De term social networking heeft in een jaar tijd enorm veel buzz, bekendheid, vragen en kritiek opgeleverd in de online en offline media. Wat is het effect van sociale netwerken en social media? Het Freakonomics Team ging op pad, interviewde 6 “thinkers” op dit vlak en stelde de vraag:

Has social networking technology (blog-friendly phones, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) made us better or worse off as a society, either from an economic, psychological, or sociological perspective?

De antwoorden geven voldoende voer voor je eigen gedachten. De moeite waard!

It’s easy to look at a lot of elements of today’s society and cry foul. It’s equally easy to look at the new technology that we don’t understand and blame it as the cause for all social ills. It’s a lot harder to accept that social media is mirroring and magnifying all of the good, bad, and ugly about today’s society, shoving it right back in our faces in the hopes that we might face the underlying problems. Technology does not create bullying; it simply makes it more visible and much harder for adults to ignore.