26 April 2011

Miscellaneous

When People Get Lonely They Head to the Internet

With everything being so internet orientated is it any wonder that people, especially the younger generations are lacking in the social skills department. When did talking in the flesh to the person you fancy become such a nightmare? Rather than socialising at the local pub or golf club, singletons are now sat in front of their computer screens. 

There was an article in the Daily Mail last week about the social networking site Badoo. In a time where Facebook and Twitter are the popular trends, the business model of Badoo takes a different direction - maybe a little seedier, but a new direction all the same. 

It concentrates on flirting, I checked the website out for myself, see what all the hype was about - I was let down. This is where my argument comes into play, I was brought up in the 90s just as the dawn of the digital age was creeping in and I learnt how to talk face to face with people.

Surely, if you take that away then you take away some of the fun. How can you work out if you genuinely have a connection with someone, a big enough spark that would make you want to meet up with them? Who knows, apart from the ease of social networking, and the voyeuristic way you see people over the internet (they don't know I am looking through their photos or that I actually have put a little bit of weight on since that photo was taken) it's a chance to take away the scrutiny of being let down face to face and in some cases portray yourself in a different, more attractive light.

This lack of face to face communication can hardly be good for the nation, also we have yet to cover the endless opportunities for people to exploit what the internet has to offer, would you be comfortable in your 18 year old daughter meeting a man she met on Badoo, it's hardly safe and loop hole free.

Badoo is just one of the many dating/flirting sites that are cropping up on the internet and let's be honest they are all as bad as each other. Facebook is the best online medium for communicating with people, and also is the most heavily populated. If you want to meet someone or talk to someone when you're feeling lonely, use one of the reputable social networks.

I've read the articles, I've been on the site and it's pretty grim, it's vanity at its most profound, there is no option to actually tell people about yourself, just a short line of information. Badoo centres on photos, quick to look at, and easy to judge. I didn't know the world had become so short sighted. 

It's rather ironic that people use sites such as this in an attempt to meet their life partner, find someone to talk to and connect with - yet the only way to promote yourself is in its most shallow form. How can you make that consideration when you are judging people of the opposite sex purely on their attractiveness. If this is the trend across relationships in the UK then it's no wonder why the divorce rate is so high and that people are using sites such as Badoo as a way to spend their evenings feeling wanted by another human being even if it's only skin deep.