no obligation to read it. For example, many of my friends are journalists and post interesting articles. I don't read every article that they post, but technology allows us to share this kind of content with very little effort from either side.

One drawback of social media is that it encourages more voyeurism, to the extent that some people even stalk others. Although this is a problem, the quickest fix to this is to set your privacy settings as narrowly as possible and not letting strangers onto your friends list.

Social media is great. It's free, fast and requires little effort. Those close to you will always be in close contact. However, friendships with people abroad can be fostered through these platforms and that's why I think we're very fortunate to have these tools in our lives.

The Power of Weibo

by Song Meifeng

As a journalist, three years ago, the websites I first visited every morning were the websites of the Chinese newspaper Southern Weekend or TheWall Street Journal. But now, the first thing I do is to open my Sina Weibo (literally microblog), the Chinese version of Twitter. It's not just the first thing I do at work; whenever I have time, I will log on my Weibo, whether I'm commuting back home on the subway, or queuing up for lunch. It has now become an integral part of my life.

Weibo not only keeps me updated on local and international news, but it also keeps me well-informed on what my friends are doing. If I follow a friend, and he or she updates Weibo frequently, I will know what he or she is doing. Even if we don't meet for a couple of months, I feel like we just met yesterday.

Since I am an amateur writer and scriptwriter, editors who I didn't know before often find me via Weibo and invite me to write stories or screenplays. Weibo helps people find me easily and offers me more job opportunities. And if I want to find part-time jobs, I can also type in key words to find more recruitment information. It's fast, convenient and constantly updated.

Weibo indicates the arrival of the we-media age and grassroots journalism. The low cost of Weibo has created many online celebrities. Many ordinary people did not have media resources years ago in the traditional media environment. But now amateurs write stories and news reports on Weibo that attract a big pool of fans. Their Weibo becomes we-media, which means they create a large audience for their Weibo.

Weibo's transformative power reminds me of a phrase coined by the Canadian media scholar Marshall McLuhan: "The medium is the message." This means a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by the content delivered over the medium, but also by the characteristics of the medium itself.

In the past, media was only seen as a tool to carry material or information, and the medium did not determine or change the information it carried. But in the digital age, the medium plays a decisive role, shaping and controlling "the scale and form of human association and action." Social media platforms such as Weibo, Twitter or Facebook have tremendous transformative power to change the relationships between individuals, and individuals and society.

Yet, I think McLuhan's theory has also some defects. He puts too much emphasis on the form of the medium, but neglects man's subjective initiative. Some people also criticize Weibo for invading the privacy of individuals. But it's not the fault of social media. The roles it plays depend on how we human beings use it. In this sense, I don't agree with Sherry Turkle's argument that social media is bad for us as a society. Instead, I think social media facilitates communication between people and the spread of information.