Right now my world seems to be divided into two camps: there are folks, mostly my age, who have no interest in social media and there are others, mostly younger such as the people I work with and my children’s friends, who are comfortably involved in one dimension or another of the social media world.

I wouldn’t mind the bifurcation if it weren’t for the adamance of some of the older folks. Every time I’ve been at a dinner party recently, it seems that I can’t avoid intense anti-social-media diatribes. Usually people point to the sharing of private information publicly as the chief sin. “I have no need to share my personal life on the internet,” they say. “I don’t understand young people who feel this need to connect with others over the internet. I’m not so insecure. I have my circle of friends, thank you very much!”

My usual response is to say that no one is holding a gun to their heads and forcing them to get involved in social media. It is entirely their choice whether they want to get involved or not. Sometimes I do go so far as to suggest that it’s not a bad way to stay in touch with friends who have moved to other places. None of this, needless to say, does much to temper their self-righteous attacks.

I think it is important to explain one thing to all those naysayers and even to some of the people making serious pronouncements about the future of social media. One of the essential aspects of most social media experiences, such as Facebook or Twitter, is that they are fun. If you read the postings on virtually any Facebook page or on Twitter, you find that there is a playfulness to the dialogue. Playfullness – fun – is a core part of the experience.

A high school student might be sitting at home at night slogging through homework or an adult might be sitting at work in front of a computer monitor all day, and these social media tools provide an opportunity for a momentary break. You can read something witty or play a little verbal game with someone that brings a moment of pleasure into your work. Sometimes I’ll be sitting at my computer at home and I’ll chuckle and my wife will ask me what’s so funny. It’s some little quip or exchange on Twitter or Facebook that has brought a smile to my face.

The new social media are being used to increase the amount of pleasure that students and workers experience in the course of their school or work day. On Twitter I follow a young nurses aid who works the graveyard shifts and tweets about all kinds of things to pass the long hours. It makes her work feel less monotonous and isolated.

So now I hope I’ve re-framed the discussion. If you are going to condemn new social media tools, you need to take into account the ways in which they are an important advance in the ability of modern capitalism to build pleasure into contemporary culture and work. People participate in social media outlets because they lighten the workday, making it less drab and routine. We do these things because we enjoy them, because they make us chuckle and feel happier.

I’d like to make two closing points in relation to my work:

• I follow many people on Twitter who seem so dead set on making money off the new technology that they have forgotten that Twitter is most fun when it’s fun. They should lighten up. No one wants to read 1,000 posts on six steps to saving your business in the social media age. People want to read jokes and wry comments. Last night, for example, the trending topics on Twitter were #aftersex, #duringsex and #beforesex. I wish some of the overly serious new media prophets would participate in the trending topics instead of sticking to the endless exchange of mediocre content by other new media prophets.
• If you are a college or university and you want to use these social media tools to engage your audience, you need to develop a fun, specific personality. There is nothing fun about a bland institutional face.

It is important that people understand the essential pleasurable aspect of new media interactions if they hope to benefit from them. As to my friends who aren’t interested in joining the parade, that’s entirely up to them.