Americans Connect Digitally Rather Face-To-Face - American Loneliness - Essay Example

Number] All the Lonely People The future of friendship in America will become insignificantly, virtual and less meaningful because a lack of face-to-face connection between Americans, intimate friendships have become scarcer, less quality friendships on social networks, and more and more people prefer to live in the virtual reality, which means that Americans are lonelier than previous generations (Marche 60). The article is written with the help of five sources, namely “Living in a digital world,” “About face,” “My E-piphany, “Is face book making us lonely,” and “Loneliness updated: An Introduction,” written by Samuel Greengard, Steve Baarendse, Kinky Friedman, Marche Stephen and Ami Rokach, respectively. Micheal Sumen statement summarizes the central idea of all the sources. He says, “It allows people to connect in ways that were never before possible. But it also creates new sets of questions and potential problems.” The technology has opened the gateway to extensive communication. However, abuse of digital media is threatening human lifestyle. One of the important side effects identified by researchers is loneliness. People have widened their social circle through visual communication. They might have many virtual friends but they remain lonely in their surroundings and behaviour. Many people criticize face book for making people lonelier. The sources talks about Kinky Friedman, a person who refrains from entering the digital world. He doesn’t tweet nor uploads status on face book (Rokach 6). He narrates how his friends persuade him to establish an identity in the visual communication network. In another article, Steve Baarendse discloses thirteen reasons accounting for his absence from face book. However, he also mentions that one of his students opposed him saying that he can give equal reasons to be on face book. Hence, the argument is very controversial. It is not easy to ascribe digital technology with blames. In this essay we will discuss in detail the effects of digital communication on our society and our life style. Americans Connect Digitally Rather Face-To-Face Humans are social animals. They depend on their counterparts for survival. Take the example of an infant who needs care to live life ahead. However, this human to human connection is not necessary for survival alone but to celebrate happiness, appreciate emotions and achieve success (Marche 60). The advent of digital technology has made the connectivity easier and wider. From atop of Mount Everest to South Pacific atolls, digital communication is ubiquitous. People communicate to each other through texting, calling, emailing and other novel ways. On average, American teenagers send about 110 text messages per day. The use of digital technology has become an inevitable part of our life. It seems as if the generation Y will possess instinct for the use of this technology. This virtual communication has bombarded our lives fashioning a digitize society. The professor of Communication at University of Stanford says, “We’re seeing people so absorbed in digital media that it’s becoming their primary point of life.” However, Sherman Turkle perceives this increase in digital socializing from a different view. She says, “We are lonely but fearful of intimacy. Constant connectivity offers companionship without the demand of friendship. We can’t get of enough of each other if we can have each other at a distance and in amounts that we can control.”This accounts for one of the reason why Americans prefer virtual communication in lieu of face-to-face interactions. They avoid intimate relationships which strengthen with personal interactions. Apart from this, many Americans have adapted to the fast pace of the digital communication. They have become use to of the facilities provided by this technology as Turkle says, “We adapt to it and, over time, become more comfortable with its simplifications.” They are impulsively busy communicating through social media that they neglect encountering people. In fact, many people feel free to leave voicemail messages rather than meet the person individually. People are finding easier mediums with in the world of digital technology. For instance people find it more time consuming to text instead of engaging in long phone calls (Greengard 17). In other words they tend to “dial down human contact,” as Turkle defines it. Social networks have subdued the characteristic of face-to-face interaction. Now people talk through their fingers than through larynx. They type and converse with their friends on web 2.0 technologies such as face book, twitter, etc. Consequently, eradicating signs of face-to-face interactions. Ingeniously, people use digital media to communicate with others but by maintaining distance. Intimate Relationships Have Become Scarcer Than Before With passage of time communication among people is inevitably increasing. This is credited to the rapid progress of digital technology. However, the ideology of connection and the significance of friendship are changing indirectly. Though we value relationships, know their importance but are bound by our social conditions which do not advocate the development of human relations. The increase in digital media has highly affected our social life and has made us vulnerable towards building strong and liable relationships. As Observed Friedman states, “Indeed the social fabric of American life is rapidly changing, in reaction to the collision of contemporary social forces, touching most of us in one way or another. Increased mobility and social isolation, the stress of a fast paced and high pressure lifestyle changes in the family unit, the impact of technology and the rise in consumerism are forces that disrupt our ability to create strong and lasting relations”(p.3). In the modern world where possession of power and money is priority, virtual communication easily substitutes face-to-face interactions (Rokach 6). A prevalent social network that promotes virtual communication is face book. It has depreciated friendship by a single click. It is as easy to add on friends and to remove them by the un-friend tool. Face book has devalued the meaning and importance of friendship. The “friend” and “unfriend” actions are easily performed because of the safety of distance. Quantity Not Quality In the contemporary world, friendship is measured rather than judged. It is defined by quantity instead of quality. Going ahead with face book, people admire the long list of friends rather than the spiritual nature of friendship. People fail to appreciate the significance of true friendship. The feeling to visit a friend suffering from ill-health is beyond comparison to texting or tweeting thousand “wishing good health” messages. The decline in promising friendship is surveyed over the past 25 years. According to a survey, the average network of good friends or confidents decreased from 2.94 people to 2.08, in the year 1985 and 2004, respectively. Only 10% of Americans stated they had no one to obtain decisions for crucial matters. Later 15% reported to have one such confident and by 2004 they had no friend to converse with. Though the social networks allow a broad platform to be acquainted with many people but it doesn’t help to form strong relationship bonds probably because it has lowered personal communication. Generally, online friends are made keeping in mind their popularity (Greengard 17). Teenagers, in particular, wish to become online friends with people whom they characterize as “hot” or “famous” regardless of the role they play in their lives. In fact many online friendships end up in betrayal and fraud as the person seems to have a complete different personality and identity from that he had displayed on his virtual profile. In Modern Times More And More People Prefer To Deal With Their Loneliness By Having Virtual Communications With Other In The Virtual Reality. It is true that people manage relationships with others through virtual communication as it saves time and effort from maintaining personal communication with someone. The social networks support virtual communication. They drive us away from reality into an illusion where we assume we’re surrounded by many people in a chat room on face book but it is merely our display picture that is connecting with people. In reality we are alone. We are gradually being attracted towards the megapixels and pretermitting the pleasures of real world. This dramatic inclination towards virtual reality is the widespread in loneliness, especially in Northern America. To eradicate the effects of loneliness people use digital media as remedy to solitude. The death of Yvette Vickers, a former celebrity, befits as an example that was hooked to social media. She remained dead long before people broke into her house and found her mummified. Vickers was imprisoned by isolation which she escaped through establishing her contacts on social network. She had no off springs, no intimate relatives or friends but a vast circle of fans that followed her on face book and twitter (Barandse 44). After investigating her phone calls it was found that Vickers was not in contact with family or friends but her fans who had found her through internet. Thus indicating how influential digital media has become. Carter shares his perspective regarding the invasion of visual communication in our lives. He says, “In today’s fast-paced ever-changing world, when virtual reality sometimes replaces the real one, people have no time or energy for establishing a connection with anything beyond the narrow frame of their own hurried lives in a culture that gives little priority to human relationships and that rewards nothing but the individual acquisition of power and money”. Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist at NYU beautifully incorporates quantity, quality and loneliness into a relationship saying, “Reams of published research show that it’s the quality, not the quantity of social interaction, which predicts loneliness.” Virtual communication is seen as a cure to overcome loneliness, which is detrimental to both physical and mental health. Although a new world of technology is opening up, people’s emotions and meaning of friendships cannot be replaced by digital signals (Rokach 6). Delving into Yvette Vickers case one can predict the value of intimate relationships and the need of human face-to-face interaction. Vickers death may hold social networks on blame. It was her illusion that she seeks refuge from isolation through companionship on virtual media. Ironically, she was alone and living in solitude. If she had maintained personal interactions, she would not have met a vulnerable death. Reaching out to people, attending get-to-gathers are beneficial for our sustenance. Digital signals cannot replace the joy of presence. What words may fail to confess but a single smile, the streaming drops of water and a tendering touch succeed to heal the wounds and trigger relieve. The pleasure of real presence is incontestable (Rokach 4). It is surprising rather lamenting knowing that people are stick to their hand handled devices instead of communicating with others in their surroundings. Turkle says, “We use the Internet alone, and even if others are present, we do not actively interact with them.” She further adds, highlighting its aftermath, “The solitude of these activities may counter some of the potential social benefits.” Undoubtedly, when people indulge in the digital world, they inevitably ignore family gatherings reunion, sports activities and events that affect their mental and physical health. Social networks tend to keep us at bay. We are unable to socialize personally. This makes our ambience isolated and provokes loneliness which may cause depression. A person may not exercise and become obese. It might be difficult for them to survive fatal injuries or grave surgeries. Loneliness may also trigger hormonal imbalance in the body. It may cause a person to be admitted into geriatric home at quite an early age. Face book and other social networks tend to increase loneliness. Researchers are against the notion that higher friend list is proportional to diminishing loneliness (Barandse 44). In fact comprehensive friend list triggers envy and discontent among other users. They feel less social or less adapted to the present world. The long-lasting joy and happiness manifested by people on their profile through uploading pictures from an event or updating merry status arises depression among profile viewers. They believe that other people are living a better life than theirs although their perception might be far away from reality. In conclusion, in the present world and times to come Americans will be lonelier than their predecessors. This is due to the vast use of visual communication rather than personal interaction among people. In general, loneliness is not perpetuated by visual communication. Instead it depends on how we use it and not vise versa. We prefer to use ATM machines rather than waiting in the queue at a bank. We opt to buy grocery from a machine rather than a human being, all because it is more convenient to us (Friedman 100). Advent of technology saves time, effort and is far easier than conventional methods. And it should be! Perhaps that’s what scientists are paid for; to create gadgets and soft ware’s that makes the task easier. Now it is our duty to handle the technology in a way that maximizes the pros and minimizes the cons. A remedial to visual communication is the switching of program. Users switch of their digital devices and take a break. During this time they may engage in pro-social activities like family reunion, hangouts, exercising and many more. This practice helps people to maintain balance between the visual and real world. Consequently, countering side effects that may adversely affect human life. Works Cited Barandse, Steve. “About Face”, touch stone (2012), 44-50. Print. Friedman, Kinky. “My E-piphany”. Texas monthly (2011), 96-100. Print. Greengard, Samuel. “Living in a digital world”, Society 54.10(2011), 17-19. Print. Marche, Stephen. “Is Facebook making us lonely”? Atlantic monthly, 309.4 (2012), 60-69 Print. Rokach, Ami. “Loneliness updated: introduction”. The Journal of Psychology 146. 1–2 (2012), 1–6. Print. Read More