Is Social Media Making People More Sociable or Creating an Introverted Generation - Essay Example

Young Hun Jang ENGL 101 March 6, Is social media really serving the purpose of making people more sociable or is it creating an introverted generation? The rapid development of social networking services has recently led to a heated-up debate about the role and impacts of social media in our modern society. Whereas some sociologists and psychologists claim that social networking is a huge step ahead in our social lives, others are of the contrary opinion. The protagonists of the social media say that the introduction of social media has significantly improved communication and self-socialization among different groups of people. The ease of reach to people and constant access to communication relieves solitude and boredom (Arnett 529). Despite these benefits of social networking, it has also resulted in undesirable effects such as widespread feeling of loneliness, loss of identity, and social alienation from the society. Thus, it is increasingly creating reserved individuals who are so much inclined to their thoughts and feelings with minimal societal interactions. The anonymity and lack of face-to-face interaction associated with most social sites such as Facebook and Twitter provide an opportunity for dissimulation of feelings and personal traits during communication. People feel freer to express their thoughts, which are not sincere on many occasions, on social media than in real life situations because nobody sees them. This kind of anonymity is a crucial factor that triggers human feeling of freedom from social responsibility, which often leads to negative consequences (Zimbardo 255). Furthermore, social media allows people to create false personalities and identify themselves with individuals different from who they are. As a result, they start detaching themselves from the rest of the community and later, this may cause certain communicational disability, social anxiety, and even asceticism (Zimbardo 225). There is a likelihood that exposure of these individuals who have masked their personalities through social media communication would be a social catastrophe. For example, the case of Facebook privacy breaches that has become a nightmare for its users. In addition, the fear of losing social media privacy has led to the appearance of cyberbullying, which is a huge problem nowadays. Social media bullies play on people’s dependency on social media images, so they often manipulate people by creating breaches in their social networking profiles’ security. It is also imperative to note that the cyberbullying contributes to the development of introspective tendencies of modern social media generation. Researchers in this area revealed that cyberbullying does not only make people (more often adolescents) alienated from society, but it also adversely influences their life satisfaction rates (Moore, Huebner and Hills 430). With social media gaining a lot of influence in people’s lives, to the extent of sharing their personal information and images in social networks, cyber bullying is considered one of the cruelest acts of rights infringement. People also tend to become more introverted when they start comparing their lives with those of others. This tendency is aggravated when such persons realize that their actions are regularly monitored by other social network users. Therefore, it seems to be a way of helping people with low self-esteem to become more comfortable with socialization and feel free expressing themselves. However, psychological researchers have shown social networks make these groups even more uncomfortable and miserable mainly they receive unpleasant comments or start envying other people’s success (Forest and Wood 595). Thus, the aspect of personality disclosure turns out to be more complex and cause traumas rather than creating self-confident. Social media usage has also been associated with depression where the users often become depressed and antisocial for reasons that may include self-comparison with others and unnecessary competition (Shaw and Gant 159). Ironically, it happens that such cases occur despite the fact that the social sites are widely used by many people as places of earning credit regardless of their social status and standards of living. In most cases, what we read or see on social media are just mere sideshows that are far from reality. The problem of social media addiction has been raised ever since the emergence of social networking services. Addiction to the constant communication through social networks is becoming compulsive in majority of users. In the article “Is Facebook Distorting Your View on the World” Jessica Grogan describes the feelings she experienced when she realized that surfing Facebook made her feel bored and passively existing. She claims that a social network not only consumes a lot of time but also makes people devastated and frustrated (Grogan 1). It happens because people spend most of their time on Facebook with no particular purpose. Rather, they just passively go from one page to another and do not want to get out of it even if there is nothing useful, in particular. Apart from being a tool of communication and information sharing, social networking has also developed to be a special kind of modern culture. The social media users get addicted to a distinct style of communication that the media dictate to them, and they have demonstrated attributes of a separate culture of own discourse. In addition, they exhibit some common form of behaviors that closely follow defined ethical rules, and these interactions occur in an environment different from the direct discussions. This social networking culture has become an inherent part of modern culture that has created a particular way of thinking in people’s minds. For instance, the users do not have to worry about obtaining information, reaching or knowing people they want because there are readily available resources – social networks – for accomplishing such tasks. Despite these harmful effects of social networking, people like the sociologist John Thompson emphasizes the role social media play in the modern society where the world is rapidly becoming a global village. Social media plays a critical role in every aspect of our lives including the political scenes, family relationships, business networking and, in general, our social relationships with each other (Thompson 10). Through social networks, individual have been able to hook up with family members in different parts of the sphere, thus keeping in touch and maintaining mutual interactions. In addition, politicians nowadays rely heavily on the social media during their political campaigns to reach out to voters. Though varied, some information on social media is useful and keeps the users informed and updated on the current trends. Social networking also provides platforms for group meetings, business discussions, and information sharing as well as professional networks as has been evident by many people land in their jobs through social networking (Thompson 10) . In view of all these, it is apparent that people have used social networks in the wrong way, thus depriving it of its sociable aspect. Engaging in unhealthy practices such as spending extended periods of time on social media denies an individual time for other activities that provide pleasure such as exercising and meeting with friends. The resultant effects are decreased social bonding and increased loneliness. Works Cited Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen. “Adolescents’ Uses of Media for Self-Socialization”. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. 24(1995): 519-532 Forest, Amanda L. and Wood, Joanne V. “When Social Networking Is Not Working: Individuals With Low Self-Esteem Recognize but Do Not Reap the Benefits of Self-Disclosure on Facebook”. Psychological Science. 23(2012): 295-302 Grogan, Jessica. “Is Facebook Distorting Your View on the World”.Encountering America. March 2014 Moore, Page Malmsjo, Huebner,E. Scott and Hills, Kimberly J. “Electronic Bullying and Victimization and Life Satisfaction in Middle School Students”. Social Indicators Research. 107(2012): 429-447 Shaw, Lindsay H. and Gant, Larry M. "In Defense of the Internet: The Relationship between Internet Communication and Depression, Loneliness, Self-Esteem, and Perceived Social Support". CyberPsychology& Behavior. 5(2002): 157-171 Thompson, John B. The media and modernity: A social theory of the media. Stanford University Press, 1995 Zimbardo, P. 1969. “The Human Choice: Deindividuation, Reason, and Order Versus Deindividuation, Impulse, and Chaos.” Pp. 237-307 in Nebraska Symposium on Motivation edited by William Arnold and David Levine. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Read More