I still think social media is just the tool and it’s the individual who decides how to use it. You can argue that every advance in technology that’s ever been has led in some ways to a loss in some skill across society. Maybe in some cases it does happen, but I think it usually opens up another area where we can gain skill.

Search engines in a sense do the same thing. We ask the search engine a question and hopefully get an answer in the form of good results. Most people still click on the top few results, which would suggest they aren’t thinking critically.

Of course you can apply critical thinking to search in the way you phrase your query and which results you choose to accept as the best. I think the same can be applied to social media. Perhaps you haven’t solved the problem yourself by asking someone and getting an answer in return, but you still have to think about which answers to accept and which social site is the right one to ask your question.

It might not be the same critical thinking and problem solving that goes on in the absence of social media, but there can still still thinking and problem solving involved.

I still think in the end there will be those people who will always be problem solvers and while they may seek a quick response on one particular question they aren’t losing either the skill or desire to think critically. At the same time there will always be those people who will avoid thinking under any circumstances. Social media may make it easier for them to avoid thinking, but so does search and so does any human contact.

I am not sure you have convinced me with your most recent point, especially since I believe I had addressed it in my initial post. I am seeing more people which is true, but it is a very specific subset of people. Nearly my entire twitter stream is people involved in Internet marketing and generally I see these people as motivated problem solvers.

“Many of the new Social Media websites seem to encourage this type of behavior. More specifically I am starting to see this type of behavior a lot on Twitter. I am not sure whether or not it is the law of averages or maybe even just the company I keep on the service? Maybe I interact with too many online marketers.”

I agree that before the internet we still would have been asking. It would have been a person in front of us and we couldn’t get our answer as quickly. But we were still asking.

I guess the question is was the longer delay between question and answer in the past something that forced us to solve problems for ourselves more in the interim. If I knew I wasn’t going to see the family elder for awhile would I just go ahead and work out the problem for myself. Maybe, maybe not.

If there has been a change, though I think it happened long before the internet entered the equation. We could look at the telephone as the way we got quick answers. I might try to solve a problem if I couldn’t ask you for two days, but I’d probably wait 2 minutes to dial the phone and have you answer.

It’s possible you see more of those requests simply because you see more people. I can’t offer proof about specific numbers, but I would think in any population there will be a percentage of people who choose to think for themselves and a percentage of people who choose not to. The population goes up so do the number of thinkers and non-thinkers. You may notice the non-thinkers more, but are you sure their percentage is going up?

Now I will agree that social media enables people to avoid thinking, but I do think enabling is different than automatically leading to. People are a resource so why not take advantage of that resource. If I happen to have Twitter open why not ask the question instead of searching for it. From my perspective I’m already at Twitter so I simply go there first. It doesn’t mean I’m losing the ability or the desire to find out the answer without asking. It just means I’m choosing not to at the moment and in that circumstance.

I know that’s not true of everyone and there are people asking questions to avoid the thinking, but I suspect those people would still avoid thinking even if social media didn’t exist. I think this is less to do with the tool (social media in this case) than it is to do with the person.

Does the desire to solve problems decrease? Hmm? Speaking for myself I’d again say no. I enjoy problem solving. It’s among my favorite things to do, but I’m not everyone. I still think the people we’re talking about didn’t have the desire to solve their problems in the first place and they just happen to be using social media.

Maybe the question should be if social media didn’t exist would those people be forced to solve their own problems, thus increasing their ability out of necessity? That’s a trickier one for me to disagree with, but I still suspect those people would avoid thinking for themselves.

Like some have mentioned before, in the past before social networks, before the internet, you called someone who knew. Before that, you ask your dad or the local elder.

If anything these websites have introduced more people to answers quicker. I think it has leveled the paying field to a point.

“But it seems like as the list of people I follow grows, more and more I am seeing requests for superfluous information that could quickly be ascertained on their own in the same amount of time it would take someone else to twit back.

So the real question is with all this accessibility to others with knowledge, are people slowly losing the desire to solve their own problems? And does this loss of desire lead to a future lack of critical thinking when it does come to solving the more challenging questions?”

If you address this part of my post I believe it becomes a very different conversation. None-the-less I am thrilled to see the conversation continuing.

Roderick

I see social media as an added dimension too. That’s a good point about having to still form the questions and decide what to do with the answers. Again some people will avoid the thinking and just ask. But those same people will do the same thing in other places too. Social media is just another place for them to avoid thinking, but it’s by no means an automatic. It really comes down to the person.

I don’t think asking questions in a social media setting is a substitute for thinking though. I still have to figure out what to do with the answers I get, and have to think about the situation enough to form a question in the first place. Social media just gives an added dimension to the answers I get and some more options for solving whatever issue I’m addressing.

@Nathania – I agree. I think some can use the knowledge of others as a crutch, but it’s not something that has to happen. I don’t think your comment about search engines as blasphemy either. I’ve been finding myself going to them less often in recent months.

Sounds like the right way to search on date night. What do you think of ChaCha? I haven’t used it myself, since I’ve assumed I could find what I wanted on my own, but the service is interesting. I originally assumed the people who used it would be no search savvy, but now I can see another use. You have them search while you do other things.

That’s smart.

You save time for the more important things. And you’re more likely to make better and more informed decisions than simply relying on search engine results. I know that’s slightly blasphemous or whatever, but I don’t care.

Besides, search will be trending this way. Just the other night, my husband and I texted ChaCha to find out if our favorite TV shows were back on that evening or not. We were able to enjoy each other’s conversation while ChaCha searched and texted us back. It was a much better use of our date night than searching Google on his iPhone.