Weary of Being Wired by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 10/10/2006 at 10:06 AM

It seems social networking Web sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, may be losing their charm. Fox News reports young adults are becoming weary of being wired. Gabe Henderson is one such person.

For some, it would be unthinkable — certain social suicide.

But Gabe Henderson is finding freedom in a recent decision: He canceled his MySpace account. No longer enthralled with the world of social networking, the 26-year-old graduate student pulled the plug after realizing that a lot of the online friends he accumulated were really just acquaintances.

"The superficial emptiness clouded the excitement I had once felt," Henderson wrote in a column in the student newspaper at Iowa State University, where he studies history. "It seems we have lost, to some degree, that special depth that true friendship entails."

"True friends need to learn when to stop blogging and go across campus to help a friend," says Iowa State journalism professor Michael Bugeja.

In her article, "Against the Cell," Lauren Winner discusses how interpersonal relationships are suffering in a technology age. She writes:

I think it quite worrying that we have become a nation — and in my microcosm, a campus — full of cell phone users. If I were queen for day, I would ban the things, and I encourage you to think about shoving yours in a drawer, to be brought out only for emergency use during a hypothetical car breakdown on a cross-country drive.

And don't forget about the potential for rudeness inherent in text messaging. In the Fox article, sophomore Steve Miller explains his dissatisfaction with the medium:

"Text messaging has become the easy way out," Miller says.

He's had friends cancel a night out with a text message to avoid having to explain. He's also seen some people ask for dates via text to escape the humiliation of hearing a "no" on the phone or in person.

Maybe this disenchantment with shallow, tech-based relationships will spawn a return to meaningful face-to-face interactions — in coffee shops — as God intended.

Weary of Being Wired by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin on 10/10/2006 at 10:06 AM

It seems social networking Web sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, may be losing their charm. Fox News reports young adults are becoming weary of being wired. Gabe Henderson is one such person.

For some, it would be unthinkable — certain social suicide.

But Gabe Henderson is finding freedom in a recent decision: He canceled his MySpace account. No longer enthralled with the world of social networking, the 26-year-old graduate student pulled the plug after realizing that a lot of the online friends he accumulated were really just acquaintances.

"The superficial emptiness clouded the excitement I had once felt," Henderson wrote in a column in the student newspaper at Iowa State University, where he studies history. "It seems we have lost, to some degree, that special depth that true friendship entails."

"True friends need to learn when to stop blogging and go across campus to help a friend," says Iowa State journalism professor Michael Bugeja.

In her article, "Against the Cell," Lauren Winner discusses how interpersonal relationships are suffering in a technology age. She writes:

I think it quite worrying that we have become a nation — and in my microcosm, a campus — full of cell phone users. If I were queen for day, I would ban the things, and I encourage you to think about shoving yours in a drawer, to be brought out only for emergency use during a hypothetical car breakdown on a cross-country drive.

And don't forget about the potential for rudeness inherent in text messaging. In the Fox article, sophomore Steve Miller explains his dissatisfaction with the medium:

"Text messaging has become the easy way out," Miller says.

He's had friends cancel a night out with a text message to avoid having to explain. He's also seen some people ask for dates via text to escape the humiliation of hearing a "no" on the phone or in person.

Maybe this disenchantment with shallow, tech-based relationships will spawn a return to meaningful face-to-face interactions — in coffee shops — as God intended.