Positive Impact On The Development Of Identity
Question: We have read 3 articles dealing with the ways in which technology has transformed our ability to make and maintain relationships with friends, as well has how technology also helps us shape our sense of self. Wolpert notes that most teens experience identity formation and relationships, it is the nature of social networks that have enabled teens and others to experience these developments “in a more extreme way… more individualistic and more narcissistic” (280). Additionally, Rosen tells us that “Public friendship is an oxymoron” (263), while Dunbar asserts that it is difficult, if not impossible to have more than 150 friends.
Has the growth of technology had a positive or negative impact on the development of identity and the nature of personal relationships with the new generation (middle school students through millennials) of technology users?
Consider how these individuals develop their sense of self and possibly seek others out who are like them, or who they might like to be.
Your paper should be between 4 and 5 pages, (1,500 WORDS) with a strong introductory paragraph, including a thesis. You should follow that up with at least three paragraphs that will include quotations from the readings. Remember to work with quotations. You must use at least two different authors in your body paragraphs. Try to see relationships and connectiosn between the readings, even if they are contrary to one another. How do these articles all inform or relate to one another. Your final paragraph should draw a conclusion and bring the paper to a resolution. Refer to the syllabus for specifics about formatting your work.
Technology and Socialization
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Technology and Socialization
The growth of technology has had a positive impact on the development of identity and the nature of personal relationships among the new generation of technology users. Studies have revealed that modern technology has played an instrumental role in transforming the way people form and maintain relations among friends, and this has been accelerated by the social networking sites. According to Rosen (2007), social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace are modern platforms which offer interactive networks which invite users to post and respond to information that has been posted online. In the past, wealthy individuals used to post their status on painted portraits, but the current form of display has been digitized and made more democratic.
Social networks are also known to have a huge impact on people’s culture, language, politics, and colleagues and this is done by simply login into the internet. However, studies have revealed that there are a number of consequences associated with the use of social networking sites, affecting the formation of friendship circles, authenticity, privacy, identity and the entire community. Studies have also revealed that as the modern technology continues to advance, people are forced to put into consideration the kind of behavior that they will display online (Rosen, 2007). This is because different social networking sites tend to encourage certain kinds of behaviors and this is common among the specific followers of those sites. The modern technology is usually composed of numerous demands of making friends with people who are not even related with the user. This tends to negatively affect what the internet promises, which is a definitive sense of knowing where an individual belongs
The same sentiments are raised by Robin Dunbar who argued that modern technologies have revolutionized the way the current generation connects and socializes. He asks if social media has the capacity of enabling people to communicate similarly to the way face-to-face relations take place. Furthermore, he wonders if it is possible for these technologies to lead to the formation of meaningful interactions and relationships. Dunbar (2010) says that Facebook has managed to transform the way people relate to each other since the postal means of sending messages was invented. Nevertheless, the transformation did not take place exactly how most people who developed it expected, or the way other social platforms operate. This is because social networking sites have enabled users to gather hundreds of ‘friends’ but the sites have not been able to develop the traditional form of relationships. This is because the number of actual friends tends to be very small, and this is not because of technology limitation but as a result of the human nature.
Over the years, digital media has promised to develop new vistas without having to leave the house. This would overcome the limitations associated with the face to face communication that have limited people to the respective small worlds. The most important aspect of social networking is the fact that it has managed to eliminate the constraint of time. According to Dunbar (2010), numerous research studies have shown that people devote 40% of their time on social media to 5 crucial individuals in their lives, and this only represents 3% of people in their social network, which is a really small percentage. Therefore, since the quality of a relationship depends on the amount of time that has been dedicated in its creation, it is not possible to have more than 5 best friends when people socialize face-to-face, one individual at a time.
The same sentiments have been raised by Stuart Wolpert who argues that people can change their identities very rapidly especially when they interact on the internet. On social networking sites, people can become anything or anyone they wish to be by simply clicking the mouse. However, there are numerous problems of posting on the internet images that do not portray a true reflection of an individual and this commonly occurs when an individual attempt to enhance his own public profile (Wolpert, 2008). UCLA argues that students tend to make idealized versions of themselves and post them on social media, and these sites are increasingly being used to analyze their emerging identities. Modern technology has provided young people with the opportunity of portraying their ideal self, and which they attempt to grow into them.
Social media enables students to participate in self-presentation and change their real personality by creating new identities. This can be done by photo-shopping one’s face and deciding which photo best portrays in perfect lighting. Technology has therefore made new identities to be psychologically real by living their life online. Patricia Greenfield who is a professor o...