A Brief Note On Facebook And Mental Wellness

In his article, “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” Stephen Marche argues that Facebook is the vital cause for loneliness and is luring people away from social capital. According to Marche, social networking isolates individuals and creates distance, mostly amongst family members. For some, it is not only isolation but rather social loneliness. The author claims that health can also be effected by loneliness. Nowadays, due to very little verbal person to person communication, he writes that people have never been so separated from one another because of social media. Facebook users, Marche argues, have an addiction to profoundly visit their account constantly leading to the feeling of loneliness and in most cases depression. The author claims that social networking, instead of demolishing isolation, is unknowingly spreading it. Ultimately, However, Stephen’s argument fails to convince due to his abundant false assumptions and the articles confusing organization.

However, like genetics, it also has many negatives. Technology does improve the world’s ability to communicate quickly and easily, but it also separates people socially. Social media and smartphones for example, have dramatically reduced human interaction. Everyone would rather communicate online than in the real world. According to Pew Research Center, “Roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults (68%) now report that they are Facebook users, and roughly three-quarters of those users access Facebook on a daily basis” (Smith and Anderson 1). This a huge portion the the American population that is using Facebook alone. There are many other social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest that attract even more users. The more people use these services, the less they interact with others in person. Aldous Huxley once said, “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards” (Huxley 1). Before the technology that exists today, people were unable to communicate with others that weren’t in their area. Now, people tend to communicate with those around them less. As technology continues to improve, this situation will only become worse. Preventative action must be taken to prevent this from destroying human

Social media is the term that is used to refer to applications and websites that allow people to interact and stay connected (Nations, 2016). Although, the creation of social networking sites is relatively recent, it has rapidly become a prominent part of billions of people’s lives worldwide. For example, between 2012 and 2016 the number of monthly active Facebook users increased by 83% (Statista, 2016). As a result, investigating the effects of social media on people’s psychological wellbeing has become a popular area of research. However, the combination of findings from these studies are inconclusive as to whether social media has a negative or a positive impact on our psychological wellbeing and because social media is so widely used this is an important question to address. Huppert (2009) stated that “Psychological wellbeing is about lives going well. It is the combination of feeling good and functioning effectively” (p. 137). This essay will focus on Facebook, in particular, as it’s the most widely used social network and has over 1.5 billion monthly active users (Smith, 2016). It will discuss research that has investigated the effects of Facebook on life satisfaction, academic performance and psychiatric disorders which are all related to psychological wellbeing. It will conclude that research mostly suggests that social media, in particular Facebook, is harmful to our psychological wellbeing.

In this case, the study proved that teens and young adults have become obsessed with social networking and has led to many questions if networking is good or bad (Conger, 2010). In 2009, the media expressed that social networking could cause harm to our bodies and brains by “shortening our attention spans” and “weakening our immune systems” (Conger, 2010). Whereas other studies that have been conducted prove the opposite and suggests that teens who spend more time on social networking sites are more likely to be “well-adjusted” and “psychologically” healthy (Healy, 2010). At this point, it’s time to investigate the pros and cons of children being on social networking sites and understand why parents are against social networking and why certain individuals feel that networking is beneficial.

When mentioning of how technology impacts our society, people will think of its positive influence. Technology and social media has changed the way people interact with one another it made us individuals closer with one another. This is Providing the platform to help us maintain a personal connection. According to Danah Boyd, “Teens want to gossip, flirt, complain, compare notes, share passions, emote and joke around. They want to be able to talk among themselves –even if that means going online” (20-21) Danah Boyd expresses the reason why society goes online and how it brings us closer together even if it means not being face-to-face with the individual. Technology and Relationships has become such an important issue because it allows us to interact on another level. Simultaneously it makes it somewhat easier to interact, without the awkward face-to-face conversations people struggle with. “Social media has become an

Social media is considered an essential thing in today’s time. The way people connect to each other and keep up with long lost friends. Years ago, the popular social media outlet was Myspace. Now, Facebook has taken the award for the most popular social media outlet. While Facebook is a good resource at times, it has become more of potential danger. With the positive aspects being few, the negative outcomes are many. This is evident in young adults. In the younger generation, excessive time on Facebook can cause jealousy and other issues in an individual’s overall livelihood.

“Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected” (Facebook). Since launching in 2004, Facebook has cemented itself as a worldwide phenomenon. “As of the first quarter of 2016, Facebook had 1.65 billion monthly active users,” making it “the biggest social networking service based on a global reach and total active users” (Statista). Individuals utilize Facebook in various ways, including but not limited to, sharing news information, advertising, self-promotion, staying in touch with friends and relatives, following public figures, uploading photos, and posting personal feelings. Conventional wisdom has it that Facebook is becoming the primary means of communication and socialization, causing detriment to regular users both personally and professionally. Unaware of the harm being caused, numerous people have developed an emotional attachment, refuting any negative feedback pertaining to the social networking service. Although admired and justified by many, Facebook damages people’s psychological well-being, diminishes social skills, and destroys career opportunities.

Facebook is both a topic of research and a platform for participant recruitment for modern psychological research. Many studies have been conducted regarding the idea that relying on social interaction through Facebook and the idea of a social networking oriented world can have significant impacts on our emotional and physical well-being. Depression has been one of the most heavily researched topics when dealing with Facebook usage. Other past research has focused on the question of why Facebook and other social networking platforms have become so prevalent in today’s society. Facebook, due to its diverse user demographic and geographic distribution, as well as its ease of access and heavy incorporation into

Technology has a control on society. Truthfully we have a tendency to expertise this result in our daily lives. It’s an impression on the expansion of the economy, our culture and our living standards. Most of the time we are meeting new people through social networks and not actually face to face. Due to social networking face-to-face communication is slowly decreasing. Social media gives people the effect of knowing one another without knowing one

Technology seems to be a topic with a lot of baggage attached to it. Since the evolution of technology a vast amount of social interaction has been diminished. Personal time with others has been cut down significantly as the new modern technology is now available for nearly anyone. Constantly being attached to a cell phone or computer screen is prohibiting social interaction between all kinds of relationships. Many say it is the fault of the individual to let the technology usage go as far as ruining communications that were once frequent among a kinship. Catching up on the latest celebrity gossip has become more important than talking to a spouse about their work day. Social media or online work can feel like an addiction to those who regularly use it. Now that the internet is accessible almost anywhere at anytime, the desire to be on board with the latest social media attraction has become nearly impossible to avoid. Being an avid technology user can put people at risk of becoming socially deprived of face-to-face communication since the user may prefer telecommunications rather than an in-person conversation. Due to a depletion of direct facial communication many believe that the use of technology is at fault; however these allegations are being fought against as others see technology as an advancement in communication.

INTRODUCTION: Facebook is the most popular social networking site over the world with more than eight hundred million users. It has become so much part of people’s life that anyone can get access to their personal information. Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg with the concept of allowing people to share their common interest, but with time it has lost its real essence. As a matter of fact, it is a very useful medium of communication to stay connected with friends and family, but it has some positive as well as negative effects on the society. It is a social network which was created as a social media platform to connect people and in many ways it seems that it has achieved its purpose. However, facebook’s popularity and massive use masks its psychological damages which are: addiction, depression and isolation.

Htet Htet Oo, a fourth year mechanical engineering student at Cal Poly, has firsthand experience with the effects of social networking sites on her sense of community and self-esteem. The social networking site that affected her the most was Facebook (Oo). After reading through her feed, Htet Htet would feel her life was boring in comparison to her friends who posted about what exciting activity they did that day. Htet Htet commented that she felt “unproductive, depressed, and lazy” after using social media (Oo). Similar to Johanna’s opinion that excessive time spent on social media is a waste (J. Murphy). Eventually she became fully aware of what Facebook was doing to her self-esteem and wellbeing and she decided to delete her account. While she intended to use Facebook as a way to keep in touch with friends, it ultimately damaged her (Oo).

Do you recall your way of living preceding the invention of the Internet? Can you remember how you drew out necessary information concerning studies, weather patterns, or directions? More pressing, how did you have access to the where-abouts and status’ of your closest four hundred friends? While social networking has become an essential tool in modern day life, our dependence on the Internet has proven itself flawed in that it leads to the increase of adolescences’ diagnosed with depression. An ever increasing number of studies has examined this phenomenon in search of a correlation between social networking and depression in children maturing into adulthood. According to Guralnik (1984), depression is defined as “a psychoneurotic or psychotic disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal tendencies.” (p.395). A social network is an online interaction service which manages to construct communities and connect them with shared interests (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Social networking sites such as Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter attract millions of users who have incorporated these networks into their daily practices. Some of these sites cater to diverse viewers while others integrate people based on similarities such as a shared language or nationality. Last year, Facebook passed an average of 1.23

In the past 20 year’s internet has become part of our daily routine. Waking up in the morning and the very first thing people do is check their Facebook. Facebook is a social media website where people can interact with others online. In fact, Facebook has more than 1.19 billion account of people. Some people say that Facebook is taking over people’s lives. Today more than ever people are findings ways to connect with family and friends. “According to the Facebook website, more than half of the active user’s log on to their accounts daily”. However, although Facebook could be great way to use to connect with friends and maintain good relationships with people it can cause more harm than benefits. I do believe that Facebook became part of who we are.

Life is based on communication between self-first than others. Communicate to people about daily bases or any topic. Nowadays, technology became the cause of failure of a lot of people because of communication. It has been created for relatives who live far away from each other. These generations try to communicate with people who are never met and talking to them. Then they could cause problem for each other. Also, it contributes of making them distracted, staying up all night, regression at school, and other problems. Furthermore, they might tease others which is totally inappropriate. Technology creates the social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and others to help people be connected from all over the world. Moreover, people will not feel lonely when they are in a different country and wanted to communicate However, some people do