Gomez- Perry1 Daniel Gomez- Perry Mr.

Padgett English 1102 23 January 2014 Lack of Words and Expression Throughout the last twenty years a vast advancement in the way we socialize as a society has gradually transformed into a more mute way of communicating. I say mute because a lack of emotional or verbal expression has over taken our generation, we have transformed into a generation that doesnt like to verbally socialize. We tweet, we text, we snapchat, it seems almost as if just talking face to face has become obsolete. The majority of us tend to silently mesmerize into small shinning screens for hours; sending pathetic abbreviated messages topped with vaguely expressive emoticons. Hopefully we wait for the person at the other line to emotionally interpret the vague message the same way we meant to express it. I dont mean to give social media a negative connotation; because it is true it helps us in every way. It generates quicker and more productive ways of communicating information, it enhances the length at which communication can travel, and it helps people express their thoughts and emotions with as much freedom as they want. But like everything else, it does possess some negative effects. Some which can fully transform our society and fully alter it into something different. I have felt a false sense of connection with social media, in a way I have experienced that all the relationships I have made virtually through all the social networks I am in are not real. I mean having 600 friends makes no sense, how can one person keep up with 600 different people, half the people we are friends with on

Gomez- Perry2 Facebook or Twitter are mere acquaintances. But the real truth for the reason why people add more and more friends on Facebook is because subconsciously they feel more popular and receive more attention. It is a subconscious competition with others to see who gets the most friends, followers, likes, or the most retweets. If the person doesnt get the amount of likes or retweets they want or a person does not follow them back then they most likely will delete the update, or stop following the person whom did not follow them. This socially virtual world each one of us lives in has become the new way we set our self-esteem, we can feel confident or insecure based on the amount of people we socialize to online, or through text. The more peoples attention one receives the more confidence one feels. This can ultimately transform the attitude we have towards others; it may strengthen or weaken our relationships. Relationships can be affected due to examples as simple as a misinterpreted tweet or maybe even an unreplied text. Social media also affects each one of our privacies; we tend to put all sorts of information on social networking sites such as: email addresses, where we go to school, phone numbers, all sorts of pictures, and sometimes even our home addresses. People are basically pleading to get stalked by others. And this is a right each one of us as citizens has, privacy should be used as a valued possession not something that should be handed out to random strangers. Social media in essence has a good intention. It is meant to provide people with a better way of communicating with others, but in effect it is producing negative effects that all of us subsequently have succumbed to. These are: Lack of privacy, false sense of connection with reality, and a lack of verbal and emotional expression. As a society we

Gomez- Perry3 should search for a way to resolve these issues so in the future social media does not become a real serious social problem, so we can ultimately stop being a mute society and we can regain our words and expressions. Is social media a stepping-stone in the betterment of society or is it a factor suppressing it from advancing? A few issues/questions that fall under the negative factors include: o Can social media in any way alter somebodys self-esteem? o Can social media negatively affect someones privacy? o Can social media lessen somebodys productivity?

In my research my purpose is to discover how social media has negatively affected us as a society, I want to understand how this will affect our short and long term situations, so that I can observe how this will alter our social world and ultimately transform the way we communicate with other humans. Secondly, I want to fully comprehend how social media can affect a persons self-esteem. Nowadays social recognition counts on how much you expose yourself online. As a result social media has become a tool that enables us to show off ourselves virtually. Our self-esteem can be impacted due to this because of virtual rejection and/or even cyber bullying. Thirdly I want to understand how someones privacy can be impacted due to social media, since many people set large amounts of information about their lives online; their privacy is at risk of being exposed to strangers. And lastly I want to have a better grasp in how the productivity of a person can lessen due to social media. Since people spend large amounts of time on social websites, gazing into their phones for hours, and taking various selfies for snapchat a

Gomez- Perry4 great amount of time is spent into doing these tasks. Due to this a persons productivity in complying with their academic priorities lessens. A potential thesis for my research could be: As social media reaches higher standards and ultimately perfects, new issues begin to unravel, within our insecure generation of teenagers self-esteem, privacy, and productivity can be affected ultimately becoming predominant problems, consequently this will be a factor which will suppress society from advancing. Social media, in its essence, is dramatically transforming the way we communicate in our generation. With gradual progress we have developed a way for the efficiency of our communication to advance, it has reached a point were to the touch of a button you can communicate with people who are a hemisphere away from your location. With this efficiency and great advancement many negative effects unfold; more and more complex issues begin to unravel as we set better standards and higher limits, but as a society it is our duty to resolve them.