Online Socializing Has Given Rise to Social Isolation - Essay Example

Online Socializing Has Given Rise to Social Isolation An online social network is a website that functions like an online community of people. There are a lot of online social websites which allow internet users to take their membership for free, and socialize with other members regarding hobbies, career, religion, fashion, politics etcetera. The users read the profile pages of other members, share views and ideas, give comments and contact them via their profiles. A social networking website is a great means of bringing people of same wave length together and socializing with the outside world. However, along with all these advantages, there are some drawbacks attached with the use of these social networks, the most important of which include social isolation, loneliness, anxiety. This essay will argue that online social networks have diminished the need for personal interaction and have introduced actual social isolation in our lives. Social isolation is a condition in which an individual lacks human interaction through avoiding social contact. When there is too little interaction with people, man tends to get socially isolated and becomes depressed. This gives rise to anxiety and stress which is not manageable by the person himself. Hampton, Sessions and Her state: “Evidence from the US General Social Surveys (GSS) suggests that during the past 20 years, people have become increasingly socially isolated and their core discussion networks have become smaller and less diverse.” When a person spends hours and hours in front of the computer screen behind the objective of staying connected to the people online, he is unaware that he is getting disconnected from the world around him, and is getting oblivious of those living around him who need him and can make him happier than the online community. Social isolation creates adverse effects on the family relationships because online socializing works “by divorcing social relationships from physical reality and moving them beyond our local community” (Robins, qtd. in Straubhaar, LaRose and Davenport 437). Hence, we can say that social isolation, anxiety, depression and loneliness are linked with each other, and the root cause is the epidemic of online socializing. Literature supports that online networking gives rise to many problems. Straubhaar, LaRose and Davenport (437) discuss a research by Kreut et al. in 1998, who found out that after incorporating internet and introducing social networks into the homes of teenagers, the heavy users were found to be more depressed, lonely and socially isolated that light users. They concluded that “weak social ties formed on the Internet displaced real relationships, with harmful side effects on psychological well-being” (437). Why users regard online socializing as preferable over physically socializing is that they can form shallow relationships which have fewer chances of getting disrupted through negative events that occur with real relationships. Moreover, when a child uses a computer alone in his room without the presence of another family member, this is the time parents should be concerned about his being socially isolated, and should worry about his social and moral development. Similarly, when people sit and talk to each other face-to-face, this helps them develop good socially responsible personalities. Those who use internet socializing excessively may lack the interpersonal skills that are necessary to socialize in the physical world, and are more likely to become “depressed and socially inhibited… having a lower level of rapport and likeability” (Icovelli and Valenti 439). Social networking also diminishes interpersonal skills to form actual relationships. Similarly, Chen (221) states in his research that when a person is using internet for socializing and other purposes, he gets in such a flow that merge together his mental state and actions, thus bringing him away from his physical world. When the user is in front of the computer screen, he forgets all his worries and associates himself with the keyboard and monitor, and the “clock time ceases to be consistent with experienced time” (Chen 221). Chen found in his research that the participants experienced a loss of self-consciousness and a loss of sense of time and place. This led to their being oblivious to their surroundings and relationships, thus, making them socially excluded from their friends and family. Hence, the social development of people, especially children, gets disrupted because when they spend time socializing online, that time displace the time they spend offline, and the ties formed online displace those formed by interacting with friends and family. This has a negative effect on their psycho-social development and results in diminishing their interpersonal skills. Nevertheless, there are counter-arguments too. For example, Quan-Haase (671) studied how internet usage affects the life of university students, and how the online modes of communication affect their social ties in the real world. He found out that online communication fills the gaps occurring between far-away friends and is a good way of socializing. However, the truth is that loneliness does prevail. Internet usage has caused many problems during the last decade, and the main problems include an increase in digital divide, excessive use of e-mails, and online socializing that tend to make a person socially excluded. Hence, it can be stated that the cons of online socializing outweigh the pros in terms of development and maintenance of meaningful relationships. To conclude, although today we are all the time connected to the people we know, yet we are suffering from depression, anxiety and loneliness. Today, we are constantly getting updates from our friends, relatives and classmates, and we do not have to schedule face-to-face meetings in order to stay in each others’ lives. And all this has been possible thanks to the online social networking websites which offer great fun and mind-engaging applications in addition to letting us find people of our own interests and hobbies. However, this has resulted in people hesitating in interacting with others in the physical world. They are hiding from the bitter events that come with real relationships. They do not want to make commitments with physical world relationships. So, they find a way out in the form of online socializing. They are, however, unaware of the fact that this epidemic of online networking will make them socially excluded, and time will come when they will become totally oblivious to real feelings and emotions. Works Cited Chen, Hsiang. "Flow on the Net--Detecting Users' Positive Affects and Their Flow States." Computers in Human Behavior 22.2 (2006): 221-33. Hampton, Keith N., Sessions, Lauren F., and Eun Ja Her. “Core Networks, Social Isolation, and New Media.” Information, Communication, and Society 14.1 (2011). Icovelli, Anthony, and Stavros Valenti. “Internet Addiction’s Effect on Likeability and Rapport.” Computers in Human Behavior 25.2 (2009): 439-443. Quan-Haase, Anabel. "University Students' Local and Distant Social Ties: Using and Integrating Modes of Communication on Campus." Information, Communication & Society 10.5 (2007): 671-693. Straubhaar, Joseph, LaRose, Robert, and Lucinda Davenport. Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology. USA: Cengage Learning, 2008. Read More