The Effects Of Social Media On Human Interaction

Even though social media provides easy access to communication, it creates barriers and conflicts for human interactions. For example, before technology advanced, individuals had more quality face-to-face interactions with one another and told each other what was on their minds in person. In present time, individuals cannot be seen in public without their mobile devices beaming at their faces. In addition to people becoming attached to their electronic devices, Shawn Ghuman, a junior at Virginia Tech stresses how social media takes away a person’s ability to express thoughts through in-person interactions and raises one’s self consciousness. In the article "Electronic Intimacy" by Ashton Kutcher, he announces how people hide behind the LED

Because of the popularity and convenience social media sites offers, many individuals are prone to being cyber bullied. According to Brian Jung of the Houston Chronicle, he states that “due [to the anonymity] provided by social media, predators as well as friends [can reply with hurtful or threatening messages without fear of getting in trouble]"(work cited). Hurtful words can damage one’s self esteem which can lead to unfortunate consequences. Nearly half of all teenagers who use social media have been a victim of cyber bullying in some way (abcnews.com). In most cases for instance, throughout the news one can see that girls more often than boys have fallen prey to verbal assault and rumors by classmates. Studies show that girls are more susceptible because The girls take the accusations to heart and regrettably end up taking their own lives, become suicidal or fall into depression because of how many times the news was brought up. For instance, in Lakeland, Florida, Rebecca Ann Sedwick a 12 year old, decides to jump off a cliff because she continuously got messages that said "Why are you still alive?" and "Go kill yourself." She was found at an abandoned cement plant (work cited). Surprisingly, in a 2014 statistic on cyber bullying, it has been reported that 95 percent of teenagers who witness someone being cyber bullied just watched it

At a click of a button, social media sites give people the ability to surf the net and get updated with news relevant to what their friends like, tag, post, and share. There is no privacy anymore once it has become public because "we have become the spectacles and our friends on social media sites become the spectators and intake our information to size up. It does not matter if a person deactivates their account because it follows the victims everywhere they