Social networking sites became popular several years ago and ever since then they have stayed an important part of our everyday lives. We had MySpace in middle school, moved to Facebook in high school, and now we're all pinning things that we will probably never do to Pinterest. Regardless of which site we are using, we are constantly checking our phones or computers to see what our friends are up to or to post a witty status. A website I found says that Facebook users worldwide spend around 10.5 billion minutes on Facebook per day(that's on a computer-not including mobile devices). That is equivalent to almost 20,000 years. Social networking sites can be a huge benefit to us. They definitely widen our networks because they allow for people across the world that we have never even met to be in our lives. The question is, how is all of this social networking affecting our relationships with people in real life?
As far as I am concerned, I have a love-hate relationship when it comes to social sites like Facebook.
There are some people that are my friends on Facebook that make me thankful that I have an easy way to keep in touch with them. For example, I have people that I graduated with that I was friends with, but not good enough friends to still hang out together after we have moved on from high school. Through Facebook, I am able to know how they are doing, keep up with what they are doing in school, etc. If it wasn't for social networking, I probably wouldn't see or hear from them again until our high school reunion, even though we maintained a good friendship all throughout high school. Then there are people like my best friend. We did everything together in high school. She went on my family vacations with me, we stayed at each others' houses all the time, and we finished each others' sentences constantly. We ended up going to different schools but promised we would stay as close as we were in high school. While we definitely are still close and still see each other when we are both home at the same time, sometimes I find myself letting Facebook be my only contact with her and I have to remind myself to actually call her or visit her. I read her statuses and feel like she's telling me what's new in her life but then I realize that I haven't actually spoken to her in a few weeks.
While social networking sites do allow for a lot of ties, I think it lessens the amount of strong ties in our lives. We are less embedded in our relationships with people even though we have more of them. I also think that, like me, a lot of people forget that Facebook or Twitter or any site shouldn't replace an actual real life relationship with someone. We get lazy and before we know it, it has been a month since we have spoken to someone even though it feels like we just spoke to them today because they updated their status. Our relationships with people are important. Face to face talks are important and are something that Facebook and even Skype can't replace. I'm adding a few pictures below that I found really interesting.
Laird. 2012. Is Social Media Destroying Real World Relationships? http://mashable.com/2012/06/14/social-media-real-world-infographic/
So true! Facebook allows us to have literally thousands of friends, most of which we will never meet in person. Our communication skills are definitely changing. We rarely confront or begin conversations with people face to face, but we are very bold over the Internet. Social media sites do let us connect with old friends or people we may never get to see again, though. Although the benefits are numerous, it definitely has its downfalls. Social media sites like Facebook create much of the "high school drama" we all loathe. People feel like they are being excluded, or unpopular. This creates a tension between in groups and out groups.
ReplyDeleteThis was great! I found your statistics really interesting! I didn't realize how many more people were on Facebook than on any other social networking site. Facebook does allow people to be 'friends' with people without ever talking to them.
ReplyDelete