2012년 6월 20일 수요일

My Experience and Thoughts about Social Media(The Final Version)

Inhyup Kim
Instructor: Professor Crane
English 1010
19 May 2012
My Experience and Thoughts about Social Media
Over 500 million people use Facebook which is the largest online social network. Many people are using Facebook, Twitter, or other forms of social media. I started to use social media after I volunteered two years serving an LDS mission from 2009 to 2011. Before my mission, I was not interested in social media. Frankly, I did not even know what Facebook was, because another social media which is called Cyworld was more popular than Facebook in Korea. Social media has many advantages for people. For example, I can contact my friends who are living far away very easily. Facebook can make relationships with others easier. Russ Ouellette said, “Facebook allows us to keep in touch with colleagues, family members, and even distant relationships that would have normally had communications gaps of years”(19). Also, people can check social media at any time because technology has developed remarkably, especially, because you can easily access social media through a mobile phone.
However, in spite of these advantages, social media has some unfortunate side effects. I have used Facebook for only one year, and I can already see the negative affects it can have; wasting time using social media, hurting relationships, and increasing hypocrisy.
            First of all, social networks compel us to spend a lot of time using them. As I mentioned previously, technology has progressed rapidly. We can access social networks wherever and whenever we want. We can access social media through a mobile phone in seconds. It is really convenient, but it can make us waste all our time if we are not careful. Many people spend a lot of time managing their social network page, or looking around on others pages. Last semester, I took a sociology class. In this class, I had a chance to conduct surveys for a project. My survey topic was the relationship between using social media and studying in college. Many students were using social media more than an hour a day. Surprisingly, one of the students was using Facebook for more than four hours a day. Adriana M. Manago conducted a survey as well and confirms by saying, “Overall, participants reported spending on average a little over an hour a day on Facebook. They reported checking into their accounts quite frequently; 80% report logging on to Facebook multiple times a day, and on average, they reported updating their status a few times a week”(374).
However, many people said social media is not helpful for studying. I was so surprised, and I could see that social media is very disruptive. I thought about what if we did not have social media. We could certainly focus on our studying more and spend our time more efficiently to improve and develop our talents, such as playing instruments, exercising, or reading books, but we would have to cut down our social media time.
            Second, social networks distort our relationships. Humans are social animals. We cannot meet with everyone each day. We just do not have time. In this sense, social networks are really helpful to keep in touch with our friends, however, it is less meaningful because it is not real interaction. Many have hundreds of friends on Facebook, but they do not contact everyone, just a few people who they really like: Jake Martin said “So Facebook has, for all intents and purposes, become a way … to acquire as many “friends” as possible with whom I will never have to communicate again”( 23). Also, Maria Kalpidou describes the relationship between heavy Faceboook friending and social faliure, “More than 300 friends was related to low social attractiveness…of the profile owner”(188). Online relationships are often shallow and short. When people use just social networks without any physical meeting, they can easily feel loneliness. I read one study that said that people who use Facebook are generally less happy than people who do not use it. Relationships today have changed a lot, but intimate friends are come from real life, not online.
            In addition to taking us from our studies and friends, social media can encourage hypocrisy. Online we can see everyone everyday. Without social media, it would be difficult to see those who live far away. We usually contact them or hear their news through social media. We see their pictures or read their messages on their “wall,” a sort of cyber bulletin board. As I mentioned before, we cannot physically see them, so people can act two-faced very easily. Jake Martin explained why people do these acts, “I want to win and will do whatever it takes to have more “friends” than anyone else, just so long as I don’t ever have to be in contact with them”(23). One day, I called a friend in Korea, and we talked about Facebook. He totally dislikes using Facebook, because he sees a lot of people posting hypocritical messages. He said many people are lying online. He avoids using social networks, but it does not mean he is anti-social. He is meeting friends and keeps in contact by using a cell phone. He just does not use social media. I have also felt that way at times. I think personal ostentation and vanity make this phenomena. For this reason, I like to meet someone physically because when I meet them, I can see their pure and undissembled features and characters.
            Some of my friends believe that they can show more their real identify through Facebook. People have a desire to show to others what they did. When they fill this desire, they feel happy. People easily make a new relationship. In this view, social media have many advantatges. Jake Martin explained what advantages are,
It has proven to be a wonderful way to catch up with old friends from high school and college. It is also an easy way to keep up with those people in your life you just do not have the time to call or e-mail regularly...You can also use your various pictures to change your profile picture, the image that serves to project the message you want to send out to the universe, a sort of a cyber tattoo, if you will. This is your opportunity to show the world who you are, your existential moment;it is right there for everyone to see(22).
            By using social media I have experienced that social media can play a strong influence in our lives. Using social media is unavoidable because everyone uses it and connects to each other through social media. I think we need to use social media with wisdom. When we do, we can live healthier and more efficiently.






Works cited
Kalpidou, Maria, Dan Costin, and Jessica Morris. "The Relationship Between Facebook And The Well-Being Of Undergraduate College Students." Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking 14.4 (2011): 183-189. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 June 2012.
Manago, Adriana M., Tamara Taylor, and Patricia M. Greenfield. "Me And My 400 Friends: The Anatomy Of College Students' Facebook Networks, Their Communication Patterns, And Well-Being." Developmental Psychology 48.2 (2012): 369-380. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 June 2012.
Martin, Jake. "FACEBOOKED." America 18 May 2009: 22+. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 May 2012.
Ouellette, Russ. "Improving Your Relationships Through Social Media." New Hampshire Business Review 32.10 (2010): 19. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 18 May 2012.

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