A Socialized Platform Of Social Media

We are the generation that always wants to connect with everything and everyone which has never been common act for past generations. This mindset is causing others to question themselves and who they are. A technology that has helped drive this negative self-love is through social media which began to prosper in the early two thousands as just conversational sites that permitted friends to communicate over the internet. Over the years’ social media has become more of a pictured based hot spot which has persuaded children and even numerous adults that they aren’t good enough. The acuity of “perfect” has boggled many people’s minds into believing that they should strive to become this

One of the myths carried by social media is that it makes users more socially connected, however, it worsens feelings of social isolation. Social media often tries to take the place of face-to-face relationships, ruining healthy ones (Norton 1). Technology has become an essential part of the way people communicate with one another and has increasingly taken the place of face-to-face communication. This allows people to substitute electronic relationships with physical ones, promoting social isolation. Replacing real-world relationships with social media use is detrimental to a user’s well being.

Journalist Anna Hart argues this is the new era of people sharing selfies on a daily basis, that society has reached into “the age vanity, the digital vanity, you can argue no generation is immune from the selfie craze” (Hart,2014). A selfie has a variety of audiences from children capturing their best look to The Pope, it’s the new way of capturing evidence of your interaction with different people, better than asking for an autograph. However, in Hart’s (2014) article she argues that the idea that there is a need to look a certain way all of the time, especially when you are posting a selfie on social media, it almost has to be perceived in a positive way, showing the best selfie. Hart (2014) said “I need to look healthy, glossy and polished

Social media has taken over every aspect of our lives. People cannot go seconds without wanting to check all of their social media platforms. It has evolved how people form and maintain relationships. Introverts have complex interpersonal skills that were altered with the evolution of social media. Mental health has been a hot topic when discussing social media and its effect on the youth. After analyzing Erica Buddington’s F-Boy Literature, it is evident that the evolution of technology and social media has affected people’s relationships, interpersonal skills of introverts, and mental health.

The use of social media is ruining this generation’s real life social skills. According to Social Media Today, an online community for professionals, “The amount of time people spend on social media is constantly increasing. Teens now spend up to nine hours a day on social platforms, while 30% of all time spent online is now allocated to social media interaction.” Texting or online communications does not allow people to truly express themselves for who they truly are. There is a loss of social and personal development communicating through social media. For instance, people online are unable to use body language, tone, voice and facial expressions through a text. An article on The Telegraph, pointed out that “One in four people spend more time socialising online, using sites such as Facebook, than they do in person, according to research.” The study also found that even when there is an opportunity to see people face-to-face, on weekends for example, up to 11% of adults still prefer to stay at home and communicate on their devices instead. (USA Today). The problem with socialising online is that affects a person’s ability to communicate properly in face-to-face interactions. The person will feel a sense of social anxiety and not project their voice loud enough for their audience to hear them. For

We regard ourself as some virtual characters on social media, we post photos of ourself, the food we eat or maybe just some random photos we take, all of these photos become a part of ourselves. However, people always want to show the good side of themselves, so photography and internet become a perfect tool to ‘ get rid of ’ all the bad defects. In other words, everyone is building a new “ self ” through the internet. One perfect example would be the software Photoshop, photoshop was “originally innovated to show grayscale images on a monochrome display, and later on, developed into a full-fledged editing program”(wiki-photoshop), but it is now more considered as a tool for “skin whitening” or “ face lifting”.No wonder Photoshop is named to be an “unnatural” tool, it is hard to distinguish the truth behind a photo, in which can cause people to recognize themselves in a wrong way. From the article to what extent does photoshop affect society written by Nikol, it says, “Daily, we are bombarded by the appearance of “flawless” celebrities in television, advertisements, and commercials. This wrong perception of a perfect body has led to the creation of numerous campaigns that are fighting the use of Photoshop.’ It gradually becomes a habit and people get addicted to doing it.

Social media is described, by the Merriam-Webster dictionary (2015), as “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos)”. As few as 10 years ago the term social media was yet to be coined, but within that decade the use of these blogs, websites and sharing platforms has increased exponentially with no plateau in sight. From creating Instagram accounts for household pets, to sharing Halloween themed baking ideas over Pinterest, people today have access to social media outlets for almost everything. Today about 74% of people ages 18-65 use some form of a social networking site (Pew, 2014). Facebook takes the lead in social media usage with about 71% of those adults. LinkedIn and Pinterest are tied for second at 28% of users, 26% use Instagram, and Twitter falls last in the top 5 most used social medias with 23% of users (Pew, 2014). In September of 2013 the Pew Research Center measured that 90% of adults ages 18-29 used these social media outlets on a daily basis, which is an astonishing increase from the 9% that was measured in February 2005 (Pew, 2014). Due to the fact that young adults are increasingly involving themselves in these online platforms, it is very important to understand the long term and psychological effects (such as depression, social anxiety,

Social anxiety is on a rise in America and around the world most would blame this being a fault of social media and the way it projects how one should look and feel about their life although neuroscience and sociology scientist haven’t yet pinpointed the exact cause it is still a high chance that social media plays a key component on this

The ever-growing world of social media is a network of sites and websites designs to have individuals share pictures and ideas will all their friends instantly. The popularity of these sites bursted right out of the gates and are used by billions of people every day. While such sites may appear harmless, these interactive platforms are causing an immense rise in social anxiety. These social networks are actually damaging the mental health of many users.

“ … the late Susan Sontag argues that images — particularly photographs — carry the risk of undermining true things and genuine experiences, as well as the danger of upending our understanding of art. “Knowing a great deal about what is in the world (art, catastrophe, the beauties of nature) through photographic images,” Sontag notes, “people are frequently disappointed, surprised, unmoved when they see the real thing” (Rosen). Sontag says that people take so many photos to the point, that it has a very good chance of devaluing the real event or people will be upset and disappointed when they see the real thing because they had such high expectations and the photograph was altered so it manipulates their expectations. “Ms. Morie said selfies are essentially avatars and foresees a day when they will be constructed even more to our liking (superhero physiques, fairy-tale tresses). As we conduct more of our life online she suspects they will become more how we see ourselves than our real selves”(Murphy). Murphy supports this by saying that people buy these apps to change their appearance so that people won’t see how they really look. People could also “catfish”, meaning they use other people’s picture to portray as them because they are unhappy with how they look. At the end, when people go to see the real thing, either a place like the Eiffel tower or the statue of liberty, or a person they met on Instagram or some kind of dating website, they have a good chance of being disappointed. Their feelings will change because the photo was photoshopped with a bunch of filters and making things smaller where they shouldn’t be and just isn’t the same as they originally saw it. People who take selfies tend to be insecure and need other people’s approval to boost their confidence. Murphy shows that selfie takers are hungry for love and some

Whether it is social media, music videos, television, movies or magazines, a stream of social pressures is ever-present. It has become such common practice that regardless of what gets put up in the air, is taken as truth, and taken very seriously by many. Models, actors, the rich and the famous have all been in a race to let more of the world’s population know that they are the closest a human has ever been to perfection in terms of appearance. Through the use of photographers that know the greatest angles and provide the best possible lighting, photo shoots hide flaws. In addition to image editing software and even airbrushing, every wrinkle and imperfection are covered up and out of sight. The issue that has been growing alongside this trend is ultimately self-esteem issues, which has been inflicted on the masses of society. Unrealistic goals are shown as easy to obtain, persuading young people all over the globe to try to reach them, imposing great health risks (Slater, Tiggemann, Firth & Hawkins, 2012). Since the perfect people are put out as norms within society, the majority of the society doesn’t feel normal. Opinions have changed and/or formed over time on physical appearances, such as weight, lack of features, muscle mass and even amount of pubic hair. The harsh requirements being

Living in the 21st century requires one to stay current with latest technological advancements. Ever since the development of social networking sites, people are now able to create a carefully-crafted identity for themselves. This has led psychologists to question how well these online personalities match the person in front of the computer. The innovative branch of media psychology looks into how social networking portrays individuals and initiates human interactions within a society.

The phenomenon of social networking has taken the world by storm, becoming part of a daily routine for many children and adults. Billions of people around the world use social media to share information and make connections. Nonetheless, parents and researchers argue that social media is can cause emotional damage and lower one’s self-esteem. To understand the role of social media, this essay aims to provide a discussion of how social media has led to greater self-expression among individuals, since it is harder to feel embarrassment over the internet then in person. Next, it closely examines social media in relations to keeping in touch with family and friends, whether they are close or far. Finally, it focuses on how social media has enabled large groups of people to unite and achieve some specific objective, and how this brings change in society. In short, the influence of social media on society has allowed for individuals to openly express themselves, open communication between friends and family, and to unite large groups of people for a common objective.

The use of social media is ruining this generation’s real-life social skills. According to Social Media Today, an online community for professionals, “the number of time people spend on social media is constantly increasing. Teens now spend up to nine hours a day on social platforms, while 30% of all time spent online is now allocated to social media interaction.” Texting or online communications does not allow people to express themselves for who they truly are. There is a loss of social and personal development communicating through social media. For instance, people online are unable to use body language, tone, voice and facial expressions through a text. An article in The Telegraph pointed out that “One in four people spend more time socializing online, using sites such as Facebook, than they do in person, according to research.” The study also found that even when there is an opportunity to see people face-to-face, on weekends, for example, up to 11% of adults still prefer to stay at home and communicate with their devices instead. (USA Today). The problem with socializing online is that affects a person’s ability to communicate properly in face-to-face interactions. The person will feel a sense of social anxiety and not project their voice loud enough for their audience to hear them. For

The label, “Social Media”, is due to its ability to encourage people to be more social and communicative through the internet. Yet, it is now known that the name might not live up to its expectation. With less face-to-face interaction, relationships and communication skills are being sacrificed. Although one may have one thousand