The Digital Divide

There is often a lot of talk about a "digital divide" and what that typically means is that the people without access to computers and the internet will fall behind those with access causing further rifts in the socio-economic structure.

That is not what I am talking about here. What I am talking about are those people in our lives that opt out of the digital fray, the Facebook, MySpace, twitter, FourSquare, etc... social media parts which seem ubiquitous to so many of you. I myself am user of various social media tools, an enthusiastic one at that. Yet, I have friends that for no particular reasons don't use these tools. They just aren't into it and I respect that but it makes me think. Are they missing something or am I. Admittedly, I'm not on Facebook all the time updating my status and I barely play games even. But I think that I'm suffering from a little social networking fatigue. I still remember the days of Friendster and the joy of MySpace and then the inevitable move to Facebook. This is a progression that many of us made.

And then you have the late adopters like your parents, the friends that didn't get what Friendster was for, and jumped over MySpace and headed straight for the social media networking giant, Facebook (with a movie based on currently opening in theatres today "The Social Network"). Yet, through it all there are still holdouts. Who are these people, what's wrong with them, why don't they want to join in the fun?

On the one hand, I look at it this way, they'd like to maintain a modicum of privacy and if they want to know what's happening with their friends they'll email or call (shocking, I know). Those who choose not to participate in the constant sharing are maintaining their sanity, at least that's how I see it. But are the missing out on the big stuff by opting out? Sometimes I find myself in conversation and reference something that other friends have posted and they're in the dark. But then I think, there are times when I never go on, so when a friend told me that her house was burgled, I had no idea. Her response "it was on Facebook". This was some crazy information and I missed it because I hadn't logged on. We've come to expect that people will bare all information about their lives publicly and so when someone doesn't or we've missed out on the latest over share or actual important news like babies being born, there is a whole in the conversation.

Social networking is about building and maintaining a sense of community, but what happens when your whole community isn't connected? Should I launch a "no friend left behind campaign"?

While I question what my non-networked friends are doing with all of the free time they have not being plugged in, I also understand it. There is a freedom in not feeling the need to constantly be in the know or updating people on what's happening. Because let's face it, most of the time nothing much is happening. So we air every grievance with each other, strangers, what we ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner or just any old random musing. I'm not knocking it because I do it all the time myself, mostly on Twitter (@mediagirl77). There is a freedom of not being plugged into the Matrix, and you probably would have a cheaper phone (smartphones are the perfect tool for maintaining your presence on all of these sites).

I don't think I can convert my friends who aren't users and I'm not unplugging. It forces me not to be a lazy participant in the relationships I have with the people that I really care about. I can't rely on these tools to keep me in the know, I have to be proactive in my communication and isn't that what it's really all about?