Does Social Media Make People Lonely?
Many scholars have explored various ways through which social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter impact on people’s lives in the contemporary world. They also look at how and why these sites are addictive. The most commonly used and addictive social media network is Facebook. He says that Facebook contributes to a great deal of loneliness. In some instances, someone sends a friend request to another person. Afterwards, he/she would be glued to the computer or phone screen hungering for response. The huge appetite for this reply makes the person unaware of what is going on in his or her surroundings. This paper explores the effects of social media on users: whether it makes people lonelier or it keeps those who are lonely in company.
From Franzen’s point of view, Facebook and Twitter have currently made people more compactly networked than any other time. His research suggests that the more people use the social media platforms, the lonelier they get and that this loneliness is significantly contributing to mental and physical illnesses among people. The researcher uses examples of various people across the globe to determine how negatively the epidemic of loneliness impacts on people in the society. Marche further found out that the more sophisticated the information systems and technology becomes, the more connected people become hence leading to great loneliness. This trend has led to a less actual society. Today, people live in a gradually increasing contradiction such that the emergence of global village has made people even lonelier yet it was expected to connect and socialize them.
Since the appearance of social media, there has been a dramatic rise in the intensity of people’s loneliness. When social media sites like Facebook were being developed, there was an attractive promise of huge connection among the individuals in the society. According to Marche, social media isolates people. When one signs up for Google+, for example, the program asks him/her to include only his/her real friends. These are the kinds of people with whom one can share confidential information. This means, this site isolates one from other friends with whom one is not very close. Some people have claimed that there is no confidentiality in Facebook. Anyone can access one’s details and have somewhat confidential information concerning him/her.
It is imperative to note that social interaction is very important. There is a big difference between loneliness and being alone. However, both of the phenomena are on the rise. Currently, people rarely meet physically. Even if they do, they only meet in a small group of people and the bonds between them are less meaningful and strong. There are also fewer gatherings today as compared to the past. At the same time, there has been a significant decrease in confidants, in worthy social connections, for about the past 30 years. In America, for example, only 10 percent of the population admitted that they never had someone to share confidential and important information in 1985. In the same year, 15 percent of the population said they only had one friend with whom they could share information regarding their private lives and other important information. By the end of 2004, 24 percent of the American population totally had no one to talk to. On the other hand, 18 per cent had one confidant.
In 1990s the digital technology strengthened the tendency for seclusion to an unprecedented degree. It was during that time when some scholars came up with the phrase “Internet paradox.” This term was introduced because there was a huge contradiction between the opportunity to make people connected and a great lack of human physical contact. In 1998, it was found out that with the increased Internet access and usage, there was also increased rate of loneliness. This is what prompted many scholars to ask if it is true that Internet usage makes people more lonely. The situation has been aggravated in the Facebook era. Some researchers found out that there is quite a complicated and confusing relationship between social networking and loneliness. A number of Facebook users had not experienced significantly high levels of social loneliness, that is, the sense of feeling less bonded with friends. On the other hand, they experienced extremely high levels of family seclusion. This means, there were weak bonds between them and their family members. This also implies that social media networks make people more connected and strongly bonded with people from outside, but neglecting their family members. Some people also argued that individuals who did not encounter happy relationships with members of their family were likely to seek solace through other means such as the social media.
Franzen also noted that non-personalized usage of social networking platforms such as Facebook correlates to a feeling of loneliness. For example, some people spend a lot of time in front of their cell phones or computer screens scanning their friends’ status updates and also posting their activities and whereabouts on their walls for the world to see. After that, they feel depressed and many questions start lingering in their minds. They get worried about whether their posts will be read and by whom. They spend a lot of time in solitude wondering about the kind of responses they are likely to get or if people will really respond or comment on their posts. When one looks at the connection between people’s loneliness and the rate of their interactions through the social media platforms such as Facebook, online games and even one-on-one contact, the results are very obvious. Those who encounter great face-to-face interactions are likely to be less lonely. This means that those who are involved in a greater proportion of online interactions are lonelier.
Social media also impacts significantly on college students, especially those joining college after high school. Marche found out that most of the college students are at higher risk of separating themselves from their family members and even close friends while chatting with online friends. With the emergence of the Internet, including the social media networks, Marche also studied how Internet use impacts on loneliness. Some people ask why some college students prefer being online at the expense of the company of their family members and friends. He found out that most people tend to focus so much on their chats with friends that they meet in the social media platforms. As a matter of fact, majority of the online friends are those they have never met physically. They only have a rough idea of who these friends are and where they are located basing on the information they get from the Internet. It can also be noted that Facebook is the most commonly used social media networks globally. In his research Marche wanted to find out whether there exists a mutual relationship between social media addiction and psychological consequences among the college students.
According to Dohyun & Dong-Hee, loneliness refers to having a less desired social relationship, uneasy moods, grief and perceptions of inadequacies in one’s social relations. They also established that when one is so addicted to the social media and Internet use, there would be negative impacts on the individual user. These negative outcomes include abandoning close friends, increased loneliness and a feeling of depression, totally low levels of interaction with family members, friends and other relatives. The two authors examined teenage Internet users who spend on the social media 63 hours per week. They found that these teenagers began feeling more lonely and secluded from the society when they started using the Internet as compared to the time they were not using it. They attributed the solitary lives and isolation of these Internet users to their low interactions with existing physical friends and family members. According to the authors, the feeling of loneliness could be aggravated due to the option of declining or ignoring a friend request from someone in the social media network.
Many young people are addicted to social media and the addiction has a great impact on their lives. The author explores how youth conduct themselves in various social networking platforms. She says, the current world is facing an epidemic of loneliness among young people as a result of the social media. She notes that this impact of the social media on the youth is not natural. Further, she says that loneliness is in fact a very silent plague eating up many young people in the society. She did survey on a number of youths along the streets of Australia. She determined that social media has led to increased depression, stress and anxiety in the society. According to her study, this problem can contribute to an increase in early deaths up to about 50 per cent.
According to some scholars, social media is the main source of the plague of loneliness. Dohyun and Dong-Hee argue that as much as social networks help people connect and keep in touch with distant friends and relatives, there is a looming danger. People are constantly substituting real-life relationships with phony online communication. It is also evident that when people look at their online friends’ social lives on the social sites like Facebook or Twitter they often feel bad about their own social lives, and feel more frustrated and isolated. Other scholars have also found that people often fear when some of their online friends suddenly disappear and miss out of the social sites. They develop a feeling that the friend has probably found a better life and no longer has interest in them. They therefore feel disappointed, frustrated and lonely. Dohyun and Dong-Hee also suggest that when people rely too much on the social media, the feeling of loneliness can be exacerbated. This problem can affect individuals of all ages. Some people admit that it is quite easy for one to believe that Facebook and Instagram make one feel more secluded from the society. Dohyun & Dong-Hee tend to ask why most people, aged between 18 and 30, are reportedly lonely. According to their findings, individuals of this generation have grown up with social media. As it largely contributes to a feeling of seclusion, it is to blame for the epidemic of loneliness. If today people feel more secluded than previous generations at the same age, it becomes very difficult to develop a profession and live independently.
Many scholars have argued and provided reasons that support the topic of discussion. Many people are so much addicted to social media that they spend a lot of time chatting with online friends. She notes that Internet use is very rampant among the young people and it impacts greatly on their behaviors and lifestyle in general. In this regard, Notley explored the conduct of young people with regards to Internet use and the social media addiction. Her study encompassed teenagers from Australia. However, she came up with a divergent opinion as to whether social media makes people lonely. According to her, many people seek the company of the social media so as to prevent boredom and dispel loneliness. She also concluded that the relationship between loneliness and social media exists such that loneliness prompts people to look for friends to keep themselves busy and find a company. This can easily be achieved with the help of social networking sites such as Facebook. Therefore Notley argues that social media does not make people lonely but it is loneliness that draws people to the social media.
The author chose to focus on Facebook because it is the most popular and the most commonly used social media site. People use Facebook to meet others and make friendship, and to share personal information among the friends. Organizations use the social media to create awareness of their activities. Businesses, as well, use their social media sites for advertising and developing rapport with customers. Politicians also use social media platforms to propagate their political agenda and win support of the voters. In this case, social media becomes very useful in bringing people together hence the problem of loneliness is mitigated. This also means that social media can also be used constructively by various organizations and even individuals. According to Notley, people who are not lonely always use social media and, at the same time, they are able to maintain a strong personal relationship and communications with friends and family members. If one looks at both lonely and non-lonely people, it is evident that the former spend much of their time on the social media. The reason could be to find company there. Individuals who are shy and lack self-esteem are often more aggressive in the social media to compensate for their lack of social skills when it comes to face-to-face communication. According to the research conducted by the author, there is both support and counter-arguments concerning the Internet paradox study.
Since the inception of the social media platforms there have been several complaints of people neglecting their friends and close relatives. Some people have given too much attention to the social media at the expense of their close friends and family members. On the other hand, social media has been a source of company for lonely people. At the same time, stressed up individuals resort to seeking solace in the social media. In this regard, it will not be wise to prevent them from using the social media because of the rising complaints against it. Instead, people should be sensitized on the appropriate time to use the social media and how to balance the online communication with real relationship with friends and relatives.
From the above discussion, it is worth concluding that social media platforms have transformed the way people relate with their family members, close friends and even other relatives. The most famous and commonly used social networking site is Facebook. People, including students, spend major part of their time chatting with their online friends. A number of people lead a solitary life because of Facebook. They seclude themselves from other people in a bid to have ample time with their online friends. On the other hand, some scholars have argued that people always seek company from the social media. They say it is loneliness that makes individuals use the social media platforms to find solace. Still, the fact is that the majority of lonely people spend much of their time on the social media.
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