After reading Stephan Marche’s article titled “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” and Eric Klinenberg’s article “Facebook Isn’t Making Us Lonely”, it made me think about various functionalities of social media. Of course social media can be seen as a great new innovation that brings people from all over the globe closer together. But, is that the reality? If you ever walk across a college campus, or visit a local restaurant, you will noticeably find a horde of screen swiping zombies. Everywhere we go we find the repercussions of social media and instant messaging. State transportation departments now have to spend a large amount of time and money attempting to reduce the accidents and deaths caused by distractions. Although these social media networks allow for a magnitude of different communication options, it has almost become a appendage of our bodies. Individuals are now expected to have a social media presence and use it regularly. Instead of spending time with your friends in person, people drown their heads in their phones while trying to impress the billions of people across the globe. I personally think the heavy usage of social media is damaging relationships and making it hard for individuals to talk with one another. We have reached an age where people forget how to make face to face conversations and instead sit in silence or an awkward starring contest.

It wouldn’t be fair for me to say that these social networking sites off no benefits. For elderly people in particular, it allows them to connect and chat with family and friends that may not be able to visit them on a daily basis. It does allow for people with isolated situations to continue to communicative with the ones they love. But, now instead of using them as a supportive tool, they have became and augmentation to our personal identities and bodies.

There are many different circumstances to look at for this issue, but generally I am a believer that Facebook, and other social sites, are indeed making the world a lonelier place.