An average Internet user today interacts with more people than the most important people in history. Are these interactions improving our lives?
By going onto social media such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Weibo, Weixin, LinkedIn, ResearchGate, an average Internet user easily meets hundreds of people everyday. They have direct access to messages sent by others. They can also talk to hundreds or thousands in one go. Any of those they talk to could reply if they want to.
The most important kings and queens could meet hundreds of people in important days. A general could be in command of hundreds of thousands of people in his army everyday, but he doesn't normally talk to them all. Neither do the hearer have much chance to talk back; there was not much interaction in such contacts.
Interactions eat up our time. Processing emails take time. One often has to check before deleting a junk email. Every legitimate message demands some time from the receivers. First they have to read the message. It is also very easy to engage in debates in social media, because one can, and it doesn't seem to take up much time to do so. The more interactions one engages oneself in, the more time one would spend in social media.
The Internet allows us to interact with more people regularly. Some of the interactions do have positive returns, but sometimes it becomes a burden. On social media, people tend to speak (write) rather than listen (read). The quality of such communication may not be high. Sometimes debates could split families and friends. It is not clear to me that increased interaction has improved the quality of our lives. Perhaps I am the only one who think so.
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Related: Emails consume too much of our lives
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