The Credibility Of Social Medi The Touch-Screen Generation

Having the availability of carrying social media in one’s hands has caused the loss of personal connections with people in the real world. As well, with the easy portability of personal devices, people have started depending on them for entertainment. Whenever students, and sometimes even professors, walk into a classroom, they are often using their cellphones. Social media is taking away from physical, face-to-face interactions.
People are often using some type of electronic device to keep them busy or entertained. Rosin’s article, “The Touch-Screen Generation,” explains how people from toddlers to parents are often using cell phones, tablets, computers or (anything along the lines of having internet). Rosin explains how even to toddlers,

Silver’s article, “The Quagmire of Social Media Friendships” explains very well how people are dependent on social media apps, like Facebook, to find “friends.” When, in reality, the so called “friends” are just another number under a tab. Silver examines the difference of friendship on social media today and what it actually means to have a real life friend. To back up the idea of having “friends” he uses Dunbar’s number theory. According to Dunbar’s number theory, one can only have up to 150 friendships in social friendships. The 150 friendships are ones that someone has some sort of social contact with but does not count the friends we personally know. Seeing a large number of friends on their social media, people think, “Considering all the social networks I’m attached to, I have thousands of friends. I’m the most popular person in the world!” (445). Having the ability to have a large variety of internet friends is not necessarily a good thing. When having a mass number of friends, how does one know who is really someone to call a true, real friend? People are too busy updating statuses, posting tweets, pictures, comments, and anything related, to their numerous “friends” online to be able to physically communicate in

O’Brien states that, “today’s students are generally less likely to describe themselves as ‘soft-hearted’ or to have ‘tender, concerned feelings’ for others” (464). Being empathic shows real emotional connection people with other people. Empathy is an emotion people are born with. Babies show empathy by crying when other babies cry or by having a reaction to adult facial expressions. According to some college students’ surveys, students that “would have been born in the 1980s, raised in the 90s on video games, 24-hour cable television . . . and sent off to college with laptops and cellphones . . .” (467) are the ones that have lost empathy. Since social media is partly the cause of why people raised in the 90s are losing empathy, they continue to use social media. Social media is ruining people’s capability of being able to interact with their peers. Putting down electronic devices will help people to realize that there is more than just the social media apps on their phones. Once the devices are put away, people are then forced to have real conversations with real people, helping people to be less socially