Online Friend or Online Foe

Joseph Lynch

Vito Gulla

English 115

27 April 2018

Online Friend or Online Foe

             I follow a similar routine every single morning. When I was younger I would wake up, eat, get ready, and be off. Somewhere along the way I incorporated laying in bed for a couple extra hours where I peek into the lives of my peers. That’s pretty harrowing to think about for me, but it is actually so much worse because I will check social networking sites periodically throughout the entire day netting multiple hours. It is sort of similar to how my father would read the paper every morning when I was growing up. Except that I have more data than I can browse at my disposal and I know what my friends are doing without them telling me. A decade ago smart phones were an unnecessary luxury not a commodity. Has social media evolved so much that people are less likely to interact with one another? Has it come so far as to change the way we live? Undeniably, yes and yes, but have the effects been positive or negative.

             People have certainly evolved with social media. When I walk past people today, many of them are more focused on a screen than where they’re walking. Aside from the bit of enjoyment I find in watching someone trip once in a while, it is a pity to see. Having that been said, in my own life I am extremely social with my friends both online and off. In Social Media and Personal Relationships, Deborah Chambers argues that personal relationships have not suffered due to the rise of social networking. That by making contacts online people have been able to bypass barriers such as distance and time to come together. Also, that social media today facilitates greater possibilities of fostering friendship and intimacy than many people were capable of doing in person. Social media is an incredible tool, it has allowed people to reconnect with people from their distant past or even people they have never met from across the world instantaneously. In a 2017 study, over 49 million people in the United States alone had tried online dating (Statistic Brain). Social Media has undeniably changed millions of lives for the better, but at what costs? 

            In a study performed by Jean-Sébastien Chouinard in 2013, 58% of smartphone users could not go one hour without checking their phone (Chouinard). In, Can Too Much Social Media Cause Depression? psychologist Paula Durlofsky says, “Although social media relationships can have a positive effect on us emotionally, numerous studies have been conducted linking social networking to depression and social isolation while also eliciting feelings of envy, insecurity and poor self-esteem.” (Durlofsky) It is not surprising to me that there is a correlation between increased social media use and a feeling of isolation. The loss of face to face interaction certainly comes with a cost. Whether you talked to a friend the week before or five years ago you could be just as close online; discovering details about their daily lives, birthdays, families, well-being, or tragedies. Acknowledging someone’s update is less common than reaching out and only adds to the feeling of alienation when one party does not know the other is “hearing” them. 

            So, has the rapid evolution of social media changed the way that we talk to one another? Yes, it without a doubt has. People can talk more sporadically, for longer periods of time, at all hours of the day and keep the same conversation going online. In person that would be impossible. With the option of talking online people choose to communicate face to face less often. Also, there is a higher rate of miscommunications without having body language to read. Social media is an absolute monster of a tool; people are maltreated on social networking sites by other users who can be hateful without consequence. Ironically it can lead people to feeling socially isolated because many people today struggle to socialize offline. On the other hand, social media has lifted thousands of people to fame and fortune, given businesses the opportunity to market and expand, and helped others find love, friendship or even help. I believe the path created by social media is a technological revolution. The reality of the effects of social media on interpersonal interaction is that they are what each person individually makes them. Not unlike a knife, it is a tool that can inflict damage or be used for good. If you hate people that struggle to hold a conversation without glancing at their screen then you may be in for a rude awakening because the revolution of social media is still under way and the end is not in sight.