In Janna Malamud Smith’s article, “Online but Not Antisocial” and Brent Staples’ article, “What Adolescents Miss When We Let Them Grow Up In Cyberspace,” the two authors contrast on their opinions in regards to socializing online. Smith believes there are many benefits in socializing online whereas Staples sees disturbing emotional and psychological effects to socializing online. These two authors discuss a number of other subjects having to do with the internet. In regards to internet time consumption, online socializing, and behavioral shift as a result of the internet, Smith and Staples differ in their opinion.
Smith believes people do not spend as much time doing isolated activities like watching television. In her article, Smith says, for instance, people automatically go into separate rooms to watch television once they have a free moment (333). The television pulls people away from family. Smith also implies that television is even more isolating than the internet because, "Online, some of the conversations are two-way" (334). In other words, since you can chat on the internet or use email, the internet is a better alternative than television -- a one-way communication device. The television serves as a means of taking in information rather than as a way of letting people communicate with one another. ...
Staples, however, sees the television as a better means of socializing than the internet. He simply says that television viewing can be done with other people whereas doing things over the internet is far more lonely (296). Doing other things like online-shopping, he thinks, is much more antisocial than it usually is. Shopping with actual people puts a person in a social environment where the...
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... and Staples are almost as different as night and day in what they see as appropriate in online socializing, time spent, and the outcome of time spent on the internet. As Smith argues that online socializing and the effects of it are essentially good and helpful to people who cannot socialize as easily, Staples argues mostly on the negative effects of online socializing and the wall-in effect it has on teenagers, especially. Neither truly sees eye-to-eye on the internet lifestyle.
Works Cited
Smith, Janna Malamud. “Online but Not Antisocial.” Choices: A Basic Writing Guide with Resources. 4th Ed. Kate Mangelsdorf and Evelyn Posey. Boston: Bedford, 2008. 333-4. Print.
Staples, Brent. “What Adolescents Miss When We Let Them Grow Up In Cyberspace.” Choices: A Basic Guide With Readings. 4th Ed. Kate Mangelsdorf and Evelyn Posey. Boston: Bedford, 2008 295-7. Print.
Staple’s study indicates that adolescents are in isolation when socializing via internet. Socializing through social media comes with a cost, such as lack of physical interactions with friends and loved ones. The author finds communicating with technology can effect a family and other relationships. The lack of adolescent’s social skills starts with the inability to experience person-to-person conversations. Person-to-person conversations give children the ability to hear, and see, contrasting socializing via internet.
It is to the point that we have to redirect our attention with one screen to another just to spend time with family. For example in William Powers “Hamlet’s BlackBerry,” television does just this, “For us, television had always been a mostly communal experience, a way of coming together rather than pulling apart. (‘Can you please turn off your damn computer and come watch television with the rest of the family,’ the dad now cries to the teen-ager)”
Click. On goes the television, off goes your mind. Click. Boring. Click. Seen it. Click. It will do. Barbara Ehrenreich’s argument that television is corrupting social society is valid for the once great mode of communication has become a couch potato breeding machine.
Nicholas Carr says, as our work and social lives come to center on the use of electronic media, the faster we’re able to navigate those media and more adroitly we’re able to shift our attention among online task, the more valuable we’re likely to become a employees, and even friends and colleagues. When using the Net most seem to lose focus on others and can seem disrespectful. The Internet has so much on it besides information that can be very distractful. The practical benefits of the web uses are many, which is one of the main reasons we spend so much time online, and why so many have trouble paying attention and not being social. “The internet has changed the way we communicate with each other, the way we learn about the world and the way we conduct business.” -Ron
Individuals conceived between the years of 1980 and 2000, as indicated by this article, experience serious difficulties finding their actual self due to the online networking outlets; they regularly depict another person life of a fantasy dream American life on the web. As today’s more youthful era makes the transition to adulthood, trying to accommodate between online and offline characters can be hard. “Van den Bergh asked 4,056 individuals, ages 15 to 25, when they felt they were or weren't being genuine online or logged off, with companions, folks, accomplices or employers.” Through this research he found,
Presently 98% of the households in the United States have one or more televisions in them. What once was regarded as a luxury item has become a staple appliance of the American household. Gone are the days of the three channel black and white programming of the early years; that has been replaced by digital flat screen televisions connected to satellite programming capable of receiving thousands of channels from around the world. Although televisions and television programming today differ from those of the telescreens in Orwell’s 1984, we are beginning to realize that the effects of television viewing may be the same as those of the telescreens.
In Austin McCann's Impact of Social Media on Teens articles he raises that "social networking is turning out to be more than a piece of their reality, its turning into their reality." Teens grumble about always being pushed with homework, however perhaps homework isn't the fundamental wellspring of the anxiety. Ordinary Health magazine expresses that, on insights, a young person who invests more energy open air is for the most part a more content and healthier child. Be that as it may, since 2000, the time adolescents spend outside has diminished altogether bringing on more despondency and heftiness. Not just does it influence wellbeing, social networking denies folks from having an intensive discussion with their youngsters without them checking their telephone. Despite the fact that the constructive outcome of having an online networking profile is to correspond with companions/family, they don't even have the respectability to lift their head and take part in a discussion. Appreciating the easily overlooked details around them turns into a troublesome errand to the normal adolescent when they're excessively caught up with tweeting about it. The repudiating impacts of it goes to demonstrate that social networking is not all it is talked up to
In addition to television, today’s children are inundated with a wide variety of technological choices such as video games, Internet games, and other interactive activities. Despite these advanced technologies, television continues to play a large role in today’s society and while it began as an element to unite the family, it appears to be dividing the family apart now (Winn 437). While television provides us with hours of entertainment, stirs emotions deep inside, and is a tool for gathering information, most experts agree ...
Various electronics are frequently used to go on pointless websites, such as Twitter and Facebook, which ruin society’s social abilities. More and more people use social media on the internet as a communication source. This does not apply merely to kids and teens, but adults as well. Using these sorts of websites as a way of communicating causes many individuals’ social skills to decrease. A plethora of children and teens would rather stay inside and interact with their friends through the internet than go hang out with them. Before technology people were not afraid to go up to a random person and talk to them. Now many friendships form through the internet and these friendships are not genuine. When these “friends” meet in person, they find nothing to talk about. For example, I remember after watching Perks of being a Wallflower, a movie taking place in the early nineties, my friends and I discussed how all the characters communicated in person and during hanging out they played games and talked. Now...
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The issue of the Internet having psychological benefits has two sides, as does any issue. James E. Katz and Philip Aspden present the yes side of this issue. Katz and Aspden used a national random telephone survey to back up their side on the issue. The survey conducted in October of 1995 compiled the individuals who took the survey into five specific groups. The groups consisted of those not aware of the Internet, non-users aware of the Internet, former users, recent users-those who started using the Internet in 1995, and longtime users-those who started using the Internet prior to 1995. The survey questioned community involvement (community, leisure, and religious,) involvement in existing communities (face to face, family, Internet,) and friendship formation (Internet and beyond.) They drew the conclusion that the Internet is helping to form new friendships and social relationships. Therefore, giving people the chance to join new groups and organizations other than those in their own community.
Pew Reasarch Center, ed. Teens and Technology 2013. Washington D.C.: Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 2013. Print.
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Days, months, and years go by and we do not notice them. Living in such a busy world, we are not always aware of the changes in our lives. Twenty years ago, if someone was told we would be able to buy groceries, pay our bills, buy stocks or even a car through the use of a computer, we might have laughed and blamed too much science fiction television for such wild accusations. However, as the next generation of children grows up, they may find it funny that people still send letters to each other through the post office. The development of the Internet has given us the ability to communicate and exchange information instantly across vast distances. The Internet has caused a huge impact in the communication field, and has made our way of living and working a lot easier, faster, and cheaper than before.
As social media use continues to increase for teenagers and young adults, so do the concerns on the social development in adolescents due to the internet. Many teens are attracted to social media because it provides a place where they can be anonymous and make friends, when at school they may be too shy to do so. In fact, a survey shows that, “participants...said they were better able to express their true selves online than offline, and they tended to project ideal qualities onto their online partners” However, when you have been given the tools and technology to maintain your lives without even speaking a word to someone face-to-face, it is anything but social. As a teen, social development is critical. During these years, a child will learn how to maintain friendships, thrive in social situations, and other important skills. When you are spending your day h...