Chat Moderators is today responding to concerns that social networking is bad for our health. Research recently published suggests that the number of hours people spend interacting face-to-face has fallen dramatically since 1987, as the use of electronic media has increased.1 Rob Marcus, director of Chat Moderators is today hitting back at reports that online social networking is to blame.
Marcus has moderated social networking communities for over eight years and states that in his experience, the public are not using social networking websites as a substitute for face to face interaction, but are actually using it to help build new relationships and maintain existing ones. Marcus comments,
“In relation to these reports, I would argue the opposite that social networking can actually be good for people’s health. In my experience people visit chat rooms out of choice and for some, who may find it difficult to communicate face to face for whatever reason, social networking can be the bridge to building relationships. Social networking sites can be an ideal way to meet people with common interests as people self select where they go and what they want to chat about. Whether the topic of the community is pets, cars or travel the benefit is that they are meeting likeminded people where meaningful friendships can develop.”
Social networking does not necessarily work instead of human contact but can supplement it for example, ‘Rent a Party’ is a network where users can meet online and then meet up in person to have a party. This is evidence that virtual networking can lead to physical face to face contact, getting the best of both worlds.
Marcus continues, “Social networking should not be picked out as being particularly bad for your health, how is it different from text messaging from a mobile phone? Of course there are health implications of sitting in front of the computer for long periods of time, but I don’t think that social networking can be directly blamed for this.
I believe that people choose to visit social networking sites in addition to a physical social life. It is a convenient and simple way to meet new people and maintain existing friendships.”
1 Psychologist Dr Aric Sigman, the journal of the Institute of Biology. February 2009
Chat Moderators is a service that takes the management and risk out of allowing user-generated content (UGC) to be published online. Chat Moderators monitors all forms of UGC that are published on a website's community such as discussion areas, forums, chat rooms, picture albums, comment areas, blogs, social network profiles and more. Allowing UGC online can bring many benefits to a business’ brand and reputation provided it is managed responsibly. Other services provided by Chat Moderators include consultancy, community management and insight reporting.
Chat Moderators is technology neutral and uses real people to undertake moderation work seven days a week from one hour a day upwards, depending on requirements. Clients include Amnesty, BBC, Bauer, Blue Cross, EMI, Friends Reunited, Glaxo, HM Government, Iris, MTV, National Magazines, Orange, Panasonic, Reed Elsevier, Sony, Transport for London, Vodafone and Waitrose. For more information visit: www.chatmoderators.com and www.targetedmoderation.com