Facebook's Impact On Loneliness

The truth is if social media was never invented we still may have found other ways to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world. As we spend less time focusing on what’s going on outside in the real world than we do scrolling down our Facebook feeds we separate ourselves. It’s become a part of our everyday routine and, most people check their Facebook before they even have breakfast in the morning. Social media definitely didn’t help, but it is not the sole cause of isolation but, how we use it. If we were to use it how it was intended by making new connections, we wouldn’t feel so separated from the rest of the world.

Pantic, Igor. "Online Social Networking and Mental Health." Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, vol. 17, no. 10, Oct. 2014, pp. 652-657. EBSCOhost, DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2014.0070. Doctor Pantic in “Online Social Networking and Mental Health” discusses various studies on Facebook and symptoms of depression, social

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.

Social media, like Facebook and Twitter seems to be growing popular worldwide in the last few years. Have you found yourself or someone else in an awkward situation and instantly pull out your phone to scrawl through Facebook or Twitter just to keep from talking to someone in the elevator or doctor’s office? Is social media like Facebook and Twitter making us lonely human beings? One man, Stephen Marche, wrote “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely,” published in May of 2012 issue in The Atlantic thinks that social media might play a role in it alongside with other things.

al., 639). Although readers of the article can comprehend what the researcher is asserting, it is simplified in the USA Today article to succinctly state the link between Facebook and depression: “Social media-linked depression potentially [stems] from not only what people do online but also how their experiences linger with them afterward. (Hatner, para 3). When the author of the USA Today source describes the link between depression and Facebook, they simply say that there is a lingering effect of using Facebook and making comparisons. Although the scholarly article is saying that Facebook can intrude on daily life, they use more complicated jargon. Whereas the scholarly source uses sources for almost every sentence, there is limited citation in the USA Today source. In the USA Today article, they only quote the author of the survey once. Since the researchers of the Baker and Algorta article present research based on the research of others, they heavily cite their evidence while the popular source only cited the basic idea of the lead researcher, David Baker. In these articles,

In the article, Is Facebook Making Us Lonely by Stephen Marche, the author claims that social media makes people become lonely. Marche’s article conducted vast amounts of research to support his claim. He presented many strong points in his article about on people becoming lonely due to the effects of social media. Although this article presented data on his claim of the increasing number of people becoming isolated, this article shows irrelevant research the data doesn’t necessarily prove his statement that social media is the cause of people’s loneliness, which consequently weakens his claim. that weakens his argument because the data doesn’t proveon people becoming isolated without the use of social media. which weakens his argument.

What’s more, in the article, the author shows us many other researchers and examples from the professional study prove his topic “Is Facebook making us lonely." For example, Moira Burke concludes that the effect of Facebook depends on what people bring to it. And her research does not support the assertion that Facebook creates loneliness.

The purpose of Facebook was to bring people together and for them to stay in touch with each other, but some say it has caused the opposite effect on many of its users. We have seen the importance that people put on their Facebook page has shifted from a need for social acceptance, to a need of Facebook acceptance: as technology has brought Facebook to their fingertips in almost every way. Stephen Marche tells us that “We have never been more detached from one another, or lonelier” (601). Is Facebook or technology to blame for separating many from the world they live in and what surrounds them. It's a simple question with a complicated answer:

With 50% of users logging on to Facebook everyday and more than 35 million users updating their status’s everyday (Facebook a, 2010), it posses the question what effect are social networking sites, mainly Facebook, having on our friendships? Are we extending our social networking and enriching them? Or are the effects of the ease and accessibility of a ‘friend’ demeaning our relationships?

In today’s world, technology is at its peak. However, there was a time when things were getting evolved and websites were created to connect and socialize. For example, Facebook was created with the intent of connecting with people, but it rather forced people to compare each other’s live, which made some people sad. It became successful, but not completely successful. Libby Copeland’s essay, “Is Facebook Making us Sad,” addresses a key factor in how Facebook makes us sad, according to research and some expert testimony. One key factor that I would like to address in the essay, how humans compare their lives with others on Facebook, making themselves lonely and sad.

This study test empirically whether an experimentally increase in status updating affects feeling on loneliness. In this experiment the independent variable was manipulated, by asking the participants in the experimental group to temporarily post more status updates on their Facebook account, whereas the control group did not instruct. In this study the dependent variable is loneliness. For this experiment the sample have a total of 86 participants, 61 percent were female, and 90 percent were between 18 and 22 years old. The experimental group has 37 participants and the condition has 49 participants. The experiment was based intended field experiment through a pretest and posttest. The variables were

So yes, it appears Facebook may play a small role in loneliness, however, the author does not explicitly state that Facebook is the only culprit. He is eager to recite numerous facts about loneliness and its negative effects but, it is hard for me to agree that Facebook is the sole contributor, if

The internet offers what seems like endless ways to communicate. Just over the past 15 years, sending letters has morphed into sending the same messages digitally (or “electronically,” as the name implies): referring to email. And even still, in many ways, email has taken a backseat in digital communication. Friends don’t “email” each other and ask about going to the movies. They use snapchat, they text (technically not internet-based but I’m including it for the sake of this argument), they post their thoughts on facebook, and they “slide into dm’s on twitter.” That’s just a start of it.

With a rapidly growing number of active users, Facebook is beginning to serve a huge social purpose for most young people. The use of online social network service, such as Facebook, provides people with the ability to remain socially connected with a large network of friends. Besides satisfying its users’ need to stay connected with their social groups, Facebook has also been shown to satisfy users’ psychological needs. However, recent research also links Facebook to the less desirable outcomes, particularly social isolation and interpersonal neglect. Interpersonal neglect on Facebook, such as friend rejection and being ignored by other users, has been shown to negatively affect the four basic human psychological needs. These four psychological needs include one’s need to maintain high self-esteem, one’s need to have personal control over social relationship, one’s need to be recognized by others, and one’s need to have a sense of belonging.

As technology progress, humans evolve to the advanced technology and enhance our lives via technology. We connect to our families, friends and others through social media such as Facebook. Social media takes up a huge part in our lives. Social media infest us with information that are relevant and irrelevant to us. Marry Marrow wrote, “It was Facebook that changed the face of e-communication; in fact, it was the first electronic social media” (para 1). She assumes that Facebook is playing a huge role in electronic communication. In the journalist Maria Konnikova, “How Facebook makes us unhappy?”, Konnikova divulges many aspects of people on social media through researching and experience, and finds how social makes us unhappy. I agree with Konnikova findings after reading her article. In addition, she concludes that if you are engaged, active, and creative you will not sorrowful on Social media, however if you are passively browsing and defuse to engage, you will be depressed.