Is 'social' networking killing social skills?

During my time in school social media didn't come into my life until college.  I see myself with one foot in the social media generation and one foot out.  I find my relationship to social media very different from my player's who have grown up with social media.  

As an educator I find myself trying every and any way to most effectively communicate with my players.  Through trial and error, with no surprise to me, social media was the most effective and efficient way to get a response.  The cost and benefit of using the most effective and efficient means of communication is something I'm now starting to weigh.  

One of the major reasons I found social media as effective was the reduction in response time and the unfiltered responses.  I attributed these responses to what some call the online disinhibition effect.  As excited as I was to find a medium for my athletes and I to communicate through, I find myself questioning the outcome.  Is adapting to their comforts of communicating online making them socially deficient when it comes to face to face communication?

I'm not arguing that social media doesn't have a place in the classroom, with athletic teams, or businesses.  What I am questioning is are we using social media as a scapegoat from face to face interaction?  Our efforts to further develop the student's social skills is becoming increasingly harder and increasingly more important! 

*My team 'social media' celebrating after a win in Hawaii...