SNS - Do they bring people closer together?

YOU have 379 friends on Facebook, 318 friends on Friendster and 42 followers on Twitter. But how many of them would you call friends in reality? How many of them do you speak to in reality? And how many of them have you forged closer ties with through these social networking sites (SNSs)?

Before delving into the main topic, check out this cool video on SNSs and what they're all about.


SNSs and its uses
An SNS is defined in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (boyd, d. m., & Ellison, N. B., 2007), as a web-based service that allows individuals to
(1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a system,
(2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and
(3) view their list of connections and those made by others within the system.

There has always been two schools of thought regarding this question on whether SNSs bring people closer together in reality. In this post, we'll explore these two schools of thought and I'll leave it up to you to decide which you support.

YES, SNSs do help to bring people closer together!
- Ease and convenience of online communication
With just a click of a mouse, you can talk to your friends by writing on their walls, wish your friends 'Happy Birthday!' and even invite them to a party you planned.

These areas of communication that used to require a meet-up, a phone call or a text message, can now be done in one single area - SNSs. Considering how fast and easy it is, more and more people are relying on SNSs to maintain real-life relationships and forge stronger bonds through online methods.

For example, it would be much tougher and more tedious to invite every classmate to a primary school class gathering through text messages as compared to creating an event in Facebook and inviting them online. SNSs therefore, help to increase the possibility of communication between people.

NO, SNSs don’t help to bring people closer together!
- Quality of interaction decreases
In the past, you would find out about your friend's breakup through a phone call. Then it was through text messaging. Now with SNSs, you would most probably find out about it from his/her change in relationship status on Facebook.

And your response? Commenting on his/her status change and leave a short comforting message. What ever happened to the human touch where people were there for each other physically? Or even for birthday wishes - would giving a virtual present on Facebook suffice and be more valuable than a wish in person?

With SNSs, people tend to take the easy way out by interacting online rather than in person, which decreases the quality and amount of interaction in real-life between parties. Here's a prime example of a decrease in quality of interaction, where a husband informed his wife of their divorce on Facebook rather than in person.

What do you think?
Now that both sides of the story has been explored, what is your take on this? Would you rather trade off quality of interaction with ease and convenience of communication?

Do leave your thoughts and comments on this issue and make a stand on this age-old debate! Thank you!