Social Media Prevalence Today
Ever since the dawn of the Internet, nonverbal communication issues have decreased. Adolescents, especially, have taken advantage of this wireless technology in order to communicate with friends across the nation in seconds—by utilizing one of the most recent, prominent, and convenient forms of social interaction: social media. Since its introduction in 1997, social media has not only grown in popularity but also in its capabilities and convenience (“The History of Social Media”). Nineteen years later, it is supported by laptop computers, phones, iPods, and even some refrigerators, allowing teenagers of the current generation to have potentially unlimited access. Social media has become convenient and widespread …show more content…
Therefore, generational conflict about what it means to be social exists. According to social media scholar Danah Boyd, prior generations believe that social-ability involves hanging out in groups at public events, in-home visits, or after-school activities, and they view social media as a distraction (Boyd). Like Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows, these adults blame the internet for destroying basic communication skills. They are also quick to ridicule social media for teens sitting next to each other on their phones during sporting events instead of conversing (Carr). UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute’s study finds that the number of hours teens socialize with one another in-person has fallen by more than 50%, from 16 hours or more a week in 1987, to roughly 43 minutes a day in 2015 (Dewey). To critics, this is evident of a lack of sophisticated conversation in the modern generation and is indicative of addiction; to others, such statistics support the theory that teens are simply addicted to one another and are unmistakably …show more content…
Today, there are over two hundred social media platforms in-use and listed on Wikipedia (“List of Social Networking Websites”). With the expansion of social media and the increase in technology, the cyber-network that online-networking entails will continue to cultivate and continue to influence the social behavior of American adolescents. These young adults can easily use social media as a disadvantage through cyberbullying or as a distraction from the outside world, but they can just as easily use it as a resource to interact with people of different cultures across the nation. Subsequently, American teenagers have the power to control the extent of which social media influences their imminent behaviors. Anneli Rufus, in her novel, Party of One, argues that technology is not to blame for the lack or promotion of social interaction because, “Technology itself is neutral. Whether it works for evil or good, distinctions which themselves are in the eye of the beholder, depends on who is flickering the switch” (Rufus). Whether positive or negative, overall, social media has as much affect on the user’s social behavior as he or she
Ever since the dawn of the Internet, nonverbal communication issues have decreased. Adolescents, especially, have taken advantage of this wireless technology in order to communicate with friends across the nation in seconds—by utilizing one of the most recent, prominent, and convenient forms of social interaction: social media. Since its introduction in 1997, social media has not only grown in popularity but also in its capabilities and convenience (“The History of Social Media”). Nineteen years later, it is supported by laptop computers, phones, iPods, and even some refrigerators, allowing teenagers of the current generation to have potentially unlimited access. Social media has become convenient and widespread …show more content…
Therefore, generational conflict about what it means to be social exists. According to social media scholar Danah Boyd, prior generations believe that social-ability involves hanging out in groups at public events, in-home visits, or after-school activities, and they view social media as a distraction (Boyd). Like Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows, these adults blame the internet for destroying basic communication skills. They are also quick to ridicule social media for teens sitting next to each other on their phones during sporting events instead of conversing (Carr). UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute’s study finds that the number of hours teens socialize with one another in-person has fallen by more than 50%, from 16 hours or more a week in 1987, to roughly 43 minutes a day in 2015 (Dewey). To critics, this is evident of a lack of sophisticated conversation in the modern generation and is indicative of addiction; to others, such statistics support the theory that teens are simply addicted to one another and are unmistakably …show more content…
Today, there are over two hundred social media platforms in-use and listed on Wikipedia (“List of Social Networking Websites”). With the expansion of social media and the increase in technology, the cyber-network that online-networking entails will continue to cultivate and continue to influence the social behavior of American adolescents. These young adults can easily use social media as a disadvantage through cyberbullying or as a distraction from the outside world, but they can just as easily use it as a resource to interact with people of different cultures across the nation. Subsequently, American teenagers have the power to control the extent of which social media influences their imminent behaviors. Anneli Rufus, in her novel, Party of One, argues that technology is not to blame for the lack or promotion of social interaction because, “Technology itself is neutral. Whether it works for evil or good, distinctions which themselves are in the eye of the beholder, depends on who is flickering the switch” (Rufus). Whether positive or negative, overall, social media has as much affect on the user’s social behavior as he or she