Us Unhappy By Maria Konnikova's Connected But Alone

According to Pew Research’s Internet Project, about seventy one percent of adults are on Facebook as of September 2013. Over time, the number of adults on the internet has increased at a large rate. Great opportunities came from the internet such as long distance communication and sending information quickly, but what a great number people did not see coming were the negative consequences that came with the chronic use of the internet. “How Facebook Makes Us Unhappy” by Maria Konnikova and “Connected, but Alone?” by Sherry Turkle demonstrate how the internet has made a negative effect on an individual’s social skills and emotional health. When electronic devices and social media were made, people did not think about the new set of problems

The internet saves time in multiple ways. When researching a topic, a person can save a lot of time by just searching the web for information about their topic instead of reading multiple books. People also do not spend long periods of time waiting in line at banks because they have access to online banking. The business market is bigger than ever. Products and services can be sold from many locations which benefits the economy. The internet helped employment by easily spreading the need of a position and making a person’s job easier through technology. There have been studies whose findings support the internet in improvement of society’s emotional health: “Sebastián Valenzuela and his colleagues came to the opposite conclusion of Kross: that using Facebook makes us happier. They also found that it increases social trust and engagement—and even encourages political participation” (Konnikova 1). In this study, it was found that people were not as shy when they were using Facebook. They were more likely to participate in activities because they are not facing other obstacles people would face during in person communication. “Matthew Lieberman argues in his book “Social: Why Our Brains are Wired to Connect,” social networks are a way to share, and the experience of successful sharing comes with a psychological and physiological rush that is often self-reinforcing” (Konnikova 1). When people are sharing information through social media sites, they feel great and have fun. The idea of sharing information and having others look at it and have a positive effect makes people favor social media sites. Although technology has benefited people in multiple ways, it created new problems for future