In the article “Social Media: The Screen, the Brain, and Human Nature” written by Justin Vinh argues that social media creates an atmosphere of loneliness and depression linked to social media use. He believes that this deteriorates the mental health of teenagers, who, as a result, have become isolated. Although some might say that social media connects people more, however, Vinh claims that technology has caused us to become more disconnected. Justin makes a great point when he states, “social media welcomes its users to compare themselves to their peers, and it compels them to try to outdo their opponents” (Vinh 4). The statement he makes is valid because social media became competitive.
In his article, Ludden argues that whether or not social media affects your loneliness depends on what you do with it. He examines studies that present that those who use social media to connect with friends who are farther from them experience more loneliness than those who use it to connect with friends who are closer to them. He also claims that the use of social media to examine other people’s activities and lives without participating can increase loneliness and socially awkwardness in the real world, especially when this is being done to compare one's own life to others. Overall, the key to his argument is that the effect of social media on one’s loneliness depends on their social skills and what they are using it for. One of the first rhetorical appeals brought out in Ludden’s article is the appeal to pathos.
Through her research, boyd wants us to look at our own use of Facebook and if this characteristic of addiction describes us. If you read this part of the book it will make you think of your own use of social media and what it represents for you. The word ‘addiction’ is almost always associated with alcohol or drug use but never with social media or other forms of virtually. By using this word boyd is using sociological thinking to redefine that word to fit the misuse of social media. Due to this statement people might decide to delete their Facebook profile or app from their phone because they do not want to be in an addictive state.
People make themselves alienated by not getting themselves involved enough in their community and their loneliness grows day by day. By being lonely, they are exposed to every source of mental breakdown, and eventually lose ourselves to insanity and health issues. In Stephen Marche’s article, “Is Facebook making Us Lonely,” he claims loneliness is extremely bad for your health. He notes a lonely person ages faster, is more likely to be obese, less likely to survive a serious operation, more likely to have hormonal imbalances. Loneliness also brings about depression, bad sleep, and to suffer dementia and other general cognitive disorders (19).
Her argument goes on claiming how Facebook has made us more wary of real human confrontation, and how the network’s audience has become afraid of being caught in the act of avoiding confrontation. Mathias supports this when she uses the example of one of her friends losing it when she heard of a hacker application for Facebook that would expose who’s been searching who, making everyone know of a love interest she had been “stalking.” Mathias argues how we have managed to fear real interaction by cowering behind online. She concludes stating that Facebook is another form of
The author suggest social media does more harm than good. Which can be seen in the way he lists the pros or his argument. He leaves out the cons assuming the reader knows what they are. He drives home the concept that social media is great asset to society and people these day which it is. Further, analysis of this article the author is saying that social media in retrospect is good for people.
Sherman Alexie’s poem “The Facebook Sonnet” dramatizes the conflict of social media enhancing loneliness and stresses the importance of connecting with people in real life. Alexie follows a Shakespearean sonnet rhyme scheme of abab, cdcd, efef and a closing couplet of gg, which allows the reader to understand the form and grasp a greater connection with the poem. Instantly in the first line, the speaker presents Facebook as an “endless high-school/Reunion” (1-2), to stress the irony of how one might be living in the past. Throughout the whole poem, the speaker uses a sarcastic tone to help convey the realness of how dangerous social media disconnects human lives from the real world.
Constantly being active on Facebook may end up being the site's worst nightmare. In Maria Konnikova's September 10, 2013, The New Yorker article "How Facebook makes us unhappy" she informs us about the negative effects that Facebook has on some of the users. Logging on and having the free will to connect with all of the people you know is what is intended upon when using the site. Although, Konnikova's studies show that most people get on and look at the success and growth of others which then cause unhappiness, loneliness, and envy. Which in other words, without us knowing it, makes us unhappy.
Having this accessibility to other people lives can cause “perceived social isolation”, a term that Walton says “is one of the worst things for [people]” (Walton). This perceived social isolation correlates with “the more time people spent on these sites, the more socially isolated they perceived themselves to be” (Walton). Walton demonstrated the irony in this term by explaining that despite people having a means to communicate with others through the use of social media, our human nature to compare ourselves to others takes over our mental view of oneself in society, making us think we are alone when in reality we are not. One can only imagine that with this environment of constant comparison and sadness, depression can easily creep in. But with sadness and depression, comes jealousy and envy, which is another aspect of social media that causes us, users, to have a poor mental
She states that the Internet seemed to make the users feel more alienated. To support her assumption, she provides research findings which confirmed that the use of Internet had a significant detrimental effect of overall well-being. Facebook also cause problems in relationships, by increasing feelings of jealousy. A group of researchers
Sociology 1a 19 February 2015 Research Paper The article “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” by Stephen Marche discusses how Facebook and other social medias are making people lonelier. It isolates people from the real world and instead of interacting face-to-face, it is online. People are abusing these social medias that are made to connect to one another and using them to fill in the emptiness and loneliness that they feel inside.
The article “Facebook makes us sadder...” Jorge Koch stated “That sets up social comparison- you maybe feel your life is not as full and rich as those people on Facebook”. Koch is referring that Facebook and other social medias can bring you down because they don't live or have what others have. Koch also noted “ Facebook use influenced how they felt. Participants responded to questions about loneliness, anxiety, and general emotional well-being”.
Lonely people turn to social media in order to feel more connected, and social media reaches out to people who are not lonely, and infects them with the contagious disease of addiction. Moreover, finally, the most obvious answer, the more time people spend on social media, the less time they have for actual social interactions. Users who complain about feeling lonely on social media are on social media at that very moment! Not going out and putting themselves in better environments.
Information and communication technology has seen lot of changes and advancements since the year 2000, key among them being the development of social media as a social influencer. It has become prominent parts of life for many young people today. We are all aware that social media has had a tremendous impact on our culture, in business, on the world-at-large and social media websites are some of the most popular haunts on the internet. Most people engage with social media without stopping to think what the effects are on our lives, whether positive or negative. Are we as society becoming more concerned with Facebook “friends” than we are with the people we interact with face-to-face in our daily lives?
Social Media: Affects Relationships As technology progresses more and more, there have been great changes that have made our lives more easy and efficient. There are many advantages that technology has brought upon us, one in particular is the Internet. The Internet has allowed people to be connected quickly to information and be updated to the issues and happenings around us, but the social networks that have been invented to allow long distance connection have been resulting in negative outcomes for society and our generation. Social media gets in the way of building actual relationships, makes people become inauthentic about their lives and lowers their self-esteem, and has become a dangerous and threatening nature. During these days, it seems as if nobody can live without checking their social media accounts, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
