Social Networks Keeps us Apart

Social Networks Keeps us Apart
Name
Institution
Course
Date
Introduction
The advent of technology affects how people socialize today. In fact, the emergence of technological gadgets such as computers, the INTERNET, and IPhones resulted in the emergence of social networks. The term social networks could be elucidated as a social structure comprising of nodes that are either organizations or individuals. Critical to the discussion is the fact that social networks represent flows and relationships between people, groups, organizations, or computers (O'Keeffe, Gwenn and Kathleen 2011). It could be argued that the emergence of social networks enables people to interact frequently despite the distance between the individuals who are communicating. However, evidence suggests that social networks could also result in loneliness and isolation. For instance, Kim, Robert, and Wei Peng (2009) reveal that early internet users loved computers more than they loved people, which provided them with recreation and communication. Evidently, social networks have positive and negative effects on the users of the social networks. It is why this paper argues that social network keeps people apart and causes loneliness.
To begin with, communicating using technology could disregard the human component of how human connections are constructed. As evidence, without an up close and personal contact, there is no non-verbal information that shows the expectations, feelings, and estimations of the speaker (Dewall, 2013). Lack of these crucial elements of communication leaves individuals to fill in the gaps of what other individuals really mean as opposed to what they intend to communicate. Messages, cell telephones, writings, and online networking are important routines for conveying data. Past that, we have to meet with individuals up close and personal so we can genuinely interact. Without it, we can be left lonely without others really understanding us. Clearly, communicating without the intimacy of elements such as touch, facial expressions and tonal variations could result in miscommunication, which in turn could result to disagreements and loneliness (O'Keeffe, Gwenn and Kathleen 2011). Suffice to mention that social networks do not allow humans to display the aspects mentioned above, which could result in loneliness. In short, social networks contribute to loneliness by failing to provide communicational elements such as tonal variations and facial expressions.
The more you utilize technology to convey, the lonelier you are prone to be. This is an observation that was made by Relationships Australia, which is a community-based support services association. As social media, cell phones and innovations show signs of improvements which are intended to help keep us connected, in a few ways we become separated. To begin with, we have the capacity to add individuals to view our information, yet keeping them far off. As indicated by Dewall (2013), when we "friend" individuals on Facebook for instance, we are keeping them at an enthusiastic distance. The same author further reveals that the introduction of social networks promotes loneliness and isolation by using them to communicate with friends who are close to users of the social networks. For example, Facebook users like using the social network to communicate to next-door neighbours instead of communicating with them face-to-face (O'Keeffe, Gwenn and Kathleen 2011). This is genuine in light of the fact that as people report their lives on the Internet they obstruct friends and family from traditional forms of communication.
Social networks, for example, "Facebook" and "Twitter" permit individuals to report each second of their lives on the sites. It owes to the reality that people incorporate pictures to demonstrate where they are, whom they are with, and what they are doing. Likewise, social network users apply #hashtags that permit them to relate their posts and pictures. These apparatus permit them to investigate the lives of people with similar activities. It is notable that the way social networks is separating individuals from one another include permitting them to peruse and take a gander at photos of people’s lives that do not necessarily interest them. It follows that social networks offer the hallucination of companionship without the requests of kinship. (Dewall 2013). This prompts isolation and discouragement of all people in light of the fact that they do not have an actual social interaction. This owes to the reality that they opt for social networks because they crave to be joined with each other, yet there are barriers (social networks) that keep this from happening (O'Keeffe, Gwenn and Kathleen 2011).
It is notable that café meet ups to get together and make up for lost time over the previous week or month are out of date because of the need to work longer hours, the need to increase profits, and the need to achieve higher goals (Burke, Cameron, and Thomas, 2010). As a result, most people turn to social networks hoping that it would cater for time that should otherwise be spent making intimate relationships. Additionally, the hour-long telephone calls with companions from secondary school or college vanish due to the thought that an instant message or a post to them saying, "I miss you" is all individuals have time for. It follows that social networks are more like shared seclusion arrangements that separate individuals from significant cooperation with each other. In fact, people today should put down their technological devices, turn off their computers, and figure out how to speak with each other up close and personal, because such gadgets mislead the human race into losing intimate human relationships (O'Keeffe, Gwenn and Kathleen 2011). Evidently, the amount of time people spent working forces them to retreat to social networks for communication, which is a pointer of loneliness.
As mentioned before, people are occupied with work, implying that social networks provide simple approaches for "staying connected." According to Margalit (2010), Social networks snare us by offering three appealing and impossible dreams. To begin with, we can put our attention wherever we need or on anybody. Second, we can easily be "listened to" through social networks. This owes to the reality that it is easy to say whatever is in someone’s mind because there will always be an audience from social networks. Third, we never must be separated from everyone else. Considering how such thoughts are appealing to humans, it becomes easy to understand why people like tweeting, checking Facebook unendingly, and demanding a snappy Instagram upgrade. The fact that social networks promote dreams instead of reality is further enhanced by the difference between traditional forms of communication and communication through social networks. As evidence, social networks relinquish interpersonal communication and genuine discussion to association (Burke, Cameron, and Thomas, 2010). This owes to the reality that traditional forms of communication and relationships were unfiltered and unconstrained. Online association, on the other hand, can be custom-made, changed, and photo-shopped. In short, social networks serve as stages to exhibit finely manicured façades, not the credible, chaotic re...