The Documented Life: The Negative Impact Of Social Media

Social media has a huge impact on the social interactions of today’s population. I take a lot of time throughout my day to check Facebook; I check it whenever there’s a lull in conversation or whenever I go to the bathroom; or even during a conversation with my fiance (which she gets quite upset about). Writer Sherry Turkle articulates in her article “The Documented Life” that today's lifestyle is digitized, meaning that “People didn’t seem to feel like themselves unless they shared a thought or feeling” in relation to social media. There are many people with smartphones, connected all the time; giving us the ability to post our hourly status updates and our daily made-up selfies to our social media website of choice. With the ability to upload posts and pictures explaining the things that we do throughout our day, our lives revolve around social media at any given moment. The things we put on our social media of choice are always there, and sometimes it’s fun to look back …show more content…
For example, a lot of employers will look at your Facebook account while you’re in the application process. This can make or break your getting the job. I know underage people who post pictures in support of weed and booze every time they’re on Facebook. Sometimes I can even tell when certain people are on Facebook, not by looking at the name of the person who shares the photos, but just by the content of my newsfeed. I am not sure where the issue with this scenario is; is it the fact that people use their Facebook page as a way of telling the world (including their future employers) about their beliefs, or is with the fact that I can tell who has been on Facebook just by the content of my newsfeed. Or is it not an issue at all, because it means that people have the freedom to be able to voice their opinions in a way that our constitution allows us to do, and I, their Facebook friend, know them in a way that I otherwise