Digitally Close To You Analysis

Barry Wellman, a sociologist at the University of Toronto who has analyzed social networks since the 1960s, says that today’s society believes the illusion that people spend their days interacting with a group of friends, engaging in community every day. This is not the case. The majority of people spend their free time sitting at home, alone, watching television (Jayson). Therefore, using social media actually brings the community closer together because people genuinely interact on these sites, as opposed to sitting at home watching television with no outside interaction. In fact, the writer from the Time magazine should be grateful that she even heard about her friend’s personal change, because if she and her so called friend were not close enough to call each other or meet face to face, the writer may have never heard about this change at all. This supports the evidence that social media does not break our community apart by limiting social interaction, but rather draws society closer together by providing a community centered activity where individuals can communicate.

In “The Limits of Friendship” by Maria Konnikova, social media has significantly changed the way we interact with friends and family. Everybody thinks that using social media is the best way to talk to friends and family, however, in my opinion, they are wrong because it doesn’t give you the face-to-face connections we need as humans for social interaction. On the other hand, the great thing about using social media is you can connect with more people, but in a superficial kind of way. Therefore, we do not get the face-to-face interactions with our friends and family. We, the people that are addicted to social media, learn that without face-to-face conversations we wouldn’t have a normal “social” life outside of social media. The question

In the reading, “Connectivity And Its Discontents,” by Turkle, the author contends that social media defends people against loneliness. She also states, that it controls the intensity of connections of how people connect with other people, and create ease to communicate and disengage if people wanted to. For example, he states, “We discover the network—the world of connectivity—to be uniquely suited to the overworked and over scheduled life it makes possible. And now we look to the network to defend us against loneliness even as we use it to control the intensity of our connections. Technology makes it easy to communicate when we wish and disengage at will” (190-191). Therefore, people using social media to communicate is good because people might have a busy life style that doesn’t allow them to spend time meeting with their friends. It also provides an outlet against loneliness because some people might not have many friends, and social media allows them to connect easier with people they can’t see through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many other forms of social media. It’s better for people to be open with other people online. People are able to socially interact with other people all over the world using computers, cell phones, and even tablets. The technology today doesn’t limit people from communicating, and web browsing to their hearts content. Social media and the technology

Social media has guided us to believe that we need to be connected to others. “…the social media revolution has not made us feel more connected, less lonely, or replete with friends” (Barna Group). Social media has input certain beliefs into the minds of people while also taking away that time that could be spent with friends and family. Social media has allowed people to put on fronts and believe that these are the only means of communication.

Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Instagram, and Flicker was invented to keep us in touch and keep us closer to our family and friends. But according to How Facebook ruins Friendships “we took our friendship online” (Bernstein). First we began communicating more by email than by phone and then switched to instant messaging or texting. By joining social Medias online

Chatfield (2015) expressed that, “We began to weave constant availability into our conception of public and private space; into our body language and everyday etiquette (“I’ll get there for midday and give you a ring”)” (para.8); such statement made me agree with the author. We are constantly using devices to be up to date with the latest happenings anywhere, anytime, in which persons have become emotionally attached to their devices. It is important to be aware of current events and so it makes it convenient to always be connected. Also, another point made by the author was that, “…digital technologies mean my relationships with others and the world are extended and amplified beyond anything even my grandparents knew” (Chatfield, 2015, para.14). Although digital technology was invented for a faster and more efficient ways to communicate, it has made our lives less physically connected with others due to the lack of physical interaction. In the past, our grandparents had the pleasure of having verbal communication through physical connections, in which they were able to pick up on social cues, for example: facial features, gestures, body language and proximity; however, at present communication takes place with the connection of the internet with little to no social cues (Stewart, 2013). Digital technology is currently and

Social media allow persons from all over the world to remain contact and communicate with their friends, family, at the same time make new connections. As stated by Amedie, social media sites are known for allowing people to make new connections with people who share similar interests, creating new relationships, and people end up being good friends (4). In fact, people create groups that accommodate subscribers who have similar interests or life goals where they assist each other. Again, there are friends or family members who are a thousand miles away; and through the use of social sites, it is easy to often communicate with them, increasing intimacy at a reduced cost. Furthermore, social networks have encouraged the users to come up with an online persona, which establishes a personal network of friends who connect to an open worldwide community.

There are both positives and negatives to social networking. After reading his article, I began to reflect on my own experiences and looked further into the information he presented. I found Thomas’s piece to be extremely accurate and I agree with the majority of his claims. Thomas goes deeply into the limited privacy these websites provide, the ambient awareness that brings a whole new meaning to knowing someone, and how your “weak ties” may be stronger, but also impacting your real life relationships. The article made me realize how much this social media craze is affecting our population and myself.

Today, socialization that involves real interaction is very rare because people have been reduced to interaction on social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Though there is nothing expressly wrong with technological communication, but over-relying on it can be a problem when it is seen as a substitute for face-to-face interaction. It takes away real life activities and can cause a breakdown in relationships. Constantly connecting through mobile devices is prone to disconnecting people from those physically around us.

Social media and technology has improved the ability to stay connected with each other from far distances. In the article “Text or Talk: Is Technology Making You Lonely? By Margie Warrell” the author states “ online technology is a magnificent tool for staying in touch with people across miles time zones and years.” In

Recent developments in technology like the internet lead to the decrease in “normal” social behavior, and a trend of disconnect between individuals due to an obsession with technology. In the past, you could walk around your town for a whole day without seeing every single person that you know. But with the usage of technology, they are just an arm’s reach away. With this change in the way people communicate, social habits become lazy. You no longer have to put in the effort to communicate with the people you care about, which may lead to a feeling of isolation and loneliness. It has become easier to just text someone, rather to call them or even see them in person. With this comes possible breaches in communication, and an overall disconnect between individuals and their loved ones. The disconnect between people due to technology is harmful and may lead to many consequences.

But this has ceased to exist after the introduction of Smartphone 's and the internet. People prefer to chat in the many social media offered on the internet and accessed by their Smartphone 's, play games, listen to music and even blog than strike a conversation with a person sited next (Tuckle, 2011, 23). As much as people are communicating more, a threat of communication becoming more of quantity than quality is emerging. As much as the use of Smartphone 's and internet has expanded people socially and geographically, it drives people from authentic relations. Too much use of Smartphone 's and web results in declining people social circle. It is a fact that the more time people spend on their Smartphone 's and the internet the less time they has with their families, friends and other people in the society.

Although technology can help us express ourselves and stay connected with others, this doesn’t mean we have to use it all the time, and have it be all we ever do, and become addicted. Social media allows us to stay in contact with and maintain long distance relationships, or if you just want to text a friend about plans over the weekend or on a break(Doc 2). But we can use this to create more opportunities of face to face interaction rather than mindlessly scrolling through unimportant feed. Statistics show that our

“Social media allows people to connect with each other to create and share information. It is people-powered communication, an authentic dialogue motivated by a basic human desire to share information” (CIPD, Social Media and Employee Voice Report 2013). ‘Click’ and my message is on its way to my friend’s Facebook inbox hundred of miles away. The astonishing speed of how quick we can communicate in today’s societies, all thanks to social media. The invention of Facebook simplified everything we know about communication. We can connect to people whenever and wherever, sharing information has never been more convenient and exciting. In Shane Hipps’ Article, “ Is Facebook Killing Our Souls?,” he has no intention to impede technological advancements, instead he wants users to understand technologies with insights. According to my research, although Hipps ' points has some merits, I disagree with him because he overgeneralized the impacts that Facebook and other social media has on users’ behaviors and identities.

Social sites are a beneficial way to communicate, however, it affects a person’s ability to communicate face to face with others. Many people spend much of their leisure time online rather than connecting with the offline world. In a specific article, a participant spends several hours each day updating her profile instead of talking face to face with others (Livingstone 399). Being online more than offline, decreases people’s abilities to interact with others who are disconnected. Furthermore, by communicating online also contributes to misrepresentation, which leads to misreading a text, leading to mixed emotions of a person who wrote the message. Therefore, social networking reduces an emotional aspect between people as it is hard to tell what a person is feeling through text. In addition, people lack confidence talking to an individual physically rather than virtually. In an