The Link Between Social Platforms and Solitude

Throughout the past decade the use of social media has taken the world by complete storm. Countless hours spent on apps and sights such as twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other mass media sources eat up the time of over half the population of America. For those who are unsure what social media is truly defined as it generally means applications or sites that are used to provide easy access for a person to network with others. Although social media is the most efficient way to receive news and information to others it has a negative impact on the individual. Several studies have shown that the more time someone spends on social media has a correlation to how lonely just one can really be. It may sound contradicting to say that social media makes someone lonely despite the fact that one spends majority of their time socializing with others on the app but in a real world out view it has only made it harder for its users to socialize in the real world. Not only is loneliness a symptom but it causes extra problems that stem from it such as depression and other harmful issues. However, the way the social issue is viewed, either from a functionalist, counter theorist or interactionist view plays a very big role on how one determines this issue.

Out of majority of the population effected by this issue, teens and young adults are the ones who mainly fall victim to the loneliness that social media causes. However according to the National Public Radio,” For young adults, social media may not be so social after all. Among people in that age group, heavy use of platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram was associated with feelings of social isolation, a study finds” (npr.org). This study outlines the entire topic of the social issue however the age group it effects the most is those between the ages of 15 through 25. In recent years there has been a rising number in the diagnoses of teen depression and teen suicide. These rising statistics seem to have much correlation to social media and its cause of loneliness. Loneliness however can lead many different routes to other issues. For example, the Huffington post says in its article that many website and pages on these applications are sometimes voted entirely to feelings of depression, isolation and loneliness (Huffingtonpost.com). These feelings may stem from various emotions one feels during their daily time on social media. An example from Menshealth.com provides an example of feelings an emotion, if a student who comes from a family below the average poverty level, and spends a lot of time on twitter watching his richer more well off friend post about their amazing vacations and wonderful fancy dinners it may damage his self-esteem and even damage the friendship between the two because of envy. These are real world situations that social media affects (menshealth.com). Lastly social media may make one feel even more lonelier because it makes users possible feel even more lonely than they were beforehand. It erases the need for genuine human to human interaction. socialmediaweek.org states,

The problem with social media is the fact that people only share the good things about their lives. This constant barrage of good news causes a vicious cycle in which people post the great things that are happening, which causes their friends to only share the good things that happen in order to keep up. This kills any sense of vulnerability, of genuine shared experiences that were so crucial to emotional closeness between friends. Allowing someone to see you embarrassed/vulnerable actually makes people like you; but with that being a social media no-no, how will people ever connect? (socialmediaweek.org).

To elaborate, social media leaves the absence of connection because people are so busy trying to maintain a positive appearance that they don’t realize that the situations or events that shape relationships the most are the negative ones.

Despite however many research stats or evidence one can locate there is still a division between those who firmly believe that social media is creator of loneliness and those who believe it is not. In this case it is mostly the younger general that believes that social media cannot actually make a person lonely and it is the older generation that believes that it can. This is because both generations are from two different generations that used communication in a different manner. Now the older generation believes that the key to communication is in person contact. For them there is zero genuine interaction unless it is done over the telephone on a call or face-to-face. However, because of the advancement of technology over the years the new generation believes in efficiency and speed. In their point of view, the faster they can communicate with someone is the better. Also the fact that they are able to communicate with different people on a daily basis and not have to go the extra mile is a plus side for them in their beliefs that it is a positive. In their minds they are already communicating with someone so why would that be considered being called lonely. While the older generation feels that true communication is done in person and one will feel lonely until they learn to interact outside of social media. This is an ongoing debate about the social issue that looks like it has no end.

To see the social issue of social media from the three major perspectives of sociology which are; functionalism, conflict theorist and interactionism one must first be aware to what the perspective means and how it applies. For starters functionalism can be referred to as the theory that implies how small parts of society contribute to the main society (Cliffnotes.com). Therefore, if one looks at social media from a functionalist perspective they might not consider that it makes one lonely. This is because they are able to follow others and network with each other. From this perspective they are growing as an individual while still contributing to society, even if society is now mostly online. The second major perspective of society is conflict theory. Conflict theory usually implies that there is competition between groups and always a difference between how a higher ranking controls a lower ranking in society (Cliffnotes.com). Now if one looks at social media and its affect on loneliness from a Conflict theorist perspective they will notice that there is a competition between almost everyone who uses apps like twitter or Instagram. This competition may stem from who can receive the most likes on a picture or post or who has more followers on their page. It begins to make a barrier that the more followers one has equals how popular or attractive they sometimes are. This perspective allows people to see how one can become loss in the ‘competition’ of social media and this is where the loneliness starts to stem from. Now the last perspective that one can view social media through is the sociological lens of the symbolic interactionism point of view. This perspective generally means that interactions between people equate to finding relationships or reasons to connect with others (Cliffnotes.com). So if one decides to view social media through this perspective they will view the reason behind people going on social media is to rekindle old relationships with loss friends or family, start relationships with new people and much much more. This perspective may look upon social apps like tinder and other online dating services as good things for society since they allow one to connect with new people. This perspective may view social media as a positive because it allows and sometimes encourages people to connect and interact with others just not in a traditional way. So depending on how one views the social issue they may have a different point of view between their functionalist, conflict theorist, and symbolic interactionist point of views.

To summarize, the sociological issue of social media making one lonely is a very interesting topic. Although research suggest that it truly does make one lonely it is absolutely intriguing to see how looking through a different sociology perspective one can see the differences in how each part of society views the issue. Despite evidence proven maybe there really is no right or wrong to this issue. Its possible it all just depends on how one views it.