Is Facebook Making Us Lonely Summary

Stephen Marche’s article, “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely” explores the complex issues regarding loneliness. “Loneliness and being alone are not the same thing…” (The Atlantic), Marche states. Loneliness is a physiological mantra and a projection of an individual’s feelings about life and their surroundings. Loneliness is by far one of the most detrimental epidemics because it is sly; many people do not identify loneliness to be an actual factor of bad health. Bad health can originate from a prolonged feeling of being alone therefore can affect the human body itself. In his article, Marche continues to discuss several scientists’ perspectives and references a myriad of social experiments composed around the issue of correlation or causation between

In Stephen Marche’s ”Is Facebook Making us Lonely”, the author starts with an grabbing or interesting story that made headlines about a women named Yvette Vickers. He uses this anecdote to grasp the reader’s attention. Moreover, the writer is trying to appeal to the audience about loneliness. In the text it says “Social Media-from Facebook to twitter- has made us more densely networked than ever. Yet for all this connectivity, new research suggests that we have never been lonelier”. The author presents his argument and gives some factual evidence for the argument. Moreover, he compares his views with others. He gives the readers a problem that many people face nowadays is loneliness. Marche informed “Despite its deleterious effect

Scott Brown establishes a humorous tone, focuses on specific diction and language, and utilizes figurative language to develop his argument that modern day social networking with Facebook in particular drives the collection of meaningless friendships and prevents people from undergoing the natural process of letting go of friends. Brown appeals to his audience through his use of tone. Right at the beginning of the essay, he casually asks, “Hey, want to be my friend?” (par 1).

We lost the ability to be still, our capacity for idleness. They have lost the ability to be alone, their capacity for solitude. (The end of solitude, pg.4)

In the articles “How Social Media Is Having a Positive Impact on Our Culture” by Josh Rose and “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely” by Stephen Marche, the authors discuss opposing views on the topic of social media. Rose argues that social media has had a

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.

The author illustrates in her blog the power and impact Facebook had on the population by convincing to be “a place of human connectivity,” but

Stephen Marche tells us himself; that loneliness is woven into our culture thru our history of individualism, solidarity and self-expression. The American suburbs is a great example of this culture: we push ourselves farther from the masses in the city, to spend more time away in a type of isolation. While some consider living in the suburbs more of a need for space rather than isolation, but the fact remains that the space they seek drives them away into a form of isolation. Marche points out how “Loneliness is at the American core”, as our need for self-reliance is fueled by our independent history. American was built on a form of isolation from its founding and it has fueled our individual drive for individuality and self-reliance in our own lives.

These sentences make the reader feel sympathy for the lonely lady. This was a great story to start off with since it is kind of ironic that a former playboy playmate would end up old and lonely. When we think of famous people, we tend to think their life is perfect, so when we hear about Vicker’s (playboy playmate) story, we feel bad and realize that loneliness can affect anyone. Marche also used certain phrases throughout the story about Vicker’s death such as “yellowing letter in mail, broken window door, piles [of] junk mail, empty space” to emotional engages us as well. These words and phrases are signs of abandonment. He could have just said she died and left it at that, but Marche went into further details about the surroundings of Vicker’s house. These phrases show us that she had been dead at home for a very long time. Long enough to have piles of junk mail and yellowing of letter in mail. Over all, the feelings that Marche is trying to make his readers feel is sympathy. He also tries to tie both our sympathy feelings in with the question of the title. “Is Facebook making us lonelier?”. As Marche uses some words to make his readers feel that social media might play a factor in loneliness he then makes a transformation of feelings.

Another effect is loneliness is not a matter of external conditions but rather more of a psychological state, which can cause neuroticism, or anxiety with due time. For example, John Cacioppo, the director of the center for cognitive and social neuroscience at the University of Chicago, says the epidemic of loneliness is affecting the basic functions of human physiology. And in one experiment, Cacioppo confirmed “The greater the proportion of online interactions, the lonelier you are.”

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.

Maria Konnikova's essay "The Limits of Friendship," analyzes the impact of social media on close relationships, addressing the people impacted by social media use. This essay published in The New Yorker, a weekly magazine with scholarly authors, to inform the public on social media's impact on our lives. She finds that social media has created a dependency on technology and online interactions. Konnikova strives to inform that social media is decreasing close relationships, and persuades that it will impact our future. She argues on the impact of increased dependency on social media on the Dunbar number, hindering the development of future generations. Konnikova succeeds using strong logic and scientific reason as well as appealing to emotions; however, she fails to prove her credibility over the topic and instead relies on the credibility of Robin Dunbar.

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.

By 2004, 25 percent had nobody to talk to and 20 percent had only one confidant.” (106) Marche throughout this entire article is trying to show that social interaction matters, but that is all stating to die down people are starting to confide in each other less. He continues to show that being lonely is bad for your health and can causing you to be less healthy or have a less likely chance of surviving a serious operation than those who aren’t

Or are we just exaggerating a new change in our society? Monbiot claims that it is killing us and damaging our society but is it really that dangerous? We as humans love to be social but has there been any individual that understood his true identity and his ideas form being in a social conformist life? We will always get our ideology and identity from being alone and isolated. I disagree with Monbiot’s article. Loneliness is a good change in society having aspects such as non-conformism, self-reliance, and more discovered ideas and ideologies.