Social Media and Loneliness of the Youth - Essay Example

Social media and loneliness of the youth In recent times, technology has permeated in every sphere of our life. The modes of socialization have changed due to the use of internet and other gadgets of information technology. These days interaction between humans takes place on virtual interfaces. Most of the humans perform their daily social transactions through social media available thorough internet or mobiles. Facebook, Linkedin, twitter etc are some of the popular social media channels which are fulfilling the social interaction needs of billions of the people on daily basis. The question is whether social media is an appropriate source of socialization or it has affected our traditional modes of social interaction. The irony of situation is that social media has isolated man from man. At one level it has brought strangers across the globe close together and at the same time the social media have dissociated people from their immediate environment. Young Internet users become so engrossed in their virtual social interactions that they are totally unaware of the people sitting around them. This behavior results in isolation and loneliness of the youth. The connection with social media disconnects them from their real life friends, family and other acquaintances. Research on the impact of social media on youth Many researchers, psychologists and educationist have showed concerned towards the heavy use of internet by teens and in this connection, they have, tried to find out the impact of this excessive use on the social life and education of adolescents. Subrahmanyam and Šmahel cite a study conducted in Pittsburg which collected the data about teen internet users of 93 families and through questionnaires and interviews found out that “ more heavy users of the internet showed a decline in social involvement ( communication within the family and size of people’s social networks) and increases in loneliness and depression” (131). Jordon while looking into educational implications of excessive use of social media by adolescents has also tried to connect it with loneliness and depression of the youth. He has suggested control of such activity by parents and teachers for the proper “ health and development” of young persons (qtd. in Mcwhirter et al. 125). Meltzer presents the data about the impact of the social media on the loneliness of the youth and gives the following horrible figures: In March this year, the NSPCC published a detailed breakdown of calls made to ChildLine in the last five years. Though overall the number of calls from children and teenagers had risen by just 10%, calls about loneliness had nearly tripled, from 1,853 five years ago to 5,525 in 2009. Among boys, the number of calls about loneliness was more than five times higher than it had been in 2004 The findings of the above given studies are revealing and they show the irony of situation. The social websites are meant to bring people close together but they are perhaps not fulfilling this function. The title of Meltzer essay “ Failing to connect” alludes to this incapacity of social media. This fact definitely calls for an investigation into the issue in order to find out the causes of loneliness prevalent due to excessive use of Face book and other such sites. Rokach also exposes the reality of this assumed “ connectedness”. Misunderstanding Meltzer refers to the shortcoming of the relationships made on social media. The very nature of these contacts develops misunderstandings which are not helpful in strengthening relationship. People are not always there to remove certain misunderstandings that develop due to this mechanical communication. People may show their status as busy or may show them offline while in reality they are present on Face book. Mostly people are found complaining their friends that they were engaged in face booking while their status was offline. Such activities may develop a misunderstanding among friends that their loved one is trying to ignore them. In this way social media instead of bringing people close together, becomes instrumental in developing communication gaps. Relationship based on fake identities Most of the time the relationship/friendship made on social media is based on fake identities. Blossom relates that people may use fake identities for fun or some professionals may use these pseudo identities for professional purposes. But a large number of people use these false identities to deceive. He calls such people “ Trolls”. There is always an element of doubt about the true identity of the person you have developed some sort of friendship. The fact that the person you shared all your personal life could be the person with some fake identity, may depress your emotionally. This thing may hurt young person’s feelings and make them disillusioned with the relationships made at the social websites. Lack of sincerity in such connections makes the youth take these contacts non seriously as most of the time there are no obligations involved. The element of boredom with these relationships becomes an ultimate outcome. This thing makes the user of social media more lonely and isolated whenever he or she is in the need of presence of some sincere person around. A network of Like-minded people Social networking mostly is done by likeminded people. The young people who use social media are the people who already suffer from loneliness and they resort to these sites to find like-minded people. They look for the people who are undergoing same frustrated experiences and psychological states. When these like-minded people share their experiences and thoughts with each other, they mostly share their bad experiences and get more disillusioned about life and relationships. Talking about the dark side of life, failures, frustrations make them more lonely and isolated. Passive Activity Two type of activity has been identified on social media. One type is the active engagement with social media content like posting some material which reflects your ideas and feelings while another type of activity is just passive scrolling of social media content and watching the posts of others. Greig cites a study conducted at University of Michigan by Ethan Kross which shows that passive activity at Facebook has increased the unhappiness of the users and they resultantly have developed more isolation and have become less sociable. ”Demands on our attention lead us to use Facebook more passively than actively, and passive experiences, no matter the medium, translate to feelings of disconnection and boredom” “ Tyranny of Qunatity” Meltzer points to another “subtle side effect “ using cyber communication. One such aspect is tyranny of quantity. Meltzer observers that instead of having a compact conversation on net and mobiles, we exchange short messages, single line ambiguous tweets or message tagged with smileys. Meltzer cites: Research done around BlackBerrys shows people use them in two ways: to keep close friends and family close – for example by sending a text saying, Just getting on the plane, love you – and to keep a wider group of friends at a distance. If you send a quick message saying, Thanks for that, speak next week, thats a distancing technique. Wider Circle of connection One more reason behind loneliness of youth on social media could be the wider circle of connection available on social media. On Face book, Twitter and other social websites offer a wide circle of connection. One has too many people following him or her on Face book and gets involved in many non serious connections. The people join many groups just to pass their time and remain concerned about the activities of these groups. This huge quantity of connections also undermines the quality of concern and closeness that we experience in a closer circle of friends. Having so many friends on your friend list does not mean that you have so many soul mates. It may reflect that one is depressed and looking for diverse relationships to soothe one self. Congregation of Strangers Social media is actually a congregation of strangers. With strangers mostly we have formal relationships and they can satisfy our timely needs of relationship. They can pass time with us in chatting when they have time. But most of the time they are unavailable to share our feelings and lessen our loneliness. We have to respect the privacy of such connections. Mostly such connections are developed to discuss certain ideas of mutual interest. A deep sense of formality of the situation does not allow us to take such relationships further. Hence, the realization of being lonely persists and the psychological conditions attached to that feeling further aggravate our mental health. Conclusion Greig, McWhirter and others have found out the harmful effects of Face book and other similar forum on the social life of the people. Meltzer also finds that most of the social media users are teenagers and young persons. The negative impact includes deep sense of loneliness and isolation and other symptoms of depression and frustration. All this happens due to the non availability of sincere social human contact. The users of these sites most of the time are passively engaged and fail to develop healthy contacts. The young people develop contacts through fake identities or lying about their social life and status. The relationships based on such dishonesty often are short-lived. The ultimate outcome is an acute feeling of loneliness among the crowd of the people. Social media increases the quantity of contacts but the quality is compromised in such contacts. Works Cited Blossom, John. Content Nation: Surviving and Thriving as Social Media Changes Our Work, Our Lives, and Our Future. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Technology Pub., 2009. Print. Greig, Alex. All the lonely Facebook friends:Study shows social media makes us MORE lonely and unhappy and LESS sociable.Mail Online. Web. 12 Sep.2013. Meltzer, “Tom. Social networking: Failure to connect.” The Gaurdian. Web. 6 Aug. 2010. . McWhirter, J. Jeffries. At-risk Youth: A Comprehensive Response: For Counselors, Teachers, Psychologists, and Human Service Professionals. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Pub., 1998. Print. Rokach, Ami. Loneliness Updated: Recent Research on Loneliness and How It Affects Our Lives. London: Routledge, 2013. Print. Subrahmanyam, Kaveri, and David Šmahel. Digital Youth: The Role of Media in Development. New York: Springer, 2011. Print. Read More