Social networking is great but it cannot replace the offline socializing

Nowadays, social networking is creating a lot of buzz and there are tons of companies putting focus on this aspect, even the governments are using social networking to get public support and attention, which is a great thing.  It is really amazing how well people are informed and updated of what is going on around themselves and the globe.

In June 2013, when the Saxony region was heavily affected by the biggest flood of the decade, hundreds of volunteers got together to bring food supplies, to bring sand sacks to help reinforce the flood control lift.  This initiative was organized through Facebook only but the result was really amazing!
Social network does help people get together virtually and imitates the real offline  interactive activities among people.  Social network is influential, viral and powerful, however, will it replace the offline socializing in the future?

My answer is no.

Yes, 20 years ago, nobody would have thought sending emails will dominantly replace writing letters.  Yes, 10 years ago, when Mark Zuckerberg first introduced Facebook, nobody would have realized the immense power of Facebook - it simply created another lifestyle of human being.  Yes, you may criticize my standpoint by saying that 30 years later, people will socialize primarily through social network, but, still you cannot change my view.  Let us see how our society will develop in this respect in 30 years then :-)
Below is an article I found really interesting which I would like to share with my fellow classmates, and I like the comments of the article.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424053111903341404576482431024246652

You may call me "old school" but I don´t mind.  Nothing against Prof Tunnard´s lecture, though.  I love the topics and enjoyed every minute of the class, but, I still hold my belief that offline socializing is necessary for human beings, and face-to-face communication is important.  At the end of the day, we are living in a real world, not a virtual one.  Offline socializing offers us THE opportunity of direct impression of the others.

Let us just imagine, if one day, everybody chats with each other by sitting in front of the computer or using mobile apps, we simply let machines talk to machines, umh, a real 21-century world, age of machine, isn´t it?

Probably I will receive debates even before Monday, which is good...

Wish everybody a nice weekend with lots of readings about social networking, books, articles, M14 blogs, hahahah!

See y´all!

Christine (Jin) Zhang (M14)