Cost of the Social Networking Privilege

Is it weird that most people think of today's world as a global village and yet are choosing to distance ourselves from people who are not as tech savvy as they are? Isn't it a privilege on its own that today we can be part of this global village and a network that consists of billions of people?

It has started to feel like there is a separate world for the tweeters and face-bookers than for those who only use networked computers(with restrictions and limitations) for work.  It's starting to look like twitter and Facebook are the only medium for communications now a days (maybe texting too) I consider the fact that someone actually posted about getting burglarized while it was happening. Real-time face-booking paid out too because they knew that it takes longer to get through to 911 than to let people know on FaceBook that you're in trouble. Although, they couldn't find any intruders, the cops showed up just before any harm came to the family.

It seems to me that the trend and usage of these social media sites are not going to die down if we only considered the value it's adding to people's lives and pace at which things get done. You might not know this but Shawn of the Dead actor Simon Pegg has actually manage to crash a few websites a couple of times by simply tweeting about them to his million plus followers who immediately decided to check it out. Of course, it hasn't been Mr Pegg's intention to overload the website but people with access to 3G and possibly 4G mobile internet services on their quick messaging devices have definitely changed how fast things get done on the internet. The same goes for news media. The details that were coming out of Libya and Egypt and the rest of the Arab world owe a great deal of gratitude to these social networking sites. If it wasn't for people tweeting and face-booking about what was happening in in these countries, the world would have believed people like Gaddafi that everything is under control and is fairly dealt with.

But... like all things, there is a cost for this privilege... I'm just wondering what you and I are going to pay, later on, to be part of this world. The answers have yet to reveal themselves because this trend of global interaction is fairly new. But are those who choose not to be part of these social networks aware of something we aren't? When the time comes, are we ready for the answers?