The Negative Effects Of Social Media On Communication

Loneliness is a universal human experience that is uniquely experienced by each individual. Francis (1976), as cited by Bekhet, Zauszniewski, & Nakhla (2008) defines loneliness as an unwelcomed emotional state, feeling of lack of companionship and a wish for interaction that is different from the one being experienced. Bekhet et al. (2008) defined loneliness as the experience of isolation, disorientation, or “lostness”. It is an experience that occurs when a persons network of social relationships are deficient either qualitatively or quantitatively (Potter, Perry, & Potter, 2010).

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.

Communication has been permanently changed by social media. A wide conceptual definition of social media, as cited in Ressler & Glazer (2010), is “The online and mobile accessible services that enable individuals to connect, collaborate, and share with others in real time.” Social media has an obvious influence on informal communication style and represents both possibility and liability for healthcare institutions. As cited in Bernhardt, Alber, & Gold (2014), “Social media provide healthcare professionals with tools to share information, to debate health care policy and practice issues, to promote health behaviors, to engage with the public, and to educate and interact with patients, caregivers, students, and colleagues.” It also presents challenges, including risks to information accuracy, organizational reputation, and individual privacy. Social media can be a very helpful in communicating among nurses and other healthcare providers while creating professional connections, and sharing experiences, but guidelines for appropriate use by healthcare providers are essential. Whether or not certain healthcare organization decides to use social media as a communications tool - social media policy still need to be implemented. Policies help establish an organization 's rules and expectations around social media.

The introduction and the spread of the Internet have revolutionized the way individuals communicate and interact with each other. According to Van and Thomas, propagation of this medium of interaction or communication makes it unimaginable to remember that only a few decades back when people had to wait for days, weeks or even months to receive letters from their friends, relatives, or various agencies (3). Today, the internet has made communication quick and cost-effective for most of the people. The latest innovation or by-product from the web is social media. There are various social media platforms, which individuals find new friends, keep

Stephen Marche states, “We know intuitively that loneliness and being alone are not the same thing.” He also talked about a research in 2005 from a study of Dutch twins explaining that loneliness is a type of psychological state and that it is about the same as having other types of psychological problems (par. 9). The essence of Stephen Marche’s argument is that Facebook or other forms of social media is making us lonely because we allow it to make us feel that way. We have to realize that we need to use social media with moderation. Too much of anything is harmful, but we learn that from personal experiences. I can go crazy with Snapchat, but I do not let it affect my personality and I do not become lonelier whenever I use it. The point is to have fun with whatever you do in your life and to respect other people for how they live their

An unhealthy amount of solitude will lead to many illnesss and ravage one’s physical health. In the past loneliness was viewed as a social problem. Today aloneness is considered a health crisis that spreads to others. The UCLA Loneliness Scale

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.”

Bonanno continues by discussing some of the reasons social media has such a substantial impact on relationships: “it allows the luxury of easily keeping in touch”, “it can help combat feelings of loneliness”, “it allows us to keep tangible markers of times and places, archived for us, and available for all to see, but no intimate; and lastly, it just is not a real connection as it would be face to face. Viable solutions to the problem, Bonanno suggests, maintaining and real life relationship with individuals rather than just online and also enabling balance into

My brother’s anecdote proves that social media does not contain a sense of closeness. If anything, social media causes a decline in physical interpersonal interaction. In public settings people may become socially awkward. The sad fact is that society accepts this practice, and new forms of social media are constantly

Stephen Marche’s “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” posted by The Atlantic has internet users questioning the meaning of why they use the internet and social media as well as weather or not it has a profound impact on their social lives. In 1995, only one percent of the world had access to the internet according to internetlivestats.com. Today, that number is approximately to 40%. With the expansion of the internet came social platforms such as Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and numerous similar sites. However, while these social media websites may be great ways to communicate with those who are far away or otherwise unable to speak in person, a detrimental effect comes with the power to do so. It can be time consuming and if one has an

I’m eighteen years old, so thru my entire teenage years I’ve been overhearing the debate over how technology is affecting people’s ability to develop appropriate relationships. If you had asked me wjat my view was before I went to a boarding school with limited access to internet, I would have said social media is good for people; it connects them. However, after spending a year without social media, I now realize that the sites that led me to believe I was connected were false. While my friend status was high, I sat in my dark room with no ne oto actualy talk to. Robert Kuttner writes in his article ‘The Other Side of E-Mail’, of how technology “has a dark side” (243). Peggy Orenstein writes in her article ‘I Tweet, Thereofre I Am’ of how she was enjoying a beautiful day with her daughter and instead of simply enjoying the moment, she felt compelled to tweet about it (251). Living in a world filled with constant noise and desire to fit in causes a lack of real connection.

John T. Cacioppo & Louise C. Hawkley (nd) made a study on Loneliness and observed that sociodemographic factors, social roles, social contact quantity and quality, health, and dispositions contribute to individual differences in feelings of loneliness. It is also indicated that structural factors such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, and income constrain opportunities for integration into meaningful groups and social roles, and these factors contribute to individual differences in loneliness. According to the authors, prevalence and intensity of lonely feelings are greater in adolescence and young adulthood (i.e., 16-25 years of age) than in any other age group except the oldest old (i.e., >80 years)

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

The advent of the “silent era” of friendships via social media accounts has created a totally new definition of friendship and what defines a set of people as friends. Those who are involved in traditional friendships, such as people over the age of 50, find that it has also become quite difficult for them to remain in touch with their friends on a real time level. However, these people do not have the time to spend nor the inclination to learn about the “benefits” of digitized friendships. As such the more advanced in age generation find themselves increasingly lonely as they move on with their lives. As we progress as a society into the 21st century, our method of socializing with one another has began to see changes for both the young and old generation. Most affected by the changes in socialization trends and an aging population is the concept of friendship and its relation to the rapidly increasing sense of loneliness for both the younger and older generation. Regardless of the age difference between the two social brackets the fact remains that both of them find themselves increasingly being enveloped by a serious sense of loneliness. The reasons for the loneliness seeming to vary from the lack of time to personally socialize with one another, thus using digital socialization in its place, or, as in the case of the elderly, their lack of mobility to physically go out and socialize with their friends of the same age. Some of whom either cannot

It’s quite the contradiction that nowadays with social media it is easier to talk with people but it’s harder to have a real bond with them. We can meet people on sites like twitter and Facebook or message boards but it isn’t as intimate as having a face to face conversation with another human being. This is making us a more lonely society. In a survey people in 1985 had a mean size of 2.94 personal confidants in 2004 the number was 2.08 (Marche 603). Also in 1985 10 percent of the American people had no with whom to talk about important matters with and 15 percent said they only had one good friend. By 2004 these numbers were up to 25 percent for nobody to talk to and 20 percent for only one good friend (Marche 603). What these numbers indicate is that the rise in technology has made us have less close personal relationships. In 2004 social media wasn’t as big as it is now so the numbers for this might be even larger in 2015. These problems seem to be caused by an overreliance on these websites and