The Importance Of Social Media

WE ARE NOT AWARE of how technology has changed us over the past decade. Many days I wake up with an uncontrollable impulse that makes me reach my phone without even thinking about it. There is always something more powerful inside of me; I can’t even enjoy the very first moments of my day by myself without intrusions. After checking the latest notifications of my wall, I finally feel awake. Every other day I post something to show the world how I feel or what worries me. I like. I share. I like again. I start thinking about what people have done or said, but I haven’t even started to think about my own day. Then, I receive a Facebook notification, someone has messaged me. Well, let see who it is. This is basically the story of my life since

Sarah Lutterman and Stephen Marche have very different opinions about this issue. As an Autistic person, Lutterman maintains that social media has helped her to communicate with others more freely. She defends the use of social media as a positive and “alternative” form of communication (6). On the other side, Marche argues that “Social Media -from Facebook to Twitter- have made us more densely networked than ever. Yet for all this connectivity, new research suggests that we have never been lonelier (or more narcissistic) – and that this loneliness is making us mentally and physically ill.” (6). This makes me think twice about what the real goal of social media is. Although I think in Lutterman’s case the use of social media as the main form of communication is justified, I cannot agree with her that it should be promoted as an “alternative” form of communication because a screen or a phone could never substitute what you feel when you communicate face-to-face with another human

There is no better way to express how we feel when we see something with our own eyes. You can read, you can imagine how sad or happy someone can be, but nothing is comparable with human reaction. If you see someone crying, in response you probably feel sad too, that response is real, human. Here is where I found crucial what effects has social media in our human nature. Since we are losing interaction between people, also our ability to understand others natural response has been diminished, and therefore, our ability to hear, to read gestures, to have conversations and, ultimately, to feel empathy for others. Sherry Turkle’s research shows us the reality in which we live, where people rather text than talk, and how that has affected face-to-face conversation. She maintains that it is from “open-ended and spontaneous” type of conversations where we learn empathy and intimacy, and ultimately who we are. However, our attention now is divided between the real and the virtual world. Our phones are always present not matter what, we are always checking social media apps and we have the desire of being connected all the time. As a consequence of that, the level of involvement with the other person during a conversation has decreased