A ghniadi - XI C (Analytical Exposition Paper)

Do Social Networking Websites Dehumanize Us?
In a seminal paper published in 2007, social media researchers Danah Boyd of Microsoft Research
New England in Cambridge, Mass., and Nicole B. Ellison of Michigan State University o er a useful three-part de nition of social networking sites:
1) Provide a forum where users can construct a public or semipublic pro le
2) Create a list of other users with whom they share a connection
3) View and move around their list of connection and those made by others.
In a nutshell, a social networking website alter the uses of the internet. From a tool used in anonymity to a medium which touches questions about human nature and identity. And those questions, for some people, are the culprit that blurred the line between humanity-inhumanity of people, since people nowadays prefer to send e-mail to their parents instead of going several miles just to say “Hello!”. But did it really give us disadvantages upon our humanity? Will it dehumanize us? Or it already did?
One thing for sure, as social networking proliferate, they are changing the way people think about communicating, and speci cally, internet.
What does it mean to be human?
In the rst place, it’s going to be so complex to correlate the word “dehumanize” (and as far as I know, only Keira Knightley and that Archbishop of Westminster who coined the term) and “social networking”. What are the variables? How can we measure how e ective we live this life?
Friendship(s) is not a measurable thing. So do the argument of social networking limits the ability to have relationships in real life. I’ve broke down the de nition of social networking, and from any perspective, theoretically, it was meant to be an easier way to communicate. Where communicating is one of human nature since a long time ago. And I believe, social