Digital Technology Make Us More Lonely - Essay Sample

Introduction

Technology has become of the biggest developments in human history. With an established internet, social media platforms and other forms of communication have come up connecting humanity like never before. This has significantly changed the way people conduct their businesses whereby businesses are now maintaining their customers by interacting with them directly. This can be observed in our communities today. Technology has been able to connect people through social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, snapchat and also by voice calls. The technological revolution has also come with its effects, and more specifically it has gotten into the way people are socializing. No matter how valuable this technology has been, it does not have a substitute for a face to face conversation. The question that arises is whether technology makes people lonelier. This paper will discuss the influence of digital technology has been a driving change in the world of socializing hence making people lonely. Technology in the social class tends to works against social developments than what the digital media intended to use.

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Changes in present-day society are thought to be the reason. We live in nuclear families, regularly living expansive separations from our more distant family and companions, and our developing dependence on social technology as opposed to eye to eye collaboration is believed to influence us to feel more confined. It implies we feel less associated with others and our connections are ending up more shallow and less fulfilling. We are social creatures and need to feel that we "have a place" to others and feel associated with each other. Social agony is as genuine a sensation for us as physical torment; analysts have demonstrated that loneliness and dismissal enacts an indistinguishable part of the mind from physical torment.

Loneliness influences every one of us sooner or later in our lives. Migrating to another territory, losing a friend or family member, and beginning a course at college are altogether key circumstances when individuals feel lonely. Research recommends that this experience of loneliness is valuable to us as it propels us to reconnect with others and to search out new kinships to diminish the "social torment" that we feel. However, for a few, when reconnection isn't unrealistic or straightforward, if a man is socially separated, individuals can stay in this awkward loneliness state for various years. Reports change however commonplace quantities of individuals encountering loneliness in this drawn-out route extend from three to thirty for each penny. For those that experience loneliness for quite a while, look into has demonstrated that this effects on their health greater than smoking fifteen cigarettes per day or being corpulent. Loneliness has additionally been connected to poor mental health. In a survey by Mental Health Foundation, more than 33% of individuals surveyed had felt discouraged because of feeling lonely.

People are being distanced from each other by social media and the virtue of reading people's status and looking at their pictures makes people no longer feel the need to personally be involved in other peopled life. There is no demand for friendship but rather an illusion of companionship. This has led to depression and isolation of individual because they lack social interaction. When people feel this way, they turn into social media desiring to be connected to one another but with it comes more obstacles preventing it from happening.

Research has indicated that the people approach to use the internet is to relieve their psychological problems. According to the doctors of philosophy, people who exhibit less social skills and loneliness begin to develop a strong compulsive internet use comportments resulting in adverse life outcomes. This has a significant harm to individual's social activities in the workplace, schools and also in families. The question that arises through this digital technology is about 'internet paradox.' This question was a determinant on how the internet undermines individual's psychosocial development.

Research on over the top types of Internet utilize has demonstrated that uncontrolled or impulsive Internet utilization has been known to negatively affect mental prosperity, for example, melancholy and loneliness. The exploration has additionally discovered that it has turned connections around, belligerence that psychosocial dysfunctions are just happening if social exercises are particularly habitual and are probably going to create tricky results. The deficient social aptitudes, inclination for online social collaboration, and negative life results ought to contribute more to the expansion of loneliness among social exercises, this is something that is being contended. As loneliness and desolation can be the reason for addictive, routine, or perilous internet utilize.

According to Walton (2017), a review study carried by Nottingham Trent University looked at the early research on personality, psychological characteristic, and social media use. From these study, it was evident to speak about Facebook addiction disorder which is also observed in all other social media communication platforms. The addiction criteria in this are as a result of neglect of personal life, escapism, mental preoccupation, concealing the addictive behavior and mood-modifying experiences which observed more regularly to people addicted to social networks excessively. The motivation of peoples excess our social network was also found to differ depending on specific traits of individuals. According to Walton (2017), he confirms that people tend to undergo a kind of withdrawal. Walton (2017) further indicates that a study carried out at Swansea University indicated that people experienced a psychological symptom of withdrawal when they stopped using social media and more specifically the internet. The study further indicates that when people stop using social media, they undergo small measurable physiological effects. According to Stephen (2012), people who are over-dependent on digital devices once stooped report a feeling of anxiety and it can be observed that his psychological effects are also accompanied by actual physiological changes. Though these claims are under research, there is an anecdotal evidence that suggests they do exist.

A study by Stephen Marchie (2012) has found that the more people use social media, the more they become unhappy. The research indicated that Facebook use was linked to a less life satisfaction and less moment to moment happiness and the more they accessed Facebook daily, the more these two variables drop off. The reason for this can be articulated to the fact that Facebook invokes up a discernment of social isolation. In this case scenario of using the social network, platforms mean that other solitary activities are not powerful enough to regulate the behavior. The digital technology through social media provides an invaluable resource where people can instantly connect. Even though this interaction has been proposed to increase and enhancing well-being as recurrent relations with supportive social networks powerfully do, the findings by Stephen Marchie (2012) demonstrate that interacting with social media platforms predicts an opposite result.

The use of social media according to Turkle (2012) links a greater feeling of social isolation. The study by Walton (2017) looks at how people used the eleven social media platforms which include Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Vine, Tumblr, Reddit and Snapchat correlating them with their perceived social isolation. The result of the study was that the more people spend time on social media, the more they more they perceive themselves to be socially isolated. The worst thing that can happen to individuals is when they are perceived to be socially isolated both mentally and physically.

Part of the reason why digital technology through social media makes people feel socially isolated is that of comparison factors. Many people using social network fall into traps of comparing themselves to others as they scroll through their feeds making judgments about measuring up. The feeling of comparison for people is whether they are better or worse off than their friends. Both of this comparison makes people feel worse which is surprising since the only feeling that will make a person feel bad is that of being worse off than their friends. Although this is the case, Turkle (2012) indicates that any kind of comparison is concomitant to depressive symptoms.

The cycle that human has built with the digital platforms is that they keep coming back to them even though it does not make them feel very good. The reason for this is probably what is referred to as forecasting error. It exhibits the same characterizes as drugs in that, people think that accessing the social media will help but rather makes them feel worse which is an error for people because they are not able to predict their own response. According to Stephen (2012), having more friends on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any social network platform does not necessarily mean one will have a better social life. The study indicates that there is a cap on the number of friends a brain can handle and it is by the actual social interaction that one is able to keep this friendship.

Since loneliness is linked to mental health problems, it is important of addicted individuals to get real social support. Time with real friends has therapeutic effects as time with virtual friends. Even though technology has had negative psychosocial problems in people's lives, it does not mean its influenced people negatively, it connects people across a great distance and helps people maintain a positive relationship regardless of the distance between friends or relatives. Getting on social media as a way of killing time or as a platform for emotional uplift is likely to be a bad idea.

Conclusion

In conclusion, digital technology including social media platforms and other forms of communication have come up connecting humanity like never before. This has significantly changed the way people conduct their businesses whereby businesses are now maintaining their customers by interacting with them directly. The technological revolution has also come with its effects, and more specifically it has gotten into the way people are socializing. This has led to depression and isolation of individual because they lack social interaction. The digital technology through social media provides an invaluable resource where people can instantly connect. Even though this interaction has been proposed to increase and enhancing well-being as recurrent relations with supportive social networks powerfully do, interacting with social media platforms predicts an opposite result.

References

Hampton, K. N., Sessions, L. F., Her, E. J., Rainie, H., & Pew Internet & American Life Project.

(2009). Social isolation and new technology: How the internet and mobile phones impact Americans' social networks. Washington, D.C: Pew Internet & American Life Project.