Well, in what sense are we talking about obsession with social networks? You could say that American youth is experiencing a strong individualistic current of self-expression today. It's no longer enough to live comfortably, but rather to live excessively; the adolescent dream of fame isn't a new concept, but the notion that anyone can be famous for fifteen minutes on the Internet is. Anyone can be an Internet Superstar. Everyone wants to turn their name and identity into a brand, a unique 'thing', and there is no better avenue for such people than Twitter accounts, Facebook accounts, last.fm accounts, blogs, etc.
This self-expression trend among wealthy young people is part of the current cultural
zeitgeist in many developed nations, though. And it's always been there, the Internet has just provided the means for it to be much more pronounced. The real problems with social networking, or at least what most people seem to be worried about, are a.) That the concept of what is and should be private is rapidly deteriorating, and b.) That we are all falling prey to social alienation.
Regarding the first problem, it's an interesting issue, because companies like Facebook certainly
want you to share increasingly more personal details with everyone; they thrive on exposition and interconnectedness, and their ultimate dream is for everyone to be connected to everyone all the time, so that you can observe, judge and comment on the most mundane minutiae of everyone's day-by-day. Here's an excerpt from "The Face of Facebook" by José Antonio Vargas, published in
The New Yorker:
[Mark] Zuckerberg and I talked about this the first time I signed up for Facebook, in September, 2006. Users are asked to check a box to indicate whether they’re interested in men or in women. I told Zuckerberg that it took me a few hours to decide which box to check. If I said on Facebook that I’m a man interested in men, all my Facebook friends, including relatives, co-workers, sources—some of whom might not approve of homosexuality—would see it.
“So what did you end up doing?” Zuckerberg asked.
“I put men.”
“That’s interesting. No one has done a study on this, as far as I can tell, but I think Facebook might be the first place where a large number of people have come out,” he said. “We didn’t create that—society was generally ready for that.” He went on, “I think this is just part of the general trend that we talked about, about society being more open, and I think that’s good.”
Then I told Zuckerberg that, two weeks later, I removed the check, and left the boxes blank. A couple of relatives who were Facebook friends had asked about my sexuality and, at that time, at least, I didn’t want all my professional sources to know that I am gay.
“Is it still out?” Zuckerberg asked.
“Yeah, it’s still out.”
He responded with a flat “Huh,” dropped his shoulders, and stared at me, looking genuinely concerned and somewhat puzzled. Facebook had asked me to publish a personal detail that I was not ready to share.
The real question here is whether we're experiencing a change in what society deems as private/public or we're simply being driven by corporations to reveal all the skeletons in our closet. [Personally, my Facebook profile doesn't list that I'm interested in men despite the fact that I'm gay, because I also do not want everyone who can see my account to know about my sexuality.] One could argue that it's because we're becoming more distant, and therefore more comfortable with over-expression; it's one thing to check or uncheck a box on your profile and it's another to tell people something personal in face-to-face conversation. And that leads to another problem: alienation.
The idea is that social networks have substituted actual social contact; it's even more impersonal than the telephone. We can now go shopping, order food, make friends, or become romantically involved over the Internet, never meeting anyone, never leaving our homes and, some would argue, never
actually doing anything. Adults will say: "You have lost your humanity", and youths will reply: "Did we ever
have a humanity?"
And it can be argued that social networking and online busywork are all natural developments of technology and human society; they are certainly more convenient. But on a personal level I cannot shake off the feeling that we are going in a foul direction with this philosophy, in terms of physical and mental health, in terms of contributing to this generation's landmark illnesses. Philosophically speaking, you can say that meeting someone in cooking class and then going out to a movie together is no more real than private messaging someone over an Internet forum and then changing your Facebook status to "In A Relationship", but on a practical level, I can't be comfortable with that conclusion.