With the rise of the internet and the formation of social media sites such as Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter a new environment for groups and collaboration has emerged. Now more than ever it is easier to get in touch with long lost friends, keep tabs on everyone you know, and meet completely new people from faraway places. With this new development comes the ability to easily form massive groups to collaborate on anything from a software development project to discussing your favorite movie. The benefits to forming a group this way are enormous because it is incredibly easy and reaches such a wide audience. Whether it is starting a group on Facebook or joining a project on Sourceforge it has never before been so possible to organize, manage, and participate in groups.
With so many benefits to these types of online groups many people forget about the weaknesses that they also posses. The first of those weaknesses is the lack of face to face interaction. The internet allows people from all over the world to communicate and collaborate but doesn't require any kind of face to face contact. There is value to communicating face to face especially because communication involves more than just the words you say. Also many times with online communication there is an added measure of detachment that is felt. Whether it is uploading photos or posting a on a blog, there are often things shared that would never actually be shared in a physical group consisting of the audience of this media. For example those photos of you partying with your friends would never have come out during Sunday’s family dinner, but they are posted on your wall that the whole family can see.
Odd, isn't it, that we can be so connected and still be so detached. Real personal interaction is much healthier, but we're becoming less accustomed to it.
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