Facebook

The following link includes both part 1 and part 2 of the required videos to link:

https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/5609768

In the essay, “Is Facebook making us lonelier”, Stephen Marche explains how he believes that Facebook is making us lonelier. His explanation opens with how former playboy playmate Yvette Vickers was dead in her home for over a year before being discovered by her neighbor. He argues that this is partly due to the lack of social interaction outside of the internet that we get on a daily basis. With how big Facebook has become, and how many people use it on a daily basis, it seems that our social interaction is becoming more about the quantity of interaction, rather than the quality of it. Studies show that in 1950, less than ten percent of American households has one person living in them. In 2010, about 27 percent of households had one person living in them. This was six years into the official launch of Facebook. It seems hardly a coincidence that a 2009 study showed that in 2010 Facebook was the most used social networking platform. The entire article seems to be based off the seemingly contradictory statement that “the more connected we become, the lonelier we are.” At face value, this statement seems to be a contradiction, but as stated before it is the quality of the social interaction that is important, not the quantity. Using Facebook as a main form of social interaction would be unhealthy because of how low the quality of the interaction would be. In the article, “Facebook isn’t making us lonely.” By Eric Klineberg, he explains how the opening anecdote about Yvette Vickers’ death has absolutely nothing to do the thesis of the essay, which aims to show how Facebook is reducing the quality of our social interactions. To this I agree. Vickers has no connection with anyone in her personal life anyways, so the statement that the reason her body wasn’t found for over a year was because of Facebook makes no sense whatsoever. He also argues that the statement that “various studies have shown loneliness rising drastically over a very short period of recent history” also is not nearly enough evidence to support his claim. I agree with this as well, because it takes several interweaving factors to cause such a dramatic change in such a short period. In fact, the opposite could be argued. I argue that the introduction of online media and social media platforms can have the effect of helping people with their loneliness. Social anxiety is a prominent thing in our society, so the ability to speak to people virtually, and meet people with your interests in such a quick and simple way can make people feel less alone. This claim is not, however, true in all cases. Facebook is designed with an algorithm to keep people scrolling, liking, and sharing for hours on end. It is designed with the intention to keep people on it for as long as possible. It’s essentially designed the same way as drugs or tobacco. It’s designed to keep people addicted, and that percentage of addicted people can’t stop themselves from the endless scrolling. They take it too far by not using the internet and Facebook to help improve their quality of social interaction, but to satisfy their need for the incredibly high quantity of social interaction they need. To me, this is why things like TikTok’s and Instagram reels have become so popular in recent years. Our average attention spans are reducing so much that we can only focus on a 30 second TikTok. Watching 30 second TikTok’s for two hours at a time is a direct way to satisfy the quantity of social interaction we crave, not the quality. Personally, I have to disagree with the statement as a whole that Facebook is making us lonelier. I have social anxiety, and have trouble making friends and creating meaningful relationships with people. If it weren’t for the internet, I wouldn’t have made any of the friends that I have today, and these are the people that I trust the most in my life. This summer I’m flying out to New York to be the best man at my closest friend’s (who I met online) wedding, so the social interaction found on the internet is not always just to satisfy the quantity of social interaction, but the quality of social interaction can be satisfied in a meaningful way.

the following video explains how social media can distance us from others. There are many good points, but to me, the most important thing to remember is that in moderation, the use of the internet and social media to befriend people can indeed be a good thing.