New Best Friend, Twitter : Fake Identities

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

Since the invention of the Internet, people have become indulged with its copious functions, from making advanced programs to learning how to do new projects to social media. Social media has evolved over the years, from Friendster to Myspace to Facebook, since the late 1990s, and people have incorporated it into their lives. It is the modern way for people to connect and communicate with anyone and everyone across the globe. Plus, social media is everywhere; people utilize it when they are on the bus, at the checkout line, and even when they are using the restroom. In Peggy Orenstein’s “The Way We Live Now: I Tweet, Therefore I Am,” she propounds that social media has altered society. Social media has changed society’s priorities, characteristics, and mentality.

It’s hard to believe, that only a decade ago social media took off and became the new trend. Of course, there was Friendster and Myspace that had been around for a few years but most of the world’s population hadn’t come around to it yet. Nowadays, social media has taken over our lives. It has influenced every decision we have made in life in one way or another.

Technology today is more relied upon than ever before. If one needs to call someone half way around the world, simply take out a cell phone and dial their number. Within thirty seconds, one can be speaking to that person just as if two people were conversing face-to-face. In the same manner, one has access to endless knowledge and resources by the pushing of a few buttons or the click of a mouse. The usage of social media today is becoming more prevalent than ever before because of the convenience it offers. This convenience includes being able to instantly know where a person is, what they are doing, and how they are feeling. All of these instances have one main commonality : technology. The interminable technological advances one has

According to writer Martin Beck, “Nearly two-thirds of all Americans use social media” (2015). Social media networks are websites that are dedicated to communication, recreation, and sharing with others. Social media is a cultural phenomenon that is worldwide, including websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For instance, Facebook is essentially life displayed on a screen that can be seen by friends, family, and peers. A person can upload pictures, videos, write messages to each other, and reconnect with people. In his article, Beck writes that prior to the creation of Facebook only 7 percent of Americans used social media (2015). Over a ten year span, 27 different surveys, and 62, 000 interviewees, Beck discovered that 90 percent

Social media has changed the way that people interact; instead of relying on phone calls and face-to-face conversations, people can easily send information to 500 of their closest friends. However, social media has also made it much easier and even expected to lie, or pretend to be someone else. These lies can range from the creation of new personas to prey on others to minor exaggerations to gain popularity. Both of these discrepancies between appearance and reality are harmful, and in some cases can lead to similar consequences.

Technology has always been developed with the intent to make life easier and more efficient, however the invention and maturation of social media appears to have only complicated things for those who utilize it in day to day life. The concept of a “friend” has been challenged and altered in many ways thanks to social media. Curtis Silver discusses these alterations in his article The Quagmire of Social Media Friendships. His belief is that before social media came into existence, a friend was someone who you could count on to come help you out at the most random of times, someone you could talk to and interact with in person, and most importantly someone you have an emotional connection to or get along with very well. The issue is that humans are not mentally able to maintain a large amount of relationships that meet

Social media has become a part of our everyday lives, and is a viable tool for learning, communication, and ultimately keeping up to date. What we are not realizing is that we’re becoming desensitized to the real world, we are focused on things that were not even

The fastest growing sphere of influence in today’s society is technology. People of all ages are able to stay in touch with news, politics, and celebrity gossip at an unprecedented rate. One contributor to this communication outlet would be the continued rise of social media, which is allowing those of all ages to connect with those around them and express their individuality.

There has been this question looming around us on whether social media is actually having a positive or negative affect on people and their identities. Many articles have stated that social media is having a positive effect on us and others think the opposite. Well after pondering that question for some time, I’ve come to the conclusion that yes, social media does have a positive impact on an individual's identity. There are just too many upsides that people refuse to acknowledge. For one thing social media has given people a voice to express themselves and show there character to the world and not have the fear of prosecution. Not only this but it has also allowed people to shape and pave their own identities to their likings. Lastly, it

Social media is a negative outlet that causes people to text uneducated, the way you talk becomes to be minimum, and the way you socialize with people becomes of those with Social Anxiety. The corrupt minds that evolve through society and our modern times relay the message that social media is something that helps to communicate. In reality, it does the exact opposite of what it is created to do. You begin to realize the social world is no longer face to face or even a simple phone call. The only thing we do now is stay behind a screen, and I hide who we indeed are. For example when you have what Instagram considers a friend, and you happen to be somewhere and see that person do you communicate as if though you already acquaintances or do you just walk by the person as if though they do not exist? When it comes to being fresh on social media most people don't know what they are getting involved even in the article “Faceless on Facebook” he said, I have no idea what I'm getting myself into (Beals 48).

Most of us use social media to communicate with our family, friends and our loved once. Since almost all of my friends live 8000 mile away, I use Facebook, Instagram, and viber to keep in touch with them. Bur recently I started noticing it has become more than a means of communication. I start posting a picture and obsesses about how many likes I get, checking other peoples Facebook just to see if they have more friends than me, believing every post without questioning if it’s a fact and funny enough I start sending friend request for people I don’t even know. Christine Rosen, a senior editor of the New Atlantis and resident fellow at the Ethics and Public policy Center in Wessington, D.C. on “In the Beginning Was the World”, she wrote how technology is affecting the society’s critical reading ability. Peggy Orenstein, an author and a contributing writer for the New York Times, on “I Tweet, Therefore I Am” she talks about how social media is distracting as from fully live in the moment. Even though the development of technology have increased the quality of life, it also brought undeniable challenges to our society. The constant use of social media and internet has increase society attention-seeking, Distracted, and decries critical reading. The use of social media has increased dramatically throughout the years.

In the world today, we as a society have contoured our lifestyle in order to grow more accepting of socialized platforms. With the simple help of different networking tools and various applications, people have been able to develop an online persona. The way one presents themselves through social media may differ from how they are portrayed in a public setting. Internet sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have acted as a tool for self-expression and individuality. Although social media has proven to be very effective, it has also condoned a more detached and artificial lifestyle for some. Through the use of social media, people have grown more insecure, distracted, and have worsened their social anxiety.

While it is true Facebook allows us to see and comment on the happenings of an acquaintance’s life, we really do not maintain a deep relationship with that person. Facebook and other social networks give us the ability to interact and keep up to date on the daily lives of our close friends and acquaintances. Fisher comments on this phenomenon: “Today, our number of weak-tie acquaintances has exploded via online social networking. ‘You couldn 't maintain all of those weak ties on your own,’ says Jennifer Golbeck at the University of Maryland in College Park, who studies our use of social media. ‘Facebook gives you a way of cataloguing.’” This asserts that because of the development of social networks we can easily maintain a variety of contacts with whom we are not deeply connected or dependent upon for emotional support. Seeing a status update about their lives, or commenting on the Youtube video they share, does not automatically make people close friends, even on the Internet. Just like relationships in real life, Internet relationships require one-on-one interaction, usually in the form of personal messages between users. However, the Internet allows people to carry on multiple one-on-one conversations at a time, something impossible in real life, and further divides one‘s attention. In “Are Social Networks Messing With Your Head?,” David Disalvo speaks of the difficulties of balancing the online world with the real world and the dangers of letting interactions that

This is a problem and its affecting our culture. Not only does it affect the way we communicate, it’s changing friendships. Social Media has changed our outlook on friendships. Before we only had a few, now people have hundreds even thousands of “friends” on Facebook or any other socials media app. In the article “Faux Friendships” by William Deresiewicz, argues this issue. Social media is changing friendships. Before technology was big people had only a few close friends. People now have hundreds even thousands on social media apps. The word friend now has less meaning then it used to have. (Deresiewicz) Therefore, the new technology we have today is one of the many reasons in which people lack connections with each other.