11/8/14
Do you think social networking sites bring people together, or do you think they ultimately make it possible to avoid face-to-face communication? The use of social networking has become somewhat of a normal thing for society. This is something that we have unintentionally placed into our daily lives. We are so consumed by it we fail to realize the effects that it has on us. I do believe that social networking has ultimately made it possible to avoid face-to-face communication. Isolation, the lack of emotional and sentimental connectivity, and the lack of experience in real world situations are all results of the overwhelming use of social networking. In particular, most teenagers have fallen into the stereotypical category of isolating themselves to “get away” or even becoming “addicted” to social networking sites. Unfortunately, this is no stereotype; the internet has encouraged isolation amongst teenagers. This then leads to the cause of less family time spent together. This begins to overall, eliminate any type of interaction with people, not just family. This kind of isolation isn’t healthy because it can slowly just take away the ability to communicate and interact with people, which could lead to social anxiety. Additionally, the overuse of social networking could result in having a lack of emotional and sentimental connectivity to others and their feelings. People begin to lose touch with how to fully express how they may feel, or in the same sense, know how to deal with someone else’s emotions. It has happened so many times before where we may feel comfortable saying something over a text message but wouldn’t dare say it in person, this becomes an issue. Not understanding how to deal with your own emotions in person is one of the effects of constant internet use or social networks. Furthermore, nowadays we find ourselves drifting further and further away from reality. What are we gaining from these social networking sites? Besides allowing ourselves to talk to our friends and create this glamorized persona of the type of person we wish to be. We are lacking the experience of social interaction to be able to survive in the real world and deal with realistic situations. The internet is keeping us from actual real life encounters that we could benefit from. Yet, we are still behind a screen missing out on