Always connected. Always in control. This is what social media in all its forms allows us to do. Throughout the past few years, the idea of “social media” has grown exponentially in popularity. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Google+ are allowing people to connect over common interests and share ideas. Although social media creates a community of millions of people, it allows us new opportunities to manipulate others by allowing people to view us as we want to be viewed, sharing information quickly (whether it is true or not), and by staying in constant communication with those around us.
Social media creates communities. On websites such as Tumblr, people can talk and share things that interest them. Whether it be art, film, cartoons, or fashion, there is something that everyone can connect to on Tumblr. On Facebook, users can interact with other people they may or may not know in real life. It helps people communicate with family members or friends that they do not see on a regular basis and share the details of their life. Basically, social media lets us communicate. It lets us be part of something outside of our small social group in real life. According to Robin Dunbar of Oxford University, “The maximum number of friends any one person [can have]... is 150” (Henig and Henig 43). Instead of being limited to that small number, we can now expand our social network to include hundreds of people we never thought we could communicate with.
One reason social media has become so immensely popular is because it allows people to hide behind screens. You can say anything about yourself, or create an entirely different life. That is what happened to Yaniv “Nev” Schulman in the documentary Catfish. Through his photography, N...
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“A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.”
Works Cited
Burke, Timothy, and Jack Dickey. "Manti Te'o's Dead Girlfriend, The Most Heartbreaking
And Inspirational Story Of The College Football Season, Is A Hoax."Deadspin. 16
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Catfish. Dir. Ariel Schulman and Harry Joost. Perf. Yaniv Schulman. Universal Pictures, 2010. DVD.
Gertner, Jon. "The Futile Pursuit of Happiness." The New York Times Magazine 7 Sept. 2003: 45. Print.
Henig, Robin Marantz, and Samantha Henig. Newsweek 22 Oct. 201241: 41-43. Print.
Parker, Ian. "The Story of a Suicide." The New Yorker. Condé Nast, 2 Feb. 2012. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
Steiner, Peter. "On The Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Dog." The New Yorker 5 July 1993: 61. Print.
Durkheim, Emile. Trans. John A. Spaulding and George Simpson. Suicide; A Study in Sociology. The Free Press, New York. 1987. Pgs. 297-325
Furthermore, it is thought that social media lets humans connect with others and have more friends than those in the real world. However, this is not always true. People worry about their online worlds and whether people will like them. Online, people are more judgemental than real world friends, which can lead to a low self-esteem. The article “YES: Connecting Virtually Isn’t Like Real-World Bonding” by Larry Rosen states that “...our constant need to check comes from anxiety…” Obviously, technology has a negative effect on people as far as lower self-esteem and
"We believe that more relationships provide more opportunity." (Source 2). It has gotten into the minds of avid Internet users that the more people you have retweeting you, liking your pictures, or your status, the more social you become. How many of these followers are actually their friends? The more notifications you have on social media does not equal the amount of friends you have. It does not make you social, it just makes you another active user on social media. Receiving notifications does not help you make friends. Even just having a little chat with people online does not mean you are friends. More relationships with people online do not provide any opportunity of creating any real friendships. Friendship are not created by liking someone's status or retweeting someone's picture. ". . . online Americans tend to have 644 ties on average." (Source 1). There is more focus on making connections, than making real friends. A casual conversation does not automatically create a real friendship. Online you can create a larger group of connections, but this does not make you social. The social ties that the internet offers do not create a real bond between people. Social media connections do not help you create a real relationship with another person. More social ties do not mean you are interacting with more people, it just means you have connections with a larger group. I don’t agree with the belief that
Durkheim, E. (1951). Suicide: A Study in Sociology. (J. A. Spaulding, & G. Simpson, Trans.)
Currently, social media plays a significant role in our everyday lives and the way people in society interacts with one another. A few years ago, before its influence reached the point where it is now, the large platforms such as Facebook or Twitter which function was merely to keep family and friends connected no matter where they were or what they were doing, and the requirements were an internet connection and a smart phone or a computer. People would share pictures or posts to keep others “updated” on their lives and what they were thinking. Now social media platforms are far more complicated. In various of them, such as Instagram or Snapchat, it is not enough to only share a picture or video of your day, but it is almost a requirement and people are pushed to take an extra mile further away and make yourself appear interesting in the eyes of others. The “feed” requires to be eye catching, the captions should be memorable, the places one goes to ought to look way better than they actually are, you have to include friends in such posts to prove one have a social life outside of the phone. The importance of the number of followers, likes or viewers
Bowman, James. "The Pursuit of Happiness." The American Spectator. N.p., Sept. 2010. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Dokoupil, Tony. A. The "Suicide Epidemic" Newsweek Global 161.19 (2013): 1 Business Source Premier. EBSCO. Web.
Social media has caused a substantial decrease in face-to-face time, stopped people from working effectively, and has caused an increase in bullying. Social media as defined by dictionary.com is “websites and other online means of communication that are used by large groups of people to share information and to develop social and professional contacts”. People use social media for networking, education, and entertainment. Some of today’s most popular social media sites include Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Vine, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Facebook is used as a basic social media site.
Today social media has become a big influence on society. There are many different social media sites that allow people to interact with others. Such social media sites are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. There are many more different sites, but these are the popular networks that are being used today. These sites allow you to connect with anybody you want to. Social media sites can make you feel connected with others and seem like the best thing, but at the same time it can be a weakness that many of us have.
Our society today has become dependent on social media to entertain, excite, and inform each other on the newest and latest hot topics of today’s world. Some people cannot go as long as an hour without checking their social media websites whether it is on the phone, computer, Ipad, or any other electronic devise with internet. The creators of social media have made it easier to recognize and draw the user in with notifying pop-ups every time something new happens in the cyber world. The easier it gets, the more addicting it makes it to check every second. Also, it’s not only the youth and teenagers using these social media cites; it also claims adults as well. One of the main reasons people make social media accounts is because people are nosey about other people’s lives. They get a social media page such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to monitor people and see what they are missing out of in the world. People post pictures to their “page” for everyone to see how good they look or how funny they are. Since everyone has a social media account, others feel obligated to make one, two, or even three accounts. What used to be rare is now typical for a normal person to have at l...
Gertner, Jon. The Futile Pursuit of Happiness. New York: The New York Times, 2003. n.d. Web. 27 Nov 2009.
Since Facebook has a broad audience range, many age groups use facebook daily. These interactions can create connections between relatives and friends that live far away to come together and become up to date on the user’s life. Restating the statement earlier about twitter being geared towards a younger audience, most older generations don’t have a Twitter account so these users don’t have the same opportunity as the Facebook users. Meeting new friends is also a strong possibility through both of these sites. Both Facebook and Twitter gives an unlimited boundary between meeting new people. Social media was created because of these users wanting to create better connections with the people behind the screen. It offers a better understanding between users and shows others how their days and lives
Social media is used by many people, young and old around the world as a way to communicate. Our lives have become so busy that it is difficult to maintain family and social relationships. “They use social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. On these sites users create profiles, communicate with friends and strangers, do research and share thoughts, photos, music, links and more” (Social Networking). With the use of social media you can be friends with all sorts of people without actually seeing or knowing them. “In many ways, social communities are the virtual equivalent of meeting at the general store or at church socials to exchange news and get updated on friends and families” (Cosmato).
Facebook is beneficial to one's social life because they can continuously stay in contact with their friends and relatives, while others say that it can cause increased antisocial tendencies because people are not directly communicating with each other. But some argue that Facebook has affected the social life and activity of people in various ways. With its availability on many mobile devices, Facebook allows users to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and other acquaintances wherever they are in the world, as long as there is access to the Internet. Users can upload pictures, update statuses, play games, get news, add people, like and share photos, videos, memes
Social networking works like an online community of internet users. Depending on the topic of website, people share their common interests in hobbies, religion, politics and other spheres of their lives. As soon as you sign up, or register on a site, you get access to reading profile pages of other members and possibly even contacting them. While with the constant use of these social technologies, less people are communicating in person, this type of technology might be doing more harm than good because with the rise of websites such as Facebook, social networking may be on the verge of replacing traditional personal interactions for the next generation. Social networks were created for the sole purpose of helping individuals communicate. There are many other reasons that these technologies are used, but communication is still the number one. It is not only changing how we communicate, but how we interact with each other in daily life.