As a positive psychologist, I spend a lot of my energy trying to understand what's right or positive with something, and how it can add value to our lives, even in small ways. (Hence my post "Ten Things I Like About Twitter", and thank you Tim Pychyl [Twitter: A commentary on desultory behavior] for continuing the conversation.) I don't believe that the behaviors people worry about with Twitter and social media are not new with these tools. But blaming the tools is like blaming the hammer for hitting your thumb.
Therapeutically, we might be more effective in asking: what is the benefit to the individual of the behaviors. People don't do things without perceived positive benefit, even if what is positive to one person seems negative to others. That's how we define pathology. If the amount of time devoted to these behaviors is disruptive or detrimental, we might want to ask the individual: are these the right goals or is that the best way they can be achieved?
We also need to be mindful of the rapid and radical changes in technologies that we have witnessed over the last 20 or even 10 years. I may be an "early adopter" of technology but I still grew up with a telephone hardwired to the kitchen wall. (I am not a total dinosaur; it at least had push buttons.) That means that I interpret new technologies as replacements for old ways of doing things rather than just how it is done. The most common use of cell phones among kids is texting and telling time, not talking. To them, these are not "phones" in the way I grew up thinking about them.
Before texting, parents lamented the hours their teens spent attached to the telephone. Socrates worried that everyone would become feeble-minded from not have to commit information to memory when people began writing things down. Like Rosanne Rosannadanna of SNL used to say "It just goes to show you, it's always something."
Based on October 2008 findings, Pew Internet researchers report that, contrary to popular concerns, family life has not been weakened by new technology. They found that families have compensated for the pace of modern life with cell phone calls, e-mail and text messages and other new forms of communication. According to University of Toronto sociology professor and report author Barry Wellman, "There had been some fears that the Internet had been taking people away from each other. We found just the opposite."
It's good to examine ourselves to see if our behavior patterns (any behaviors, not just those related to technology) are self-destructive. Continual procrastination is definitely one of these. I can also appreciate the propensity to excess of teen and college-age populations that turn their parents prematurely gray. Kids are fully occupied struggling through the developmental rites of passage into adulthood and keggers. It is an age of insecurity and vulnerability, not much long-term planning ability with a dash of defiance thrown in just to make things interesting, or as we say about our college age kids, "they're big, but they're little." But don't forget, they also have an entirely different understanding of how these tools intersect with their lives.
I believe imbalance and abuse are symptoms of individual needs, not the substance (or technology) of choice. Focusing too much of our worries on the technology may distract us from engaging with more positive uses of the technology and, more importantly, the needs of the individual.
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photos: iStockphotos.com, Twitter.com, Gilda Radner: USAToday.com
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