Facebook 's Social Impact On Our Lives

In the age of technology social media has become a very impactful thing in our society. It has evolved and brought our society the use of how we receive Information and communicate with one another. Some may say it enhances our interpersonal relation because of it easy access to many people globally. But on the other hand social media can be very detrimental to people's interpersonal relationships because its negative effects like people being more prone to isolation. Overall social media in my opinion does hinders interpersonal relationships because it causes the lack of ability to socialize effectively in real life, cause isolation between children and teens, and the danger that occurs online.

Social media has changed our culture in ways many, in years past, would have thought to be impossible. With the advent of social media, people are connected around the world. Using the internet we can have “face-to-face” conversations, write “letters”, play games, and much more with others instantly without the need of being in the same room as them. Even though we are all constantly connected, some feel our technological innovations are causing us to become lonelier. Many feel physical interactions are key to creating emotional bonds. Some even feel left out because they are not technologically incline. Those who believe technology is making us lonelier often note how some people say they have friends that they have never met in real life, or cite shows like “Catfish” where people fall in love with others over the internet, but the person they thought they were talking to is not actually who they were talking to. Though some may think technology is making us lonelier, in actuality it bring us closer together.

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.

In the last ten to fifteen years accompanying the dawn of social media, means of communication among friends and strangers have been easier than ever. Since its creation in 2004, Facebook has grown into the largest social media site on the Internet with 30 million users and counting. The ability to catch up with former high school friends who are now across the country or see how an aunt in Pittsburgh has been doing since the birth of her son are now as simple as the click of a mouse. However, the amount of “friends” acquired on social media may not be an accurate reflection of how many close relationships one truly shares. In an article from Bigthink.com titled “Do You Have Too Many Facebook Friends?”, Steven Mazie gathers research from Pew Research Center about statistics surrounding Facebook

Now, with technology literally at our fingertips, we tend to live and breathe in a virtual realm. Creating any person we want, allowing any emotion to be unfiltered, and having no accountability to our actions, the perceived box of who we can be is ever changing. As our dependency upon this fake world increases, we’ll continually lose ourselves to reality, eventually losing who we actually are, losing such things as morals and individualism. Technology is reshaping us into cyborgs, not unique people but robotic beings found throughout the masses. Kristen Ostrenga, a young girl feeling the pressure to be apart of this mass sameness, created for herself a new person on social media.

With evolving technology comes new types of social media, people have begin to question the internet’s effect on our mentality. It is a bit difficult to compare the pros and cons of social media, it has more to do with an individual’s experience.  Some could be having a horrible time due to social media, but others could be thriving off of it.  The more negative implications of using social media could be the way that we share our personal lives and how much of it we give to the public, regardless of social relationships, to consume.  Along with this, we are deeply impacted by what we see from others based on our viewing of what they share because of the ability to create falsified identities and unrealistic interpretations of who we are

Yvette Vickers, a former Playboy playmate and Hollywood horror movie star would have been 86 in this year, but nobody exactly knows how old she was at the time of her death! According to the coroner’s report, she was died for a long time ago before her neighbor discovered her death. Her neighbor, Susan Savage noticed cobwebs in her windows and yellowing pile of letters in her mailbox. She reached through a broken window to unlock the door and she reached upstairs, she found Vickers’s mummified boy near a heater that was running at that time. Near the body, Vickers’s computer was also running. The Los Angeles Times posted a story, which quickly went viral throughout the country. Within two weeks, Vickers’s lonesome death was already the subject to thousands of Facebook posts and tweets. She had long been a horror-movie icon, now she was an icon of a different kind of horror, our growing fear of loneliness. Certainly she received much more attention after her death than she did in the end years of her life. With no children, no religious group, and no immediate social circle of any kind, she had begun to look elsewhere for companionship. Vickers had made calls not to friends or family but to distant fans whom she found through fan conventions and Internet sites. Though her web of connections had grown broader but it was shallower, as has happened for many of us (Marche S. 2012). Vickers’s death arises a question to all- does social media

Society today sees technology as a beneficial tool; however, it ultimately damages relationships by distorting the perception of what authentic human contact is. While providing the ability to keep in touch with friends around the world and share memories, social media definitely has negative effects on our society. For example, the fundamental criteria for what makes human contact authentic is damaged, and is at risk of extinction due to the role social media plays in our society.

Social networking has become an unquestionable part of our everyday lives. Little by little, internet and mobile technology seems to be subtly destroying the meaningfulness of interactions with others, disconnecting us from the world around us, and leading to an imminent sense of isolation in today’s society. Instead of spending time in person with friends, people just call, text or instant message them. It may seem simpler, but people ultimately end up seeing friends face to face a lot less. Ten texts can’t even begin to equal an hour spent chatting with a friend over lunch. A smiley-face emoticon is cute, but it could never replace the ear-splitting grin and smiling eyes of a friend. People need to see each other. While technology has allowed us some means of social connection that would have never been possible before, and has allowed us to maintain long-distance friendships that would have otherwise probably fallen by the wayside, the fact remains that it is causing ourselves to spread ourselves too thin, as well as slowly ruining the quality of social interaction that everyone need as human beings.

It is no secret that social media has taken over a lot of our time, and perception on society. It influences our day to day lives without us really knowing. Social media usually portrays one’s life to be perfect, or it makes us feel like one’s life needs to be perfect. For this reason being, social media can be a bad thing. In "The Social Networks" by Neal Gabler, he explains how media has taken away the meaning of friendship or anything 'real'. In the long run, social media makes things seem better than they actually are, it gives us unrealistic expectations for our friend and family interactions, which kills the chance of having actual friendships because our expectations are so high. So, here are the reasons elaborated on why social media

“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.

As an outcome of the new technological innovations, many people have turned to more convenient and virtual means of developing relationships as opposed to tangible and more meaningful ones, and this is harmful as it can erode the possibility of contributing personal views to society in an effective way. Social media is a rather broad platform, and within it, lies a myriad of websites that would allow for individuals to communicate ideas, for example, through Twitter, Youtube, Facebook and many more alike. And while convenient communication may have its benefits, it is safe to argue that the consequences may outweigh them. For instance, the detriments of not maintaining physical relationships can be seen in Scott Brown’s Facebook Friendonomics, where the author notes that “people have become mere collectibles” due to the increasing dependence on social media as a mean of forming social relationships (2). This is significant because it evident the ways in which dependency on social media can be hindering in both, in maintaining a sense of individualism, for example because what is presented on social media might not always be accurate, and in contributing to society, because the relationships or ‘friends,’ that many people seem to have on Facebook, cannot truly be

In the present-day a man or woman can rejuvenate a friendship by using photos and videos through social media. Individuals in America depend a lot on social networking. They post statuses after an occasion happens, letting people in general and their "friends/followers" know everything that is going ahead in their lives. Social media has the power to have people display a bit of hubris. Though social media is one of greatest development it has many negative effects that pervade on society. Such as the force to automatically train a mortal to wake up and immediately check social media. Another example is children today are spending a great amount of time looking at a screen than they do playing and are absolutely sanguine about social media. Lastly at a family or friend gatherings folks are more concerned with the amount of “like/comments” they get on a picture than actually engaging in a conversation with their family. People may say that social media does not control their life, but an individual might find that statement completely

Facebook is one of many social network or social networking sites that exist in the web universe. If you have previously known my space or friendster then facebook is not much different like the second social network. Facebook was firsh present in February 2004 with mark zuckerberg as its founder. In the early days of its establishment, Facebook is only intended for Harvard University Students. New in the year 2005 Facebook open membership for school children. A year later, exactly. In 2006 Faceboo opens a universal membership alias anyone. From any hemisphere, people can join Facebook.

More recently than in years past, digital technology and social media have grown to become a part of our everyday lives. The recent rise in those who own smartphones allows this everyday use of digital technology and social networking to be easier than ever before. At any time and any place, we have the ability to “socialize” with nearly anyone—even celebrities who have no idea most of us even exist. The continuous consumption of digital media has altered once personal face-to-face communication to just that, digital. More and more people seem to be living in what Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon call “The Cloud”. “The Cloud” is a seemingly alternate universe of which communication is altered from personal to digital. This universe has led to debates over whether or not these online communities are real or whether social media is actually social. Various digital media sources also encourage users to create individual identities, of which may or may not actually be real. It seems as though our reliance on digital technology and social media have allowed the determination of certain aspects of our lives. Although social media allows us to connect with nearly anyone at any time, Americans have taken advantage of its use, and their attention has been drawn away from real life interactions to digital ones. The ramifications of such influences reflect the hidden insecurities of Americans and, ironically, emphasize our inclination to boast about ourselves by allowing others to see the