Postro Ponders: VIDFEST explores the ethics and challenges of social networks and our society

It's always inspiring to visit my hometown, nothing like the backdrop scenery of the coastal mountains and the Pacific ocean to get your mind thinking. VIDFEST 2007 explored many topics, from the future of digital media and the many advances in flash animation, mass to online branding and integration to looking at new and emerging platforms that promise to further evolve our space and the way we community with each other - but the questions that left me thinking the most was the discussion on how all this digital infrastructure has bettered or worsened our society.

There is no easy answer - but speakers at VIDFEST shed some important light on how digital media and the growth of social networks has, in a very short time span, completely transcended they ways in which we communicate with another and importantly how the ethics and rules of the game have changed.

The explosive growth of social networks, from Facebook, MySpace to instant messaging services such as MSN Messenger has paved the way to a new social ethics dilemma - the lack of a code of social media conduct - at what point do we place rules around this new channel of socializing, at what point we do stop and ask ourselves if we are crossing the boundaries of good taste and human decency?

I for one also consider comment boards and blogs to be a part of social networks since through these channels we are all communicating with each other, usually masked behind a screen name, giving us this sense of freedom that usually brings out the a different side to ourselves, a side that I'd rather avoid displaying for the world to see - just read some the comments at Globe and Mail.com and if you begin to question the IQ level of some posters you get my point - wouldn't you love know who these people really are?

And so the real question begs to be asked, is all of this social networking good for us? Are we starting to lose a sense of reality, our sense of values? In suppressed regimes around the globe blogs and social networks allow voices to be heard and the truth to be told, and in this case, it provides a voice to the outside world where otherwise no voices would be heard at all and educates and informs about the plight of the people in these regions.

But in our Western society of instant gratification and the "ME" generation, of which I am sadly a member of, social networks have proven somewhat tricky - we seem to use these platforms to market ourselves and our inner thoughts to the others, post our every move, action and deep thought, we want to be heard and noticed.

Am I guilty of some of these social network infringements? - guilty indeed - I am on Facebook after all and this blog is merely an expression of opinion, for better or worse, but when it begins to affect our daily lives from succeeding in our career growth, just ask a few people about how Facebook negatively portrayed them to potential employers snooping around for their profile, to those who post comments that are hurtful and denigrate others, maybe not on purpose, since many people seem lack an understanding that this channel can be a powerful tool, it begins to become necessary to address and fix of pitfalls of social networks

So while social networks offer much positive potential to us all, we should all step back and reflect what and why we post, what our true intentions are and whether we are becoming social network addicts and gossip queens simply using the channel to better our self worth.

Einstein once said "one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought"

Perhaps social networks allow us to feel better about ourselves, to feel safe and wanted in a world that is racing ever so fast around us - For better or for worse, social networks are here to say, it's how and why use this channel that is important and more importantly that we remember some basic boundaries as we figure out what these boundaries are to become.