My Experience and Thought of the Social Media

Inhyup Kim

Instructor: Professor Crane

English 1010

19 May 2012

My Experience and Thought of the Social Media

             A lot of people in the world use the social media nowadays. Especially, over 500 million people use the Facebook. It is really big number. If I take a look around, I can find easily people who are using the Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media. I started to use the social media after my mission. Before my mission, I did not have interested in the social media. Frankly, I do not know what the Facebook is. The social media have a bunch of advantages when you use. For example, I could contact my friends who are living far away easily. Using the social media can make us to keep touching my friends and make relationship with others more easily. 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 the social media any time because technology was developed remarkably. However, in spite of these advantages, the social media have some side effects. I used the Facebook just only one year, but I could see and think about negative ways in the social media; wasting time, relationships, and hypocrite in the social media.

             First of all, the social networks make us spend a lot of time to do it. As I mentioned previously, the technology was rapidly progressed. It makes us to access the social networks wherever and whenever you are. It is really convenient, but it could make us to use all day long. Many people spend a lot of time to manage their social network page, or look around others pages. The last semester, I took a sociology class. In this class, I had a chance to do surveys as a project. My survey topic was the relationships between the using social media and the studying in the college. Many students were using the social media more than an hour a day. Surprisingly, one of the students was using the Facebook more than 4hours. However, many people said the social media is not helpful for studying. I was so surprised, and I could feel the social media is so addicted. I thought if we don’t have the social media, we could certainly focus on our studying more and spend our time more efficiently to progress our talents, such as playing the instruments, exercise, or reading books. If we cut down our social media time,

             Second, the social networks affects in our relationships. The humans are social animals. We cannot meet everyone a day, but it has limit to do. In this view, the social networks are really helpful to keep touching our friends. However, this is not real meeting. Many people have hundreds of friends in the Facebook, but they do not contact everyone, just a few people who really you liked. Jake Martin said

“So Facebook has, for all intents and purposes, become a way for me to acquire as many “friends” as possible with whom I will never have to communicate again( 23).”

The relationships in online is shallow and short. If you use just the social networks without any physical meeting, you can feel loneliness more easily. I read a research that people who use the Facebook are unhappy than people who do not use. The relationships in nowadays changed a lot, but intimate friends are coming from real life, not online.

             Third, people in the social media play the hypocrite. In online we cannot see everyone everyday. Especially, if they live far away, it will be harder. We usually contact them or hear their news through the social media. We saw their pictures or read their messages on the “wall,” a sort of cyber bulletin board. As I mentioned before, we cannot see them, so people can make fake face easily. One day, I called a friend in Korea, and talked about the Facebook. He totally dislikes using the Facebook, because he saw a lot of people posted hypocritical messages. He said many people are lying online. He avoids doing the social networks, but it does not mean he is anti-social. He is meeting friends and keeps contacting by using cell phone, just does not use the social media. Also, I felt it sometimes. I think personal ostentation and vanity make these phenomena. For these reason, I like to meet someone physically because when I meet them, I can see their pure and undissembled features and characters.

             By using the social media I experienced the social media are a strong influence on our lives. Using the social media is unavoidable because everyone uses and connects each other through the social media. I think we need to use the social media with wisdom. When we do, we can live healthier and more efficiently.

Works cited

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