In general, I found that there was a variety of viewpoints on this topic. The variation was shocking, although expected due to secondary differences among humans. Thus, there has yet to be a definitive answer for this question. As author Honor Whiteman accurately proclaims in her article “Social media: how does it affect our mental health and well-being?”, it seems that “the exact effects of social media on our mental health and well-being remain to be seen”. However, regardless of this, there did seem to be certain common trends among the prior research for this topic. Generally speaking, active users of social media suffered from real world social disconnect, and an irony in the fact that social media seemed to work against the social skills
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Reiner claims that students are “so absorbed by texting that they won’t say hello” to their real world friends when they pass them by, the friends that they’re trying to keep up with through digital media. Thus, social media actually, according to Reiner’s findings, causes a greater disconnect between actual peers, the opposite of its intended effect. Furthering this idea along, Linda Ogbevoen, in her article “3Qs: The social impact of social networks”, interviewed University of Chicago professor Brooke Foucault Welles regarding her thoughts on the impact of social media on social abilities. Welles informs the audience that our dependency on digital media is only increasing. Further, she explains the so-called “magnifying effect”. According to Welles, if you are socially isolated in the real world, this will only increase with internet usage. Conversely, if you have the correct social mindset for the real world, social media only strengthens this, according to her findings. So, this means that social media takes in our views and strengthens them. This, of course, results in both positives and negatives, yet it also emphasizes the idea of social media absorption, because our …show more content…
Researchers C.-c Yang and B.B. Brown, both of University of Wisconsin-Madison, touched on this idea in their pursuit to find the motives for using Facebook, as represented in their article “Motives for Using Facebook, Patterns of Facebook Activities, and Late Adolescents’ Social Adjustment to College”. Referencing research done by resereacher J.J Blais in 2008, the authors of this article claim that for “Canadian youth, online entertainment predicted decreases in the quality of important relationships” (Yang, 3). Further, the results of this research found that the people in their experiment group who used social media to pursue new friends had high levels of loneliness. Conversely, those who used Facebook solely to maintain old relationships had lower levels of loneliness. Analyzing this concept, it’s obvious that people do not enjoy the new friends they make online, generally speaking, compared to the friends that they have had for a long time. The former may see their new relationships as arbitrary and fleeting, with little personal connection, but this is all hypothetical. Brian Jung further gives insight on this concept in his article, “The Negative Effect of Social Media on Society and Individuals”, where he explains a few key downsides to social media as far as social abilities are concerned. Here, Jung references Steven Strogatz, of Cornell University,
Reiner claims that students are “so absorbed by texting that they won’t say hello” to their real world friends when they pass them by, the friends that they’re trying to keep up with through digital media. Thus, social media actually, according to Reiner’s findings, causes a greater disconnect between actual peers, the opposite of its intended effect. Furthering this idea along, Linda Ogbevoen, in her article “3Qs: The social impact of social networks”, interviewed University of Chicago professor Brooke Foucault Welles regarding her thoughts on the impact of social media on social abilities. Welles informs the audience that our dependency on digital media is only increasing. Further, she explains the so-called “magnifying effect”. According to Welles, if you are socially isolated in the real world, this will only increase with internet usage. Conversely, if you have the correct social mindset for the real world, social media only strengthens this, according to her findings. So, this means that social media takes in our views and strengthens them. This, of course, results in both positives and negatives, yet it also emphasizes the idea of social media absorption, because our …show more content…
Researchers C.-c Yang and B.B. Brown, both of University of Wisconsin-Madison, touched on this idea in their pursuit to find the motives for using Facebook, as represented in their article “Motives for Using Facebook, Patterns of Facebook Activities, and Late Adolescents’ Social Adjustment to College”. Referencing research done by resereacher J.J Blais in 2008, the authors of this article claim that for “Canadian youth, online entertainment predicted decreases in the quality of important relationships” (Yang, 3). Further, the results of this research found that the people in their experiment group who used social media to pursue new friends had high levels of loneliness. Conversely, those who used Facebook solely to maintain old relationships had lower levels of loneliness. Analyzing this concept, it’s obvious that people do not enjoy the new friends they make online, generally speaking, compared to the friends that they have had for a long time. The former may see their new relationships as arbitrary and fleeting, with little personal connection, but this is all hypothetical. Brian Jung further gives insight on this concept in his article, “The Negative Effect of Social Media on Society and Individuals”, where he explains a few key downsides to social media as far as social abilities are concerned. Here, Jung references Steven Strogatz, of Cornell University,