Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Abstract
Social media, particularly social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn, Pinterest and others are believed to help people feel more connected with a larger
network of friends. It seems that virtual communication is on the path of replacing real life
communication between individuals. Making new friends is only a click away and it has
never been easier. The present paper analyses the social consequences of using Facebook as
means of interacting with others. The main goal of this paper is to demonstrate that despite
the general belief according to which Facebook is the most ingenious idea that was developed
in the last decade, it actually affects our lives in a rather negative way.
Introduction
The premise of this paper is, the fact that the effect of Facebook use
is rather the opposite of its initial scope. We live under that impression
that the more friends we have on Facebook, the more popular we are and
the more people we know. The goal of the current paper is to demonstrate
the negative effects of Facebook use, with focus on loneliness. In order to
do this, we start off with the following hypotheses:
I have chosen this topic because I find very interesting how more and
more people spend more and more time online on different socializing
networks, such as Facebook. In addition to this the rate of people
experiencing feelings of loneliness is increasing. With loneliness being the
most common problem of todays society, people tend to search for
connections, for constant contact with other people. And technology came
with a solution to this problem, namely social networks which provide
impressive platforms that allow people to easily, successfully and
effectively manage their social lives. But in reality this solution is rather
an illusion: Facebook gives the illusion of connection when its not really
there.
The first section of this paper is a literary review in which different
other studies conducted on the same issue are mentioned and analysed.
Then the methods of the research are explained in detail: I have opted for
the focus group as a research method; a total number of 8 participants
took place in the study, with ages ranging between 22 and 27. The
debates in the focus group were shaped by two questions:
and if so,
The next section of this paper analyses the results gathered from the
focus group discussion based on the questions and the hypotheses
previously mentioned. In the last section the conclusions are summarized.
Literature review
Facebook represents the most popular social network website in the
world. It was created in February 2004 by a Harvard undergraduate
student, Mark Zuckerberg, and by now it has gathered 1.23 billion
monthly active users, according to The Guardian 1. According to Stephen
Marche in The Best American Science and Nature Writing, Facebook
arrived in the middle of a dramatic increase in the quantity and intensity
of human loneliness, a rise that initially made the sites promise of greater
connection seem deeply attractive (Marche, Mukherjee ed., 2013: 290).
This means that the initial purpose of this website was to reduce
loneliness that people were experiencing and enhance communication
and relationships between individuals.
As we know, loneliness and being alone is not one and the same
thing. There is a growing body of research on the topic of loneliness,
revealing that loneliness is not a matter of external conditions; it is a
psychological state. and that the tendency towards loneliness has
roughly the same genetic components as other psychological problems
such as neuroticism or anxiety. (Marche, Mukherjee ed., 2013: 290-291).
Being alone can be an option, a voluntary decision that can be made
based on different factors: maybe the person in question is feeling tired,
or sad, or simply not in the mood to have company; then he or she
decides to spend some time alone. But that person is in total control of
their state: he or she can consciously decide when the alone time stars
and also when it ends and effortlessly switch from one state to the other.
Whereas the state of being lonely can be triggered by all sorts of internal
factors which we cannot control. Fay Schopen stated in an article
published on the official website theguardian.com that: While there is a
difference between being alone and being lonely [] there is no getting
1 http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/feb/04/facebook-in-numbersstatistics
around the fact that we live in an isolated age. 2 And the loneliness factor
is increasing in an alarming way. In order to measure this variable, a tool
called the UCLA Loneliness Scale was developed. This tool consists of
twenty questions which all issue how often one person feels something.
For example: How often do you feel that you lack companionship?
According to Stephen Marche Measuring the condition in these terms,
various studies have shown loneliness rising drastically over a very short
period of recent history. (Marche, Mukherjee ed., 2013: 291).
On the other hand, loneliness has been found to be associated with
external factors such as inadequacy of one's social networks, or little
direct human contact. For example, an article
Facebook friends: Study shows social media makes us MORE lonely and
unhappy and LESS sociable published in The Daily Mail Online shows that
not only does the frequent use of Facebook undermine the well-being of
individuals but it also increases loneliness. Psychologist Ethan Kross
conducted this study at the University of Michigan, proving how online
social media, rather than making us feel connected, contributes to
loneliness and reduces overall life-satisfaction 3. The way we interact with
others is deeply affected by our increasing daily use of social networks
such as Facebook. The study had eighty-two participants and it consisted
of a survey questioning the participants active use of Facebook, their
feelings of well-being and the amount of time spent in direct social
contact with others. The study took place over a period of two weeks and
by the time is ended it showed that Increased feelings of isolation and a
decreased sense of well-being seems connected with the way in which we
use social media, such as Facebook or Instagram: passively or actively3.
2 http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/27/anyone-can-die-aloneisolated-age-uk-loneliest-country
3 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2419419/All-lonely-Facebook-friendsStudy-shows-social-media-makes-MORE-lonely-unhappy-LESS-sociable.html
Author Jonathan Safran Foer, wrote on this matter in The New York
Times,
stating
that
Technology
celebrates
connectedness,
but
groups form: starting off from the idea that man is a social creature, the
video explains that the constant need of social contact drives men to form
groups. Sociological research shows that there are certain thresholds
which, once reached, determine the division of such groups. Thus, when
reaching a number of 150 people, the group stops growing. According to
the research, this is the maximum number of people that an individual is
capable of intimately knowing.6 In this context we can easily observe a
major contradiction when we take a look at social sites like Facebook and
see that the majority of people have over 500 friends, some of them even
over 1000.
As we know, individuals compare themselves to others and compare
individuals with other individuals, separately from their own person. The
criteria based on which this comparison takes place are personal
achievements:
Career;
Wealth;
Self-image;
Consumerism.
6 http://www.amara.org/pt/videos/z9Y36ZalOaai/en/559292/
our social lives which become more and more demanding as a result of
the lack of free time, at a high level.
To this problem, technology offers a solution under the form of a
social network which provides an impressive platform that allows people
to
easily,
successfully
and
effectively
manage
their
social
lives.
quantity
of
social
interaction,
that
best
predicts
loneliness.
ourselves
in
whatever
manner
we
would
like.
Virtual
The last idea is the one that most influences and changes our
subconscious. We use Facebook to define ourselves by sharing our
thoughts and feelings even as were having them. In addition to this, we
fake experiences in order to have something to post, so that we dont feel
invisible. We tend to believe that if were always connected to Facebook,
we wont feel so alone, but actually were lying to ourselves, because if
were not able to be alone, were only going to know how to be lonely.7
7 http://www.amara.org/pt/videos/z9Y36ZalOaai/en/559292/
Method
In order to emphasize the purpose of this paper and to demonstrate its
hypotheses I have chosen the focus group method. This is the most
popular qualitative research method in which a group of random people is
formed and group discussions on various aspects are facilitated. There is
an interviewer who usually asks a series of questions to which the
members come up with answers and a discussion ensues. This method is
suited to the scope of this research because it allows the interviewer to
directly analyse the participants, their reactions and their thoughts.
For the purpose of this paper I recruited a number of 8 participants
based on two eliminatory questions:
1. Do you have a Facebook account?
2. Do you use the Facebook application on your smartphone?
If both the questions were answered with Yes the person was further
asked if he or she would like to take part in a focus group. Not many
details were given about the purpose of this focus group or the way in
which it was going to take place, but compensation was promised to be
offered to the participants for their time and effort. Namely, I offered to
buy each of them a cup of coffee and motivated them with the idea of
getting to know new people and have nice conversations. I selected the
people from my working environment in such a way that none of them
knew each other intimately, but of course, all of them were acquainted to
the level of work colleagues. Four of the subjects were females and only
three of them were men, all of them with ages ranging between
. Once the group was formed, we settled a venue and a time and the focus
group discussion could take place.
Table 1. presents the time from arrival until the first log in for each
of the participants.
Not knowing the exact purpose of the research each of the participants
felt free to act as normal as they would act in any circumstances, in the
context of a meeting with work colleagues.
After gathering enough information for the first table, I started the
debate which was created as answers to the research questions of this
paper, namely:
The materials used for the purpose of this paper were: a laptop, a
watch, paper and pens.
Results
Based on my initial observation, I have gathered the following
information:
Gender
Time
until
first log
in
Pers. 1
Pers. 2
Pers. 3
Pers. 4
Pers. 5
Pers. 6
Pers. 7
Pers. 8
30 min.
25 min.
50 min.
45 min.
1h
45 min.
45 min.
Table 1.
All of the subjects logged in on Facebook within one hour from
arrival. There was only one exception: one person does not own a
smartphone currently, which therefore makes it impossible for her to
spend time on Facebook outside her home (or any other place where a
computer exists). She was deliberately selected like this based on my
assumption that she might have different opinions from the rest of the
group.
After the first table was filled in and the group found out the purpose
and questions on the research, I gathered and summarized their answers
to the questions. To the first question that issued whether or not Facebook
isolates us, the opinions were somehow split: the males taking part in the
study answered with not necessarily whereas the general opinion of the
females was that it did. After a little more thought was given to the
question, the answers were analysed in more detail and the following
conclusions were reached:
The general opinion of the group was that Facebook could indeed
isolate us and determine a feeling of loneliness, because people
eventually tend to avoid real life conversations where nothing can
be edited, researched, deleted or formulated in advance. Also,
people have to reveal their real selves, from physical appearance to
the way they spoke and thought and reach a point where they fear
rejection and not being able to integrate in a certain social group.
Pers. 1
Pers.
2
Pers. 3
Pers. 4
Pers.
5
Pers. 6
Pers.
7
Pers. 8
Gender
Time
spent
online
20
min.
8 min
37
min.
10 min
13
min.
5 min.
20
min.
Average
14.12
min.
Table 2.
Conclusion
I conducted this research as result of my observation that more and
more people spend more and more time on socialising networks, such as
Facebook. I have chosen Facebook as the main tool of our study because it
is the most popular socializing network with the biggest number of active
users. I have chosen this topic because I find that the most common
element of todays society is loneliness.
The hypotheses which generated the debate of the current paper were:
The method of research I used was the focus group. This consisted of a
number of eight persons which voluntarily accepted to take part in this
research. They were selected on the background of whether they were
Facebook users and whether they used the Facebook application on their
mobile phones. The chosen method of research helped me demonstrate
the hypothesis and also generated interesting debates on whether
Facebook isolates individuals or not. The debate started off with the
following research questions:
The results that I gathered and analysed proved that people spend
more and more time trapped in a virtual world rather than in the real
world. Moreover, even when they are outside, surrounded by other people,
instead of spending quality time with the ones surrounding them, they
tend to retreat into their own virtual universe where they can be whoever
and however they like. This results in fear of rejection when facing real
relationships and conversations and eventually it leads to isolation.
In conclusion, too much time spent on Facebook can be harmful. As a
result to our more and more alert lives which do not allow us to correctly
manage our social lives, we tend to let ourselves fall into the trap of social
networks. These provide the illusion of never letting us feel lonely because
we can always be connected with our friends, family and loved ones, we
can meet new people, and we can share our thoughts and interests. But in
reality they do the opposite thing: they allow us collect a large number of
so called friends, from which only a very small number we really know.
They pressure us to be active and somehow they create a psychological
addiction, convincing us that if we dont share things, we dont really live.
They generate a general need of constant self-improvement, which is only
superficial: we brag about our jobs, our experiences, our friends, our lives
and our own selves, from which we only show the perfect parts.
Practically, we divide ourselves into our good elements and our negative
elements, and we tend to leave the later ones aside revealing and
emphasizing the former ones. This course of action has consequences
later when we have to deal with real life situations such as friends,
conversations, relationships.
Facebook isolates us and makes us feel lonely because we live in a
society where we have forgotten how to be alone.
Works cited
Books
1. Marche, Stephen, Mukherjee, Siddhartha ed. 2013 The Best
American Science and Nature Writing. New York: Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt.
2. Klinenberg, Eric. 2012. Going Solo: The Extraordinary Life and
Surprising Appeal of Livving Alone. London: Penguin Group.
Web sources
1. http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/feb/04/facebook-in-numbersstatistics
2. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/27/anyone-can-die-aloneisolated-age-uk-loneliest-country
3. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2419419/All-lonely-Facebook-friendsStudy-shows-social-media-makes-MORE-lonely-unhappy-LESS-sociable.html
4. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/opinion/sunday/how-not-to-be-alone.html?
pagewanted=all&_r=0
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-ybt_Sjrp8
6. http://www.amara.org/pt/videos/z9Y36ZalOaai/en/559292/