The Triple Revolutions Causes Social Isolation or Closes Social Networks?

The triple revolution refers to networked revolution, internet revolution, and mobile revolution. Whether it cause social isolation or it close social networks will be answered by using my own experience. That is, with different experience, people might have different understanding and answers.

Before the middle school (when I was 11 years old), the internet and mobile did not popularize. During those days, I felt engaged all the day whenever in school or at home.

In school, as a member of a fixed class, I studied with my classmates all together for same courses. During the break, 10 minutes between classes, we played rubber band, shuttlecock, and other group games. After school, I went home with other classmates who live near me. And on the way home, we talked, bought snacks, and played group games.

When I came back home, I had many neighborhood friends that play with me. We could talk things happened at school, play group games, and watch TV.

Nowadays I never see elementary or middle-school students play the same group games as we did. What I see is that each of them surf on the internet at his/her bedroom. Little face-to-face communications. Although parents plan to find play dates for their children, when children come together, they play mobile phones, computers, and ipads on their own. Most of them keep taciturnity and do not want to talk much with peers.

However, if checking up some online forums, social media, you will find teenagers are active, interactive, and talkative, which are totally different from their performance in the real world. Therefore, I am not sure which side, offline or online, are their true one. At least, the triple revolution does not cause complete social isolation.

One thing I am impressed and quite sure is that internet did close our social networks. When I was young, my father work abroad. Now and again, my mother took me to photographic studio to take photos and then send to my father with letters. It took about 20 days to get to my father and then he replied us. Now I am abroad, but I face time with my family two times each day. I could see their face and listen to their voices, which sometimes causes me feel like at home with them. Thanks to internet for maintaining ties with my family and friends even we are apart by half-way round the world.