MSNBC is having a debate about a study that came out from the Vatican. It deplores the use of Facebook and Twitter, saying that using these social networks can cause children (there’s the word) to become isolated and possibly suicidal. An interesting discussion but one that that is rather old.

As one reporter brought up, years ago you would have had the same discussion about comics and Dungeons and Dragons. That’s certainly true because I was part of that discussion. 60 Minutes had just run a story about how D&D was causing isolated kids to have suicidal thoughts and worship the devil. This was just after some student killed himself after playing D&D in Boston. Yes, this was years before the incredibly bad made for TV movie starring Tom Hanks.

My parents, to this day, worry that I don’t get out enough, that I don’t meet a lot of people or have a lot of friends. It would be my parent’s pride and joy if I were to get married, have a great job, get the 2.5 kids and go to a good church.

That’s their dream but it isn’t my reality.

For years I’ve had bad financial things going on. Some self inflicted other due to economic realities. Sure, it would make perfect sense if I had someone else helping out it would make things a lot better, but that isn’t me right now. After hearing those D&D stories my parents were convinced I was studying evil. It took a bit to explain and assure them it was just a game, because the news people, who obviously knew better, said something else.

Can Facebook and Twitter take over someone’s life? You betcha, but so can people on cellphones texting. I play a lot of Everquest 2, an online game. Does that mean I’m socialy awkward because of it? There are things acceptable and things not acceptable and depending where you are will determine how you fall on the issue. Just talking about cellphones and texting, about three years ago there was talk about safety phones. These were phones similar to prepaid phones but were for kids and just for emergencies and calling parents. There was worry that kids with telephones would cause disruptions in the class or other issues. Yesterday they had a lot of back to school commercials and a number of them talked about getting full on cellphones for kids. I’m still old school and baffled why a kid would need a cellphone, but advertising has gone from restricted, stripped down systems to full phones in three years.

Has there been a change in the way kids act on the phone? Of course not, because if so there wouldn’t be the Facebook/Twitter explosion.

Every generation will have their own way of communication and meeting. It had been a long time, even when I was a kid, when there were sock hops and soda shops to meet. People will always find new ways of meeting up and yes, a few will become obsessed or unsure of the technology, but you don’t condemn the whole system over a few people. You can’t do that.