The Unrealistic Expectations Of Social Media

Social media tricks people to believe others are living a ravisher life than they really are. They post only the highlights of their lives, and never the negative. It makes others view them falsely and more presentable than they actually are, which makes those viewing their profiles feel less satisfied with themselves and their lives. There are even some people who drop all social media because of how terrible it makes them feel, but there are also others who thrive for the attention of social media and go through ridiculous tasks in order to take the perfect picture. There have been many disputes over how social media websites such as Instagram or Facebook affects ones self-esteem, it can knock them down.

How many Facebook friends do you have, and how many of those friends have you spoken to in the past week, month, or even year? Are there any people that you follow on Instagram whom you’ve never introduced yourself to? The answers may come as a surprise. The use of social media makes it effortless to connect with friends and family. However, it also allows us to to catch a glimpse the lives of those we’re never met. Depending on how much information is shared on one’s profile, it can allow a person to determine enough about them to consider them a friend. Conversely, those people who have never met you have access to all of your information that you allow “friends” on Facebook to see. This is an alarming discovery, especially considering that the concept of “catfishing” (creating a fake profile online and pretending to be someone

Social media has taken the world by storm. In the article “When Your Smartphone Is Too Smart for Your Own Good: How Social Media Alters Human Relationships” by Lori Ann Wagner, a researched survey found that 73% of adults online use some type of social networking platform, while 42% use multiple platforms. With social media being seen and used by so many people, is there a problem with it influencing and affecting humans in some sort of way? Many people would argue yes to social media negatively affecting humans, while others disagree to that idea. Social media is seen mostly affecting social relationships between people. Social media should not be used as one’s primary social outlet as it inhibits natural social skills, interferes with face-to-face relationships, and provides empty social connections.

A prevalent issue regarding social media and interactions exists between researchers and social network users. Social media is currently changing how relationships between people are created. Relationships can exist through people across the world through social media and can produce more emotional bonds with friends that you can see everyday. On the other hand, social media also could present conflicts due to the fact that some of these relationships can become unhealthy and that people could change to be more dependent on internet friends, becoming introverted.

According to the article entitled “ The Good and Bad of Social Media” by Jason Howie, “ They have looked particularly at its effects on human emotion and relationship. Some studies show that using social media can cause depression.” The usage of the media doesn't just slow you down but can slowly shut your real life down. Therefore social media ends up hitting you from left to right or any possible way it has. The mindset of always wanting to be on it can destroy your life routines, makes you put up with things you shouldn’t put up with. Sometimes, people end up getting bullying and killed for some unnecessary things they do on the media. Furthermore, Howie writes “ We expect more from technology and less from one another. More and more, we desire technologies that provide a false idea of a relationship.” We depend on the media to give us the answers instead of asking our surroundings and communicating with them. We always believe what media tells us and whether it's false or not, we use it believing it's better than our own knowledge. Our privacy isn’t privacy because media after media we end up in a random page which can get our information in just one

In the article of Clive Thompson I’m so Totally, Digitally Close to You. Thompson talk about how social media have changed people’s life, and one of the issue he talks about Facebook. How Mark Zuckerberg has completely changed the world by creating a social website. Thompson not only focus on Facebook, but he brings up Twitter as well and how that site has changed people emotional relationships. He claims that dealings with these networking sites and others sites are similar because it offer same information about a person. However, social networks have changed many people’s identity by allowing to befriend and connecting with more people and more efficiently. Unfortunately, social media have also limited many face to face conversations with family and friends. Although, social networking sites are efficient in providing ways to communicate, we need to limit our use of social networking sites in order to become stronger as individuals and emotional of our relationships. Being dishonest with the social networking sites can eventually collapse the true value of a friendship. This sites are

Although many argue that social media is an easier way to interact with others and that it has the ability to improve relationships by keeping those that are far apart together through technology, social media can also cause people to further distance themselves and it can also have a negative impact on relationships. There has been many studies that proves that technology harms our relationships and how one interacts with other in social situations. Many people use technology as a way to escape the real world. Even though social media can be used in a positive way, it can also be used negatively. Before technology was as developed as it is in today’s society, people had different realities; separation between work life and personal life.

In this article Rosen uses a plethora of examples and sources to make her argument/ideas credible. Rosen used one of Stanley Milgram’s studies to show how there were “six degrees of separation,” but now with social media people are connected by closer to three degrees of separation, according to Duncan J. Watts. Rosen uses the essay “The Strength of Weak Ties” by sociologist Mark Granovetter to strengthen her argument on how social media is mostly weak ties and not true real friendships. Also she uses a survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project that states “ more than half of all Americans between the ages of twelve and seventeen use some online social media coverage of social networking site.” Then Rosen goes on to say how there is a “nearly unbridgeable generational divide, with tech-savvy youngsters redefining friendship while their doddering elders look on with bafflement and increasing anxiety.” This survey helps Rosen’s argument that states how friendship is not the same anymore.

It has come to the point with social media, that humans are not actually making friends to be close buddie, but to have a bunch of them so much that it has come to the fact that it is like they are “collecting” friends for the fun of it. This means that instead of connecting with each other and making new companions from all over the world, it is now such as a game to see who can collect or receive the most friends, which is making connecting as best friends harder to do these days and eventually associates will become so disconnected that they stop being peers. Also instead of using the word friends as a noun, like it should be used, it is now being used as a verb, thanks to many different social media platforms. Such as adding a friend on Facebook. This shows that using the word friend is not as meaningful because it is now used as a verb. An action that people can do, such as friend someone. It is not their actual friend, yet someone they have just added to a collection of other people, showing that human beings as a race are becoming increasingly more disconnected from each other at are not relating or socializing in a public area. Being called a friend is not as special as it use to be before technology companies made more

Social media allows people to make new friends online, but while making friends online you could get seriously hurt. On social media, like Instagram, people think they make new friends all the time, but people become closer to people to cyberbully them, so it hurts more. Other times there is someone who is a friend they will disguise themselves as

Somebody who lives across the country can do the same thing. They can read a person’s social media feed, and consider themselves “friends”. People can go through the hardest times in their private lives and an online friend would never know what was actually going on in somebody’s personal life. Only a true friend would comfort and understand what they are going through. In another article “Do Your Friends Actually Like You”, Kate Murphy, Alex Pentland, and Alexander Nehamas want people to understand that you may know someone through the internet and social media, but could actually turn out to be an artificial connection.

It’s kind of ironic: we actually lose friends by getting more friends on social media. Little by little, technology is disconnecting us from the world around us, destroying our ability to form important relationships. We are so caught up in this digital world that we are missing out on life. MTV got it right when they coined the term ‘connected cocooning’. Because that is exactly what we do - we wrap ourselves up in our own little world, encapsulated in our devices with no hope of outside interaction. This inevitably leads to a sense of isolation in our society and, with a sense of detachment and few friends, where can we turn to? Social media, because we know we can get that little bit of dopamine, and the vicious cycle

Social media does impede on real world friendships and interactions because it takes away from one-on- one emotional experience with close friends which is vital for a happier and healthier life. Social media is ruining true friendships and conversation. Social media takes away from face to face relationships that are so important. Face to face relationships requires commitment, time, and nurturing. Social media sites impede on relationships by threating true friendships.

Social media is extremely addictive as it provides immediate and satisfying rewards (through the release of hormones) with very little effort. Your brain automatically begins to crave it more and more as you desire these chemical stimulations. Sounds like a drug right? Some studies even show that around 5%-10% of users find it difficult to control the amount of time they spent online and literally cannot log off. So although social media stimulates our brain and sends chemicals that make us feel great - it’s harmful to our real life relationships and distances us from the connections we have around us, often times becoming a distraction to young people which can deter them from their schoolwork and affect their ability to interact with people face to face.

These people are not really friends in the original sense of the word. These are people we get to relate with out of convenience and do not have talk to them too much about ourselves. Even Viorst admitted that: "But we don 't with convenience friends, ever come too close or tell too much: We maintain our public face and emotional distance."(1). Another example is my next door neighbor, Tanya. She