Social Isolation Prompted by Technology and Social Media - Research Paper Example

Social Isolation Prompted by Technology and Social Media Social Isolation Prompted by Technology and Social Media Introduction Advancements in telecommunication technologies markedly reduced communication costs and increased convenience in every sphere of human life. However, such developments greatly reduced the scope of face-to-face interactions in modern society. In addition, the growing popularity of social media has contributed to social issues like sexual violence, child abuse, and social isolation across the globe. Undoubtedly, social media and related technologies can really improve a person’s living standards when they are used thoughtfully. On the contrary, the same technological developments can have dreadful negative effects on individuals when those technologies are used excessively or in a thoughtless manner. Today people hardly find time to speak to their neighbors, colleagues, and friends. Instead, they make relations with unknown people around the world through social media. Evidently this situation leads to social isolation, a potential issue affecting the social development process. According to Cacioppo and Hawkley, “social isolation is defined as the absence of contact with other people and lack of integration to society and includes the perceived feeling of being isolated from others” (as cited in Uribe, 2007, p. 3). Studies indicate that social isolation can cause depression and other long term psychological impacts on the victims. This paper will explore to what extent the obsessive use of technology and social media promote social isolation. It is assumed that the current trend in the use of social media and technology would drastically affect the social lives of individuals, and hence this issue should not be taken lightly. The primary audience of this paper will be anyone who uses social media and similar technologies to connect with family and friends. The secondary audience includes my professor and fellow classmates. Research Context Evidently social media and technology are increasingly used by children and young adults as compared to others, and hence they are highly exposed to its negative impacts. As reported by Lenhart, Purcell, Smith and Zickuhr (2010), nearly 72% online young adults extensively used social networking websites on a daily basis as of 2013. The major social media websites used by youngsters include Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube. Today teens and young adults consider social media as a vital part of their life, but they do not recognize the detrimental effects of such social websites on their social skills and personal interactivity. Generally formation of basic social skills including listening, speaking, body language, getting on with others, and managing conflicts and disagreements takes place in childhood and early adulthood. When teens and young adults increasingly rely on social media websites and similar telecommunication technologies to connect to their friends and relatives, they barely get the opportunity to mingle with their social circle. Furthermore, today’s youngsters are not interested to engage in social activities or social interactions. Undoubtedly individuals cannot develop better social skills when they fail to interact with their social peers effectively. Researchers show that lack of adequate social skills is one of the major causes leading to social isolation. Similarly, as Ramanigopal, Palaniappan and Hemalatha (2012) point out, individuals who are addicted to social media will have troubles with personal interactivity because they spend most of their time in a virtual world. Studies indicate that modern young individuals are social and interactive, but the style of their communication has entirely changed. They do not meet each other face-to-face as people used to do in the past. When children and young people interact with others through social media, they are less likely to feel personally connected to their social circle. Experts suggest that although social media enhanced the rate and frequency of communication, people do not generally build strong relationships when they communicate online. Extensive social media usage may influence people to interpret the ongoing events in a negative way, and this negative thinking may lead individuals to depression conditions. Ellicott (2012) reports that over one third of youngsters feel depressed due to certain contents on a social media sites. The author also indicates that a notable percent of young people sense a feeling of loneliness as a result of excessive social media usage, and this feeling is very intense among unemployed people. In addition, social media addicted people have difficulty in coping with day-to-day life. Evidently such a situation may eventually result in a severe depression and the victim is more likely to live isolated. Lack of strong family relations is a major factor contributing to excessive social media usage among children. Many children do not have someone to share their personal problems when they grow up, and consequently they turn to the world of social media to obtain the support they needed. Often the support they obtain from this virtual world would be detrimental to their psychological development. In short, the current social situation plays a significant role in influencing youngsters to use social media extensively on a daily basis causing social isolation. Contemporary Significance of Technology and Social Media Today technology and social media are playing an increasingly important role in enhancing the living standards of modern people. Currently people live in a very busy world which is running ahead of the time, and therefore people are forced to keep pace with the changing world. Under this circumstance, the fast growing technology can really assist the modern people to save their time and make their works easier. Simply, today technology plays an integral role in every facet of the human life. Technological innovations have greatly changed the way the world communicates each other. For instance, recent developments in the telecommunication technology such as mobile phones, internet calling, and voice chats and video chats significantly improved the scope of communication bringing communication costs down. In addition, telecommunication technologies like video conferencing are beneficial for business houses to perform their operations conveniently and cost effectively. Similarly, social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and You Tube have become an inevitable part of the modern life. In the busy modern life, these social networking websites provide people with a great opportunity to keep in good touch with their friends and relatives. People had to spend considerable costs for communication when telephone was the only option to pass messages to individuals at a distant place. In contrast to this situation, today internet is almost freely accessible, and therefore people can inexpensively communicate each other through social media whenever they needed. Literature Review In his article Sensory isolation while being a prisoner of the information age, Cole (1998) gives particular focus to two aspects such as the ‘psychological needs to be touched’ and the ‘human need of being bombarded’ with information. The author says that the communication using the tools of modern technologies and social media is impersonal in nature, and therefore this style of communication becomes a threat to people’s psychological need of being in touch. The essence of Col’s argument is that people experience ‘a sensory isolation phenomenon’ when they rely on electronic means of communication to keep in touch with others. He argues that computer is only a machine which has no personality, and it works upon human touch. Touching is psychologically very important in a conversation and to build strong mental relationships, but communication through social media lacks this element of human touch. Today internet technologies facilitate stay-at-home working. Although it gives people the convenience of time, money, homely food, and a relaxed working environment, this working facility causes people to lose physical contact with their clients and colleagues. This situation is sometimes referred to as professional loneliness. Although online communication tools may assist people to improve the scope of their electronic touch to unknown persons, they would lessen the opportunities to be in physical contact with others. Cole (1998) particularly sates that “the impersonal nature of this communication will force an even stronger dependency upon your support network of family and friends for social acceptance”. The author describes people who use social media extensively to communicate with others as ‘high tech and low touch’. He concluded that the fundamental human need of ‘high touch’ is essential to avoid the situation of social isolation. It is evident that students are more addicted to social media and technology because they are more informed of internet based technologies and up to date with recent developments. In addition, today most of the students have full time access to internet as their academic syllabus necessitates it. As children have more free time, they extensively use social networking websites and other internet based communication tools to communicate with people around the globe. At the same time, they tend to abstain from personal interactions with fellow students and friends. Researchers like Massimini and Peterson (2009) conducted a study to explore the negative effects of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on US college students. From the study, the authors found that ICT can have adverse effect on student’s communication, sleep, time management, and stress level. They also identified that increased use of ICT may negatively affect students’ behavior formation, and they will have difficulty in developing socially acceptable behaviors. The communication using ICT represents non-personal communication, which is likely to result in a deficiency of personal communication skills. Massimini and Peterson (2009) reflect that excessive ICT use may increase students’ perceived stress level, and hence they may find difficulty in interacting with their colleagues and teachers. Those students who increasingly rely on ICT tend to abstain from class room activities and love to live within their own world of loneliness. According to some recent studies, social isolation is growing to be a serious social problem in America, and this issue has far reaching consequences on the American society as a whole. According to a report by Vedantam (2006), today Americans live more socially isolated than they were two decades ago. The study also indicates that “the number of people Americans have in their closest circle of confidants has dropped from around three to about two” during the same period. The author reports that currently over 50 percent of the Americans think that their spouse is the only one with whom they can discuss their personal matters. Vedantam strongly believes that the popularity of television significantly contributed to social isolation in America. In their article, McPherson, Smith-Lovin, and Brashears (2006) focuses on the social isolation in America giving particular focus to changes occurred in the core discussion networks over the past two decades. The authors found that the number of Americans saying they have no one to share their personal matters approximately tripled over the last two decades. They also point that currently the confidant networks are centered more on spouses and parents but modern people are not interested in forming and maintaining social relations. While critically evaluating the viewpoint of this article, it seems that the authors try to connect technological growth to the shrinking confidant networks in the country. The adverse effects of excessive internet usage on adolescents have been well documented. Considering the specific attributes of adolescent age, adolescents are more vulnerable to the negative influences of internet such as sex chats, porn videos, sexual violence, and other illegal activities. In addition, law enforcement agencies report that adolescents are highly prone credit card fraud and other internet based frauds. In order to identify issues like social isolation and depression associated with higher levels of internet usage, researchers like Sanders, Field, Diego, and Kaplan (2000) conducted a comprehensive study. In this study, 89 high school students were given a questionnaire to measure low, moderate, and high level internet usage; relationships with parents and peers; and depression among adolescents. The findings clearly indicated that low level internet users (less than 1 hour a day) had maintained better relationships with their mothers and friends as compared to high level users (more than 2 hours a day). Psychological literature reflects that social support can have a great influence on an individual’s psychological processes. A group of researchers including Uchino, Cacioppo, and Kiecolt-Glaser (1996) reviewed 81 different studies and came up with some solid findings. They argued that familial source of support is very important in influencing psychological processes. Clearly when people spend more time on social media, and give less emphasis to personal social relations, they hardly obtain necessary social support they needed. Therefore increased use of social media and other technologies may negatively affect the psychological processes of an individual, and he/she is likely to experience depression. In short, extensive use of social media on a daily basis can have a range of psychological consequences on the victims. Recommendations It may not be possible to overcome the obsessive use of social media and technology in the modern society because it is an addicted behavior. Psychologists indicate that most of the people who use social media extensively on a daily basis feel severely depressed when they are unable to access such networks for a few days due to connection problems or other reasons. Therefore people must try to improve their social media usage gradually. More leisure time is a prime reason contributing to the obsessive use of social medial and similar technologies. Hence it is recommendable for people to devote their leisure time to socially productive activities like farming, environmental protection, blood donation campaigns, and other social works. It is better for people to join clubs and vigorously participating in club activities because they are potential ways to mingle with others. Being a volunteer of charitable trusts and social organizations like Red Cross or WWF is a better idea to avoid excessive leisure time and thereby becoming a socially responsible person. These activities may assist people to strengthen their social relationships by finding reliable people with whom they can share their personal matters. Evidently such a relaxed mindset would reduce people’s vulnerability to social media addiction and social isolation. Similarly, it is advisable for adolescents and other young people to engage in social works and devote more time to physically demanding sports activities. In addition, it is better for youngsters to emphasize more on making and maintaining strong friendships in order to feel a sense of belongingness and protection. Conclusions From the above discussion, it is clear that obsessive use of social media and similar internet based technologies eventually lead to social isolation and depression. Although social media and technology are really beneficial to the society when they are used thoughtfully and appropriately, they can have drastic negative effects on the society when people are addicted to them. Studies show that students and teenagers are more prone to obsessive use of social media and technology because they have more free time when compared to others. When adolescents increasingly use social networking websites, they are likely to become prey to sexual abusers and other criminals. It is identified that the ‘psychological need to be touched’ is not met when people communicating each other through social media or other virtual media. When people devote most of their time to social networking activities, they may not obtain the social support in time needs, and the situation in turn would negatively influence their psychological processes. Altogether, social media usage is a potential topic for extensive research today. References Cole, L., & Cole, M. (1998, March 1). Sensory isolation while being a prisoner of the information age. Communication World, 15(40), 40. Ellicott, C. (2013). Teens in online bullying epidemic as a third of young people have become depressed after being attacked over social media. Mail Online. Jan 2. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255859/Bullying-rife-teens-online-young-people-felt-depressed-social-media-attacks.html Lenhart, A., Purcell, K., Smith, A & Zickuhr, K. (2010, Feb 3). Social Media and Young Adults. Pew research. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2010/02/03/social-media-and-young-adults/ Massimini, M., & Peterson, M. (2009). Information and communication technology: Afects on U.S. college students. Cyberpsychology, 3(1), 1-12. McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, L., & Brashears, M. E. (2006). Social isolation in America: Changes in core discussion networks over two decades. American Sociological Review, 71(3), 353-375. Ramanigopal, C. S., Palaniappan, G & Hemalatha, N. (Feb 2012). Social networking: Problems and prospects of the knowledge society. International Journal of Research in Management, 2 (2), 116-129. Sanders, C. E., Field, T. M., Diego, M., & Kaplan, M. (2000). The relationship of internet use to depression and social isolation among adolescents. Adolescence, 35(138), 237-242. Unchino, B. N., Cacioppo, J. T., & Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K. (1996). The relationship between social support and physiological processes: A review with emphasis on underlying mechanisms and implications for health. Psychological Bulletin, 119(3), 488-531. Uribe, L. (2007). Social Isolation and Sexual Risk Behavior Among Recently Arrived Male Hispanic Migrants in Durham, North Carolina. ProQuest. Vedantam, S. (2006, June 23). Social Isolation Growing in U.S., Study Says. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/22/AR2006062201763_2.html Read More