Social Networks Keeps us Apart

Social Networks Keeps us Apart
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Introduction
The advent of technology affects how people socialize today. In fact, the emergence of technological gadgets such as computers, the INTERNET, and IPhones resulted in the emergence of social networks. The term social networks could be elucidated as a social structure comprising of nodes that are either organizations or individuals. Critical to the discussion is the fact that social networks represent flows and relationships between people, groups, organizations, or computers (O'Keeffe, Gwenn and Kathleen 2011). It could be argued that the emergence of social networks enables people to interact frequently despite the distance between the individuals who are communicating. However, evidence suggests that social networks could also result in loneliness and isolation. For instance, Kim, Robert, and Wei Peng (2009) reveal that early internet users loved computers more than they loved people, which provided them with recreation and communication. Evidently, social networks have positive and negative effects on the users of the social networks. It is why this paper argues that social network keeps people apart and causes loneliness.
To begin with, communicating using technology could disregard the human component of how human connections are constructed. As evidence, without an up close and personal contact, there is no non-verbal information that shows the expectations, feelings, and estimations of the speaker (Dewall, 2013). Lack of these crucial elements of communication leaves individuals to fill in the gaps of what other individuals really mean as opposed to what they intend to communicate. Messages, cell telephones, writings, and online networking are important routines for conveying data. Past that, we have to meet with individuals up close and personal so we can genuinely interact. Without it, we can be left lonely without others really understanding us. Clearly, communicating without the intimacy of elements such as touch, facial expressions and tonal variations could result in miscommunication, which in turn could result to disagreements and loneliness (O'Keeffe, Gwenn and Kathleen 2011). Suffice to mention that social networks do not allow humans to display the aspects mentioned above, which could result in loneliness. In short, social networks contribute to loneliness by failing to provide communicational elements such as tonal variations and facial expressions.
The more you utilize technology to convey, the lonelier you are prone to be. This is an observation that was made by Relationships Australia, which is a community-based support services association. As social media, cell phones and innovations show signs of improvements which are intended to help keep us connected, in a few ways we become separated. To begin with, we have the capacity to add individuals to view our information, yet keeping them far off. As indicated by Dewall (2013), when we "friend" individuals on Facebook for instance, we are keeping them at an enthusiastic distance. The same author further reveals that the introduction of social networks promotes loneliness and isolation by using them to communicate with friends who are close to users of the social networks. F...