Social Media, Do They Really Make Us More Social?

In today's society, many people of all ages use social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Instagram, and many more through their phones and computers. These social networking sites allow people to find, connect, and have relationships with just about anyone, from a classmate in your English 101 class to the pretty girl or boy you just met in last night's party. Browsing these sites can make you feel connected with others, but such easy, casual connection in an electronic environment has its downside. These social networking sites do not improve the social lives of people, but instead, these sites ruin the social lives of people by creating false sense of connection, bullying, having less privacy, and decreasing people's productivity from the real-world. Ironically, social media sites do not make the social lives of people better. They isolate people from society and causes people to have difficulty communicating with others in the real-world. It is because the bonds that people have online are fake which creates false sense of connection or relationship causing people to struggle communicating with others in the real-world. "It’s true that by eliminating barriers like geography, time of the day, and physical availability for a conversation, these social media make it easier and quicker for people to remain in contact and have relationships with other people"("All this social media might be making us less social"). But these online interactions and relationships are taking place through computers, handhelds, or cell phones with people online, not with people in real-life. "This is a perfect example of social distance as fostered by our experience of social media- it's on screen, so it can't be real or, more properly, it doesn't carry the same weight or social valence as it would were it occurring right in front of us"(Formica). Most people on social networking sites think that the relationships they have online are true, but they are just deceiving themselves. Their online relationships are like dreams. The only way to make those dreams real is to actually put an effort on achieving those dreams. Same idea goes for having real relationships in the real-world. People have to put an effort in order to have real relationships with real-world people. Social media create false sense of relationships which does not make the social lives of people better. "Skeptics have argued that online relationships are less rich, real, and reliable than real-world interactions and that internet socializing actually isolates people"(Clemmitt). This also proves that relationships that are developed online are false and social networking isolates people from society causing them to be less social. And the lack of interaction with others in the real world caused by social media is having a bad effect on our society. Social media are affecting our ability to become well-rounded individuals and also affecting our skills to manage in real-life situations where we have to deal and communicate with other people face-to-face. Also, "social media sites can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationship we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationship formed through social media"(Jung). Social media make it hard for people to identify which are the real and the fake relationships and this confusion causes people to have false sense of connection or relationship towards other individuals which does not benefit on making the social lives of individuals. Social media do not improve the social lives of people. Social media isolate people from society which results individuals to struggle communicating with others in the real-world. It is because the connection that people have online are bogus which creates false sense of connection or relationships that are not real causing people to struggle interacting with others in the real-world. The establishing and use of social media networks can sometimes also lead people to harassment or cyberstalking that is caused by online advertising standards, online media violence, failed bogus relationships, and the action of a student who has been bullied by another bully. Shariff have described what and how cyber-bullying is usually done through social media: Cyber-bullying involves the use of information and communication technologies such as email, cellphone and pager text messages, instant messaging, defamatory Personal Web sites, and defamatory online personal polling Web sites, to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group that is intended to harm others. (29)
The easy access provided by the social media networks is available to everyone as well as bullies which makes bullying a lot easier. Teens especially are vulnerable to the practice of cyber-bullying in which the bullies anonymously terrorize individuals in front of their friends. "Excessive amount of time spent on the Internet may become a slippery slope leading teens to the darker side of Internet activity, including cyber-bullying and the other risky behavior"(Willard 60). Teens are unfortunately, posting information and images that could clearly harm their reputation, damage future education or career plans, or provide the fuel for online social aggression. The most well-known form of bullying online is sexual harassment. Looking at social-networking sites can sometimes expose teenagers to porn or sexual harassment, even when they do not seek it."Approximately 80 percent of girls and 60 percent of boys report that they have been victims of sexual harassment"(Shariff 20). Willard have given some examples of sexual harassment online such as: Sexually bias-based harassment of youth who are perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transsexual, tricking a student into revealing sexual interest in another student and then making this information public in an embarrassing manner, disseminating sexually explicit images that were provided privately, and creating defamatory sexually explicit images by incorporating the face of a student into a pornographic image obtained on the Internet.(42-3)
Teen-agers seek interaction and relationship online in order to make their social lives better, but instead some got harassed sexually which is also a reason why social media networks do not make the social lives of people better. In addition, online entertainment violence and online advertisements through social media may also play a role in the encouragement of bullying which is also why social media do not improve the social lives of people. Advertisements influence people to make fun of others if those others do not reach the standards that are being advertised through social media."Advertisers seeking to capture the teen market promote products and services based on what is considered tool. Advertising standards generally emphasize the importance of looks and possessions"(Willard 46). For example, if a teen-ager does not wear the same clothes or use the same gadgets as the other teens, others will make fun of that teen-ager who does not meet the advertising standards. Instead of making people connected and create relationships, social-networks influence people, especially teens to make fun of others who do not reach the advertising standards. Online violence can also influence people, especially teen-agers to bully others. "The conclusion of public health community based on over 30 years of research, is that viewing entertainment violence can lead to increase in aggressive attitudes, values, and behavior, particularly in children"(Willard 46). As what people said, Parents influence their childen and those kids will copy the things their parents. do. Same goes for social media and most of its users. Some people will copy the violence shown online, because people think those violence are "cool" or "awesome" which are not. The influence caused by those online violence will only result to cyber-bullying which also proves that social media networks do not enhance the social lives of people. People of all ages create and use social media network accounts in order to have connections and relationships with others, but in some cases, instead of having improved social lives, those social media users encounter online harassment. The devastation caused by cyber-bullying can leave deep mental scars, especially to teen-agers who are just maturing and learning the ways of this world. That is why social media do not improve the social lives of human beings. Social networking sites also encourage people to be more public about their personal lives and causing people to have less privacy. People are posting personal informations and uploading images which different kinds of people can see. Because private details of our lives can be posted so easily, social networking users can also look at our private informations that we do not want to talk about to some people, easily without having difficulties. What is more, the things we post remain available. And in some ways, the personal informations posted on social media networks can ruin people's reputations and connection or relationship with others on both online and real-world. As what Willard said before, posting information and images could harm the reputation of people which could damage future education, career plans, or get people bullied(60). For example, a picture of friends drinking alcohol at a party may seem harmless, the image may appear less attractive in the perspective of an employer doing a background check. This ruins the reputation of the employee and the chance of that employee getting employed. People posting personal information about themselves on social-networks can also ruin their reputations which ruins their connection and relationship which towards their peers. Again, by posting informations on social media, people may ruin their own reputations which also ruins their relationships with other people. While most sites allow their users to control who sees the things they've posted, such features are often forgotten, can be difficult to use or do not work. Social media make people have less privacy and the private informations that people post on those sites could ruin their future. Therefore social media do not serve its purpose on connecting and improving the social lives of people. In addition, excessive amount of time spent on social media networks isolates people from the real-world causing people to lack interaction with others which makes them less social and more stupid. Which also tells us that social media networks do not improve the social lives of its users. For example, "Internet addiction can be defined as an excessive amount of time spent using the Internet, resulting in lack of healthy engagement in other areas of life"(Willard 60). The excessive amount of time that people waste using social media cause people to be less productive in life. And being less productive in life causes people to be less social. In addition, social media can cause its users to "withdraw from friends and family and decline interest and involvement in other life activities"(Willard 61). Also, social media cites make people dumb. "Twenty years from now, sociologists and psychologists will publish studies about how the teenagers of today, addicted as they are to texting abbreviated word forms, have trouble relating to one another"(Baum). Personally, I see people using abbreviations online and people use it most of the time and this cause people to be stupid. I see people misspelling words, because of the excessive use of abbreviated words. "Mental focus matters and social media may pose a particular threat to it"(Clemmitt). People can get distracted easily by social media and causes people to be less productive. Therefore, social media do not make people more social. In fact, social media make people to be less social, stupid, and make people less involve in life activities. In conclusion, even though social networking sites allow people to find, connect, and have relationships with all kinds of people with such ease and casual ways online, social media have their own negative effects on people. These social networking sites do not serve their intended purpose. They do not improve the social lives of people, but instead, these sites ruin the social lives of people by creating false relationships, influencing bullying, causing people to have less privacy, and decreasing the interest of people to be involve in society, and isolating people from the real-world. Therefore, social media do not make people more social. No online community can support human bonding the way real-world communities do.

Work Cited
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Formica, Michael. "The False Face of Our Social Media Persona." Psychology Today.
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Jung, Brian. "The Negative Effect of Social Media on Society and Individuals." Chron. Hearts Newspaper, 2013. Web. 17 May 2013.

Shariff, Shaheen. Cyber-bullying issues and solutions for the school, the classroom and the home. New York: Routledge, 2008. Web.

Willard, Nancy. cyberbullying and cyberthreats. Champaign: Research Press, 2007. Print.