How are Social Media Platforms Redefining and Revaluing the Ties that Bind us Together - Assignment Example

How are social media platforms redefining and revaluing the ties that bind us together? Ties could mean the bonds that we create in life throughrelationships and situations with other people that always have a hold on us, forming lasting relationships. This could be done through social media platforms that we have such as Facebook, twitter and the rest. There are two authors who have explained how social media platforms redefining and revaluing the ties that bind us together. Sherry Turkle from her book, Alone together reveals how we expect more from technology and less from each other thus explaining the various ways, social media affect the ties between people. The author elaborates our lives on the digital terrain. Technology has presented itself as the designer of our relationships which is now a substitution of the reality of life that offers to meet our human vulnerabilities in the comfort of our homes, work places or anywhere we can be able to access the internet. She describes new, unsettling relationships between friends, parents, children, and lovers, and new instabilities in the way we understand intimacy, privacy and solitude. Digital connection has given us the chance to do anything from anywhere but it has drained us since it makes us feel overwhelmed and depleted by the lives that technology makes possible. For instance, we could work from anywhere, but we are prone to being lonely. In a surprising twist, we turn to technology to fill the void. The author shows the emotional dislocation, resulting to risks that are taken unknowingly. However, it also shows how some people get hope in the places where digital saturation is greatest, where disappointments are alleviated by minimizing direct human connection. She reveals that the networked existence may be breeding communal as well as self-alienation amidst all its face-value of splendor and innovation. According to, Sherry Turkle, “Digital connections and the sociable robot may offer the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship (Turkle, 263). In her article she reveals the fact, that it is easier to do nothing and say you are friends, than participate in the life of another person. She describes the “fake friendship” in the following way: “Digital connections and the sociable robot may offer the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. Our networked life allows us to hide from each other, even as we are tethered to each other” (Turkle, Sherry, 2011, 264). In analyzing this quotation, it is important to mention the notion of “circumstantial friendship”. Everyone, at least ones in his lifetime felt lonely in a big company or public event. According to Gladwell, “The platforms of social media are built around weak ties” ( 137).The thing is that people come to the public actions not for the sake of friendly communication, but for the sake of illusion. It is not necessary to keep friendly principles, the only thing, which is needed is the creation of joy and politeness. The same thing we face, communicating with people from the social networks. We ask them the standard questions, not even knowing this person in a proper way, his likes, dislikes or interests. The rate of popularity on the site provides the “celebrity” with hundreds of people around, who particularly do not play any role in the real life of this person. Consequently, the process of revaluation concerns the issue of sincerity of friendship. Social network negatively affects it, depriving the person of the possibility to spend real time with friends and substituting the real communication by the illusive one. Malcom Gladwell from his article Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted compares social media to reality. He expresses the fear that people are refraining from face-to-face interactions as well as conversations. He talks about four African-American college students who lacked equal opportunity due to their race resulting to a protest. In his article, he makes reference to the idea of conducting the protest without Internet and mobile connections to spread the word. He presents the overall concept that social media strengthens as well as weakens our ties.Internet communication is a mean of creating the social ties and participate in public events, however the weak ones. The article of Malcolm Gladwell influences this topic sentence. He described the influence of social media on the life of people by using concrete examples. Supporting his speech about the activism in different countries, provoked by mass media he writes, “The platforms of social media are built around weak ties. Twitter is a way or following (or being followed by) people you may never have met. Facebook is a tool for efficiency managing your acquaintances, for keeping up with the people you would not otherwise be able to stay in touch with. That’s why you can have a thousand “friends” on Facebook, as you never could in real life” (Gladwell, Michael, 2010). The quotation continues the thoughts of Sherry Turkle about making friends and socializing through mass media. If one uses internet in order to check the mail or look through the latest news, it is normal, but what about those who spend there days and nights, struggling to meet their friends or even second half. Mass media makes us cowards, bordering by means of a screen from real socializing. The creation of different internet projects or campaigns are quite doubtful, which makes the whole process as a total waste of time and ineffective life spending. Consequently, in this case the process of revaluation concerns the issue of individual development, which becomes quite disputable by spending too much time in the social networks. Real life provides a great amount of chances and opportunities for our personal raise. The ability to hire better job, participate in a competition or learn second language substantially decreases because of inappropriate actions and involvement in wasting activities, such as online games and so forth. Describing other ways of social media platforms, redefining the ties, which bound people there are many aspects, which have negative influence on these ties. First of all it influences the level of education. Modern youth definitely knows how internet influences the process of study. Sherry Turkle describes it in the following way “Technology proposes itself as an architect of our intimacies” (Turkle, 263). Before the emergence of mass media, people used to read books, now they read summaries on these books. There is no necessity to write your own essay, if everyone can easily download it from the internet. It concerns also the accessible sources, which can provide the execution of home assignment without the participation of the student in it. Even the dissertations and other scientific documents can be found and used as the example for one’s own study. There is nothing bad in it, except one point. All these procedures decrease the general level of education and change the attitude of students in relation to it. Another revaluation in the social ties is represented in the content of morality. Sherry Turkle states “We look at mass media and worry about our culture being intellectually dumped down. Love and Sex seem to celebrate an emotional dumping down, a willful turning away from the complexities of human partnerships – the inauthentic a new aesthetic” (2012, 6). Unfortunately, modern social networks do not contain strong restrictions against sites, which corrupt morals of people. Modern technologies provide the possibility for everyone to have a computer or a laptop at home, which rises the chances for any child to be infected by this virus. It acts like drugs. Sherry Turkle explains this idea in the following way “Creating an avatar – perhaps of a different age, a different gender, a different temperament – is a way to explore the self. But if you’re spending three, four, or five hours a day in an online game or virtual world (a time commitment that is not usual), there’s got to be someplace you are not” (2012, 12). Once the child sits and starts playing, the game involves him deeper and deeper. The further psychological state of such a child comprises the features of nervousness, stressfulness and petulance. He loses interest to everything, except the computer game. The values of study and spending time with friends are substituted by the desire to waste time near the computer. Changing the standards of living also belongs to the issue of revaluation of human ties. In concluding this article, it is necessary to mention that social media platforms refer to the instruments, which cause the revaluation of human values and change of their life. The book of Sherry Turkle as well as the article of Malcolm Gladwell helped us to see all the negative influence of mass media on human ties and way of life, revealing that most of them substitute the real existence to the illusionary one. Works Cited Turkle Sherry. Alone together: why. New York: Basic books, 2012. Print Gladwell, Malcolm. Small change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted. The New Yorker, 2010. Read More