Okay so, one thing I like to do is go down to the local Starbucks and engage in intellectual discourse and dialogue. Often, the discussions and debates I get into are quite enlightening, and it surely helps me as a writer, as I am in constant need of coming up with new topics to write about for my loyal readers, people like you.

One thing I've noticed over the last two or three years is that people come into Starbucks, a place where generally people congregate in public for cultural reasons to exchange ideas and have meaningful conversations - but instead, these people whip out there smart phones, iPhones, tablets, and iPads, and yes, some of them bring in their larger laptops and notebooks. They are so busy playing around with their social networks online that they don't pay anyone else any attention.

Now then, it's nice to see so many locations now offer free Wi-Fi because people like to use their personal tech devices, but it is also unfortunate that such a wonderful social meeting ground has been reduced to everyone playing around on Twitter and Facebook rather than conversing and getting to know one another. It's as if people are being social online and less-than-social when they are out in public, where it really matters.

That's too bad really, and I'd like to discuss this with you, but also take this entire line of thought to a higher level. In the July-August edition of American Conservative there was an interesting article titled; "Anti-Social Network - Who Needs Friends When You Have Facebook," by Stephen B. Tippens Jr. and in his article, Stephen make some good points. It is as if a whole generation of people are into the online socialization instead of understanding what it is to be human and socialize in real life.

Now then, I am not a PhD psychologist researcher, but it appears to me that there will be psychological repercussions to all this. Human beings are social animals, and it appears that these online social networks provide for an inherent need, but they are delivering on that promise. If I am sitting in Starbucks for a couple of hours, and there are three or four people sitting around me who never even say hello, at a coffee shop which is known as a social meeting and gathering place for that purpose, then we seem to have a problem.

Worse, I would submit to you that the problem is growing further and it is taking away humanity's soul. And whereas there are a lot of good things that come with social networking, it's hard to say if it is a net positive. Indeed, we won't know for many years or decades into the future whether this experiment, with billions of people engaging in social networks has helped humanity, or made it worse. In many regards it brings people all over the world together in a common cause, hobby, industry, or line of thinking, but it also pulls people apart in many ways as well.

Do those that run social networks really care about humanity, or human beings in general? Humans are social animals that have needs of companionship, but do the social network folks really care? Well, they surely claim to but I really wonder and after reading the book about Facebook and how it got started, I have more questions than answers now, and at least as many more concerns about the topic. In fact, I'd like to recommend this book to you, and after you read it, perhaps you may contact me and tell me if you share my views. The name of the book is;

"The Accidental Billionaires - The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayl," by Ben Mezrich, Anchor Books, a division of Doubleday and Random House Publishing, New York, NY, (2009), two. 60 pages, ISBN: 978-0-7679-3155-7.

You see, it appears to me that Facebook is a business like any other business, and they are in business to make money, and as much money as possible as they try to monetize their business model. If you doubt this, there was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on August 3, 2011 titled; "New Metrics Gauge Heft of Facebook Ads," by Shayndi Raice. Indeed, let me tell you; there are big investment banks behind this, and some of the wizards on Wall Street and Silicon Valley.

Still, Facebook is more than just a business, as it has become a way of life for some 700 million people on the planet now, and it is changing the way we think, act, and is affecting the stability of nations, governments, and economies. Needless to say, these are all serious issues. But of course these are not the only issues, and I'd like to discuss another recent research paper I read from a top university about the effect that social networks are having on adolescents.

The study I read stated that a teenage boy cares more about their profile, and how they look on Facebook, that is to say their digital real estate there, than the type of car they drive. Obviously, in decades past teenage boys were very concerned with getting a car, and having a cool car so that they looked good amongst their friends, and could attract teenage girls. Now then, you can understand that these online social networks have taken the place of socializing in the real world.

And just as Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs" Pyramid suggests, these kids desire respect from their fellow man, especially members of the opposite sex at that age as they go through puberty. This throws an incredibly new dynamic into the situation. In fact, there have been suicides of teenagers who found that their reputations were trashed online on these social networks, or when former friends ganged up on them and said mean things. Obviously, these social networks are a powerful force in a teenager's life. Might I suggest they have too much power?

Okay so, let's talk about that for a moment. If these teenagers are so worried about their reputations online, that they go out of their way to please their followers, and their fake digital friends, then in a way they are losing their individuality to the blob of the digital masses. Now, I may be pushing the limits of what you will accept as believable, but I would suggest to you that this is just one step away from a Borg-like society where humans are controlled through the mass social manipulation of machines.

Now then, obviously that's a very heavy statement, but I'm not going to take it back, because it appears to me that the writing is on the wall. Further, five years ago social networks did not exist, and as we add artificial intelligence, facial recognition features, and other sophisticated algorithms to the process, along with the opportunity which is ultimately hard to resist for authorities to control the population, I'd say we are entering a dangerous age. There are those who are greedy for power, money, control and/or some or all of the above. "Beware humans," I say!

It is not my intention to scare anyone, just to wake everyone up, and get them thinking about what social networks mean, and what they will become in the future. If we are willing to think through this new technology, and what it means for our future, we may be able to harness its power for the good of humanity, rather than allowing it to enter a rogue realm which we will ultimately pay for later. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes writing 24,500 articles by August 24th or 25th will be difficult because all the letters on his keyboard are now worn off now..

http://www.worldthinktank.net/