Growing Up Tethered By Sherry Turkle And Bandura's Theory Of Social Media

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.

There are few places on this Earth, if any, where the possibilities are truly endless. However, if you detach yourself from the physical world and emerge into the “online” world, you find that this just might actually be accurate in this realm. The World Wide Web has had so much to offer to us since the early 1990s, but with this comes controversy. Unleashed onto a plane of seemingly immeasurable freedom of anonymity, was the world ready for such responsibility? Since those early days when new emerging technology changed our lives immensely, have we at all become a better place, or have we bitten off more than we can chew, and doomed our human relations forever? Exploring these concepts are three in-depth articles, including: “Growing Up Tethered” by Sherry Turkle, “The Loneliness of the Interconnected” by Charles Seife, and “Cybersexism” by Laurie Penny. Although it is thought that the Internet brings the world together, it actually does not help us politically, culturally, and economically like one would believe, as it makes us unable to be independent, isolates us from different points of view, and encourages real-world violence against women and other minority groups.

In Stephen Marche’s article, “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” points out many reasons to which social media is making us lonely. One reason why social media is making us lonely is because we are so focused on the internet and we forget what is going on around us. Another reason is because we can see how our friends on Facebook are having a great life and we become lonely because our life is not as interesting as theirs. Even though I disagree with the author’s conclusion that social media is making us lonely, there is ample evidence to support my belief that the internet can also be a tool for communication.

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

Author, Senior editor of The New Atlantis, and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Christine Rosen, in her article “Virtual Friendships and the New Narcissism,” analyzes if technology can provide what it promises- “a surer sense of who we are and where we belong.” Rosen’s purpose of her article is to argue that social networking sites are doing more harm than good. Rosen uses multiple studies and quotes to present her argument.

Social media is a revolution that has taken the world by storm. So many times we miss out on important happenings due to a strayed second from online. Whether it is homework a teacher has posted on MyCourses or the latest breaking news released on twitter, without constant eyes on the internet, we are bound to be left behind and disconnected. The topic of being connected is dissected by Lucy Marcus’s article, “What It Means To Be ‘Connected’” and Steven Krause’s article “Living Within Social Networks.” These articles both dive into the question of what it truly means to be connected with the outside world and the online world. Marcus believes that now is an important time to be connected more than ever on both social media and real life (124). In contrast, Krause asks the readers whether internet connection is ultimately making them lonely and

The creation and nurturing of fulfilling human relationships is failing. These relationships are built upon empathy, compassion and amity; however, those attributes are replaced with selfishness, narcissism and indifference. If that were not enough, people today neither can nor want deep meaningful relationships, opting for mere connection. In her essay, “Growing Up Tethered,” Sherry Turkle, a professor in the Program of Science, Technology and Society at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, illustrates the power that new media has. She contends it has fundamentally changed people, wherein they are putting themselves in harm’s way just to connect to someone.

In the article, “The Quagmire of Social Media Friendships”, Curtis Silver opens with his social evolution through social media. He begins by saying how he once had solid, quality friendships but later found himself with thousands of obsolete ones. Although he makes many direct points of the communal effects that social media has on society, his argument lacks valid analysis of how people's personal lives are actually affected. Social media connects us to many different people that we are forced to call our friends online by the social network, however, these people cannot be considered actual friends on this basis.

It is clear that modern-day technology has taken over our lives. In the recent years there have been many social networking sites springing up as well as new devices to view them in. In an article titled, “Are Social Networks Messing with Your Head?”, David DiSalvo explains how social networking has affected the minds of many as of the time that the article was written in 2010. Disalvo explains the current age group of users, the loneliness that is associated with social network using, and the narcism that arrises.

Society today has us connected more than ever. Over one billion people are active on Facebook and other social networks. In other words, there are more Facebook users then there are people in the United States and Mexico combined. Use of technology, usually like the internet, has brought people together ranging from KONY 2012 to seeing a relative that lives hundreds of miles away. It could be argued that sharing of ideas and being entirely connected has almost been globally reached and implemented, but the result of these virtual profiles, and being globally connected is tragic: People are becoming more lonely than ever. Use of technology such as the internet has given people the opportunity to be connected, but in reality “more than 78% of

“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 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

With new technical breakthroughs happening every minute, technology is advancing far beyond our imagination. The internet has become increasingly accessible with new smartphones and smart devices, and with them came new social media applications. Social media has now become a large factor in the lives of many people across the globe as a means of finding and distributing information. People spend more and more time on the internet, and less time having face to face human interactions. Instead of human interactions and networking, popularity and social status is now based on friends on Facebook, followers on Twitter, and Instagram “likes”. The lack of meaningful social interactions has caused an increase in mental health issues such as social anxiety and depression, and adversely impacts human society. Digital technology negatively affects happiness because it causes loneliness, mental illness and a disconnection from the real world.

People are interacting with more people online but in peoples ‘real lives’ they do not have the same social connections as they once did with the technological advances of the Internet and Social Networking Sites. People have more options for social connections as networks have the potential to go beyond a close social network. The focus of this essay will be on the idea of if we live in an age of Networked Individualism. This theory will be analyzed by the use of Social Networking Sites, in particular,

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.