destructive media
October 6, 2013
A World Without Facebook
Imagine how difficult it would be for a 18-year-old to delete their Facebook account. Years of their life invested on one site all vanish with one push of a button. Think of all the friends they would loose, and all the information that came with them. How disconnected would they be, now that they can no longer know what is going on in the network of people they have chosen to be informed about? Loosing this powerful tool for communication, how much would it change the way they communicate with Facebook friends? Without Facebook, how could they understand how they are perceived? In summary, all three questions will be answered: the loss of a social network, the loss of a communication tool and the loss of a self-perception mirror are all actually not losses, but gains. Facebook feels like a social network. But it is actually an imitation network. Being alone causes us to seek connection through whatever means necessary. With social media always at our fingertips, we can connect whenever we want (Sherry Turkle: Connected but alone?). The problem is people tend to mix up the feeling of connection they get through social media with the feeling of real physical connection. People feel that they are connecting with their friends at all times, but actually they are creating an illusion for themselves that they are not alone. In the words of Sherry Turkle "We are getting used to a new way of being alone together."(Sherry Turkle: Connected but alone?). When people are lonely, the desire to connect kicks in. Too often they reach for their social networking sites to feed that desire, instead of calling up someone to hang out (Sherry Turkle: Connected but alone?). Some people who have deleted their Facebook stated that not being able to connect through Facebook is worth not having the distance it creates between close friends (Wortham). Seeing what is going on in their friends ' lives gives them a false sense of being in their
A World Without Facebook
Imagine how difficult it would be for a 18-year-old to delete their Facebook account. Years of their life invested on one site all vanish with one push of a button. Think of all the friends they would loose, and all the information that came with them. How disconnected would they be, now that they can no longer know what is going on in the network of people they have chosen to be informed about? Loosing this powerful tool for communication, how much would it change the way they communicate with Facebook friends? Without Facebook, how could they understand how they are perceived? In summary, all three questions will be answered: the loss of a social network, the loss of a communication tool and the loss of a self-perception mirror are all actually not losses, but gains. Facebook feels like a social network. But it is actually an imitation network. Being alone causes us to seek connection through whatever means necessary. With social media always at our fingertips, we can connect whenever we want (Sherry Turkle: Connected but alone?). The problem is people tend to mix up the feeling of connection they get through social media with the feeling of real physical connection. People feel that they are connecting with their friends at all times, but actually they are creating an illusion for themselves that they are not alone. In the words of Sherry Turkle "We are getting used to a new way of being alone together."(Sherry Turkle: Connected but alone?). When people are lonely, the desire to connect kicks in. Too often they reach for their social networking sites to feed that desire, instead of calling up someone to hang out (Sherry Turkle: Connected but alone?). Some people who have deleted their Facebook stated that not being able to connect through Facebook is worth not having the distance it creates between close friends (Wortham). Seeing what is going on in their friends ' lives gives them a false sense of being in their
Cited: Page: Sherry Turkle: Connected, but Alone? Perf. Sherry Turkle. TED, 2012. TED. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. . Wortham, Jenna. "The Facebook Resisters." The New York Times [New York City] 13 Dec. 2011, Business Day ed., Technology sec.: n. pag. Nytimes.com. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. . "Just How Many Facebook Friends Do You Need?" Gonzales, Amy L. "Mirror, Mirror on My Facebook Wall: Effects of Exposerr to Facebook on Self Esteem." (n.d.): n. pag. Rpt. in Cybersychology, Behavior, And Networking. By Jeffrey T. Hancock. 1-2 ed. Vol. 14. Ithaca: Marry Ann Liebert, 2011. 79. Print.