Example Of Facebook’s Effect On Social Life Essay

English: Facebook’s Effect on Social Life

Introduction
Facebook needs no introduction; it is amongst the most famous social networking sites used by people today. Launched in 2004, Facebook is a freely available platform that allows its users to be in touch with the friends and family. Once registered, users can send messages to their friends in their friend’s group and also upload/share videos or photos to their own timeline. The objective of this paper is to understand the negative effects of Facebook on social life. The paper is divided into three sections. The first section discusses about Facebook. The second section deliberates its negative effect in social life. The third section concludes the paper.

Introduction to Facebook

Facebook utility and connectivity is increasing day by day. The main motive for the launch of this social networking platform is to connect people which it has successfully achieved. But as every coin has two sides to it, so does Facebook. Apart from the benefits mentioned previously, Facebook also comes with some negative psychological impacts. As per Douglas T. Kenrick (2014), decreasing of subjective well-being feeling has been found among the addictive Facebook users. Facebook is an addiction and as people are more involved in this addiction, less satisfactory they could be in life. Facebook users are not limited to particular age group. However, it is seen that teenagers are more addicted to the usage of Facebook. Because of the Facebook addiction, people have started interacting with others more through the online medium rather than in person. Around 57 % of people preferred to talk more online than face to face. As per Tech Addiction (2015), 48% of the Facebook users of age group of 18-34 check Facebook as soon as wake up. Also the age group of 18-24 is the fastest growing Facebook user category, at 74% in a year.

Negative Effect of Facebook in Social Life

Facebook Addiction Disorder, a term given by psychologists to those who spend maximum number of hours on Facebook and in turn affect their personal social life. Four negative impacts of Facebook are discussed in this section. First, addiction of Facebook makes a person socially isolated. It is true that Facebook is a wonderful source of connectivity, but, human beings are social animals, and need physical presence of their friends and family for actual human interaction. Hence, the more time one spends in this virtual world of Facebook, lonelier they are bound to feel. Second, regular use of Facebook also creates a sense of jealousy. Facebook creates a false picture that the other person is happy and living a perfect life. This creates a low life satisfaction and long term depression among Facebook users. Third, Facebook is responsible for increasing distance between friends and family. Addiction with Facebook makes a person spend lesser actual time with friends and family and more through virtual world. Four, Facebook users have been found to engage in lesser social and recreational activities. Addictive Facebook users tend to spend more time on Facebook messenger or checking other’s timelines than to play sports or for get together with friends or family.

Conclusion

It is said that excess of anything is bad. As such, limited usage of Facebook has no negative impact but the addiction of Facebook creates several problems. The idea behind the launch of Facebook was just to create a common social platform to connect a person with his/her friends and family. But the problem took shape when several people started making Facebook as their real world and started disconnecting with the actual world.

References

Douglas T. Kenrick (2014). 7 Ways Facebook is Bad for Your Mental Health. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sex-murder-and-the-meaning-life/201404/7-ways-facebook-is-bad-your-mental-health
Tech Addiction (2015). Facebook Addiction Statictics, Numbers, And Facts. Retrieved from http://www.techaddiction.ca/facebook-addiction-statistics.html