Face-to-Facebook
Often times, it is hard to keep in touch with all of your old friends. People move, become busier, and just become a part of the past. A little over a decade ago, this began to change; sites for people to find friends and to be able to communicate easily online began to launch. People began to spend more time on these sites and eventually made them a daily activity. What will happen when people spend too much time on these social networking sites? It can lead to a lot of different things, such as loss of social skills, or sleep deficiency. The first noticeable social networking site, called SixDegrees, started in 1997. It wasn't outstandingly popular like Facebook or MySpace, but it was big enough to start a revolution. Many social networking sites launched after this one and they soon caught on.
To start, a social networking site, also known as SNS, is a website where you can create a profile, have a list of people, usually friends, and communicate with each other online. These sites have been very useful for companies, bands, etc. It allows them to communicate with co-workers other than email; it allowed bands to gain popularity quicker by having a band page on a site such as MySpace. These SNS's were very beneficial for many people.
MySpace and Facebook have been the two biggest SNS's in the United States. There are many other sites that are dominant in other countries. One of the reasons that MySpace became so popular is because it allowed the users to essentially create their own profile in so many different ways; they could copy and paste links into their profile, they could change the backgrounds, and many other features. It was as though people were being subliminally taught how to program by being able to embed links and change their profile. MySpace added these new features all the time, which kept people engaged and the number of users continued to increase.
Facebook started in 2004 at Harvard University. It was co-created by Mark Zuckerberg, who was a sophomore at the time. This site was initially used for Harvard students only. It gradually allowed for other college university students to join the site by having a school email. A year later, Facebook was open to anyone. One of the differences of Facebook was that you couldn't make your profile public to everyone. Only your friends were allowed to see your profile.
Facebook and MySpace became the leaders in online social networking in the United States. Both of the sites were all over the Internet, providing links that connected to the sites. They were also seen on TV telling the viewers to “visit us on MySpace and Facebook!” This caused many people to create profiles on the sites. Once those users were on the site, they asked their friends and family to join, and so on and so forth.
For myself, I started out using MySpace. Being able to customize my own background and layout intrigued me, and I enjoyed being able to connect with my friends due to lack of a cellular device at the time. It became a part of my everyday life; I would always be checking my MySpace for messages or comments. It became a habit and somewhat of an addiction, too. Then, I was told about Facebook by my brother, so I made an account on that site. I seemed to enjoy it a lot more than MySpace. I think it was because I was starting to grow up, and Facebook was sort of a more serious MySpace. It was more convenient for older people.
I stopped paying attention to MySpace and focused on Facebook more. It became an even bigger part of my everyday routine. Everything seemed to be looping back to it. If I saw something funny, it turned from, “I'm going to take a picture and show that to my friends,” to, “I'm going to upload that to Facebook right now.” One characteristic of mine is that I love being social, so I was always on Facebook talking to people and posting new things. It became so oriented into my life, and into many other peoples' lives.
These social networking sites have changed the way that media is spread. News gets passed onto me via Facebook quicker than I can hear it on the news. Stories spread like wildfires on the site. It is a great place for new ideas to develop and grow. Although it may be good for media in ways, there are definitely some downfalls. While it is important to keep in touch with old friends, it is equally important to keep in touch with people on a personal face-to-face level.
Having a social life is one of the most important things today, but having a social life online is completely different. Face to face interactions are actually healthy for the body, and the face to screen interactions aren't so good. Even though it is a “social” networking site, it takes away the real social aspect of life. Talking face to face keeps you thinking on your toes, you have no time to think of a comeback. People lose their social skills unknowingly when they don't get the chance to practice them.
Everything is becoming so virtual. Lady Greenfield, a neuroscientist, makes a great point in saying that all of this social networking is just making our brains more childish. “My fear is that these technologies are infantilizing the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment.” (Lady Greenfield). We are shortening our attention span and can only pay attention to things that are loud with bright colors, like a child. We have moved to doing most things on our electronics now. Teachers don't just give us a homework assignment in class anymore; we now have to check our email. Students walk around campus texting and listening to headphones rather than having a social interaction. Students take notes in class on their computers rather than writing them on a piece of paper. These social networking sites seem to be making people less skilled socially, but maybe it is just because the world is becoming so advanced that we need to have all of these electronic things.
When people rely on social networking as their main source for communication, there are most likely going to be some loneliness issues. This means that they rarely have person-to-person interactions. Although people may not think this is a big deal, loneliness can be the cause of many different health problems. One thing that loneliness causes is sleep deficiency. People who are lonely tend to sleep less efficient and stay awake more, according to a study at the University of Chicago. Loneliness is also directly related to increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
“A decade ago, a detailed classic study of 73 families who used the internet for communication, The Internet Paradox, concluded that greater use of the internet was associated with declines in communication between family members in the house, declines in the size of their social circle, and increases in their levels of depression and loneliness.” (Sigman, “Biologist”, 19). This study proves that when the level of Internet communication increases, the level of person-to-person communication decreases. This is a problem today and could be an even bigger problem in the near future.
It just seems that we are losing our social touch with people. I decided to deactivate my Facebook recently. Maybe it will be good for me and I will gain more social skills. I will actually have to communicate with people to see where they are, rather than relying on a screen to tell me. Even though social networking definitely has its pros, there are definitely those personal cons to keep in mind. Although people are keeping in touch electronically with family and friends, they aren't keeping in touch with their social skills.