Evan Lovely's Site

I'm beginning to get worried about our reliance on Facebook as our only method of communication with those close in our lives. Anybody that knows me knows that I'm a fan of the ways Social Networks, especially Facebook, allow us to revive and keep alive connections that would of atrophied away under classic circumstances, where friends afar can fade away. However, I believe that Facebook should only be an extra layer of communication added onto the ones we already have: phone conversations, texts, emails, letters, and most importantly: face to face conversation.

Facebook's wonderful for giving those broad announcements of general activity in one's life to a semi-closed circle of friends and family. It allows everyone to kinda keep up with other's lives, and this should be used as a stepping stone for the next time you communicate with someone: the phone call where you get to ask your buddy about how the rock climbing trip was that you saw pictures of on Facebook, the text where you ask your friend if they're still planning on going to that show tonight, the conversation over coffee that can skip the question: "What have you been up to for the past year?", and can get right into how they are now and can listen to some of their more personal thoughts about the last year.

The convenience and nearly ubiquitous use in friend circles makes Facebook the medium with the least amount of resistance and the most amount of return for time invested. Communication should not be funneled through a single medium. None of them can properly capture what is going on in one's life. Each medium has it's advantages & disadvantages. Using only one sacrifices certain aspects. Together, they can provide a more clear picture.

So what am I doing about this in my life? I call a friend when I see an important status update to congratulate or console. I try to call and video chat more with far away friends. And I don't post everything that happens in my life on...