Biggs 1 Summer Biggs Media Communication Professor Innes Mitchell 2 May 2012 Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?

With over 845 million users, $3.7 billion in revenue last year alone, and 1 trillion page views a month, Facebook has successfully invaded our lives and altered our culture (Marche). It allows us to share pictures, update people on our lives, say where we are, who were with, interact with friends and relatives, have hundreds or thousands of friends, and most importantly lets us stay continuously connected. But why is Facebook so popular? In his article in the Atlantic, Stephen Marche, says that Facebook arrived smack in the middle of our societys increase in loneliness. When we meet fewer people, gather less, and have weaker bonds it shows evidence that loneliness is becoming an epidemic. Is the simultaneous rise in loneliness and Facebooks influence a coincidence or is one causing the other? The underlying question that has raised debate is does Facebook really make us lonely?

SIDE A-YES
Along with the loneliness effects, scholars mention depression and sadness as negative byproducts of Facebook. Daniel Gulati from the Harvard Business Review outlines three reasons why Facebook makes us miserable. These three points can serve as the main arguments given by multiple scholars in this area of study. Facebook is making us lonely and also miserable because it creates a den of comparison, it fragments our time, and it causes a decline of close relationships (Gulati).

Biggs 2 1.) Den of Comparison As we upload pictures, post a status, or write on someones wall, we are doing so because it is public. The objective is for people to see it and to comment or write back. Increasingly, Facebook has created new ways to give feedback. An example would be the like button. This was a very successful feature as soon as it was introduced. It allows for people to approve of something efficiently, a one-click communication, with out the use of words or any wasted time. The recent transformation of profiles to timelines is another change Facebook has made to make the viewing and following of other peoples lives easier. These are the results of something called hypersharing which Gulati describes as threatening to our happiness. As I went about my research, it became clear that behind all the liking, commenting, sharing, and posting, there were strong hints of jealousy, anxiety, and in one case, depression (Gulati). Because we can control our own image on Facebook, only the positive announcements and posts are shown. It is a world where negative aspects can be avoided, which brings us farther from reality. Everybody else looks so happy on Facebook, with so many friends, that our own social networks feel emptier than ever in comparison (Marche). But being happy all the time, hiding the less than perfect parts of life while promoting this sort of superficial character, is exhausting. It is a form of compensation that in its worse case leads to Facebook depression, as mentioned in Mike Flacys report in Digital Trends. Flacy discusses the study conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which found that kids and teenagers can develop Facebook Depression when being overwhelmed by positive statuses and photos of happy friends. Before Facebook, actual depression had to do with real relationships and real-life situations. This introduction to a depression that is based on interactions that occur online proves

Biggs 3 the argument that Facebook is making feel more isolated despite the deep connection, which ironically is the cause. 2.) Fragmentation of Time The second reason Facebook is making us lonely is because of its effect on time and peoples presence. Facebooks breadth and depth in our society has over time, created new behaviors. People have become so addicted to Facebook that they log in and check new updates multiple times a day, sometimes more than once an hour. In traffic, in class, at work, and just when people are bored, is when they often check Facebook. Some individuals use it to kill time when they are alone, waiting somewhere by themselves. It just shows how people dont want to be alone or dont know how. Daniel Gulati discusses this recent trend by first explaining the cause. Not surprisingly, Facebooks horizontal strategy encourages users to log in more frequently from different devices (Gulati). Computers, smart phones, and iPads are being used more and more to access Facebook practically everywhere. This means that people are less present wherever they are. Distracted by another world, friends, family and coworkers can be in the same room, but not fully be together. This is a perfect example of the loneliness effect. You may be in a room full of friends, and simultaneously on a network full of friends, but you are not fully present in either. Horizontal strategy goes hand in hand with Gulatis next finding, switching costs. This constant tabbing between real-life tasks and Facebook results in the loss in productivity associated with changing from one task to another (Gulati). Dr. Srikumar Rao argues that constant distractions, like Facebook, result in low-quality work. This in turn, results in low selfesteem, further impacting negative feelings brought by Facebook (Gulati). 3.) Decline of Close Relationships

Biggs 4 The final, and most direct reason Facebook makes us lonely is due to the way it replaces relationships. The use of hypersharing, the ease of subscribing to friends posts, the instant communication, and the public format all replace aspects in real relationships. Hypersharing might replace meeting one of your friends to show her your pictures from a vacation; they would most likely already be uploaded. Being subscribed to your family on Facebook might reduce the need to call your parents from college to tell them about your day. Facebook chat might be quicker and easier than meeting in person, or even emailing, which still somehow seems more personal. And because all of this information about yourself and your friends on Facebook is public, announcements or big events are disclosed differently. An example would be finding out solely through Facebook that your best friend is in a relationship. Gulati offers his opinion saying, As Facebook continues to add new features to help us connect more efficiently online, the battle to maintain off-line relationships will become even more difficult, which will impact their overall quality. He believes that Facebook doesnt simply accommodate real relationships anymore. Every time we choose Facebook interaction over actual communication, people lose chances to connect more deeply, and that is something we do not want to lose (Gulati). Returning back to the original question in the Atlantic piece, Stephen Marche makes the claim that Americans are more solitary than ever before. According to a major study by a leading scholar of the subject, roughly 20 percent of Americansabout 60 million peopleare unhappy with their lives because of loneliness (Marche). He mentions lack of personal confidants and therefore the need for professional carers, the history and the drive for isolation, and technologys recent effects. But what really explains correlation between Facebook and loneliness is when Marche discusses the research and studies of Moira Burke, a graduate student at the Human-Computer Institute at Carnegie Mellon. She found that non personalized use of

Biggs 5 Facebook leads to feelings of disconnectedness. The two main methods of this are passive consumption and broadcasting. Passive consumption involves checking friends updates, while broadcasting is posting your own updates. Its a lonely business, wandering the labyrinths of our friends and pseudo-friends projected identities, trying to figure out what part of ourselves we ought to project, who will listen, and what they will hear (Marche). A lot of this Facebook broadcasting has to do with peoples egos. It often becomes once again, a compensation method to promote yourself in a desired way, and see others in their own desired way. The lack of reality, and the distance with intimacy, as Marche calls it, is what makes Facebook so attractive, but also what may be causing this widespread loneliness. Desired Outcomes: In his article from the Harvard Business Review, Daniel Gulati offers possible plans of action in order to avoid harmful effects of Facebook. Reasonably, he starts off by recognizing that simply quitting Facebook is unrealistic. It is a huge part of our lives and is beginning to represent a large portion of the population. Gulati suggests changing usage patterns and working to regain real relationships. Things like setting a block of time to use Facebook, instead of checking it many times throughout the day and limiting your friends list will help lessen its influence (Gulati).

SIDE B- NO
On the opposing side, scholars who believe that no, Facebook does not make us lonely, focus mainly on the lack of correlation between Facebook and loneliness. They argue that Facebook is not the cause, unlike what Gulati and Marche propose. They say that articles like the Atlantic come from people who want a simpler and happier time, but do not realize that has passed (Klinenberg). They are skeptical about the mixed information being provided and point

Biggs 6 out the flaws of their counterparts. Facebook does not make us lonely because of three reasons: it inspires more communication, loneliness isnt just a recent trend, and Facebook is not necessarily a cause. 1.) More Communication Eric Klinenberg, Professor of Sociology, Public Policy, and Media at New York University, wrote an article in Slate magazine wanting to set the record straight about Facebook and loneliness in rebuttal to Marches claims. His main goals were to one, point out the flaws that Marche had in research, history, and overall evidence; and two, to promote his own ideas. Klinenberg argues that Facebook is not responsible for isolation or less communication just by definition of what Facebook is. Facebook is a tool to find pre-existing friends and connect with them. It allows for more communication in multiple ways with friends, family, and especially long distance relationships. He argues that Facebook friends cannot purely be surrogates, that they are, in fact, supplements. Neither Cacioppo nor others who do research on loneliness believe that people expect online contacts to make up completely for the absence of the real thing (Klinenberg). The author also goes to say that if America is truly more isolated than it has ever been, then it is a result of frayed ties rather than our loneliness. Another scholar who agrees with Klinenberg is Claude Fischer, professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley. His article, The Loneliness Scare: Isolation Isnt a Growing Problem in the Boston Review, also argues the same views. Fischer claims that people use the Internet to increase the volume of their meaningful social contacts. It allows them to strengthen current relationships. An interesting point that the author makes is that Internet dating is very helpful for lonely Americans who have a hard time finding partners. It is especially useful with gays and

Biggs 7 older women (Fischer). These technologies of sociability help connect everyone and make possible stronger relationships that would otherwise be lost. 2.) Loneliness Isnt Just a Recent Trend In addition to his theory on Internet communication, Fischer has opinions about the socalled loneliness epidemic as well. As opposed to Marche, he asserts that there is no such thing. Americans have been under the label of loneliness for decades. At the beginning of the century there was loneliness of American farmers, then later around the 1950s, books like Man Alone: Alienation in Modern Society became bestsellers. Americans have either been getting lonelier since time immemorial or worrying about it since then (Fischer). Change, itself, has brought upon these feelings of isolation. If this is true, then Facebook does not have a bad or negative function in society. There have been and will be periods of rising and falling social connection, but Fischer suggests that loneliness is not a growing problem. Moreover, the loneliness that should worry us is not generated by a teens Facebook humiliationIt is of the old man whose wife and best friends have diedTheres nothing new or headline-worthy about their loneliness, but it is real and important (Fischer). 3. Facebook is Not Necessarily a Cause In her article Facebook Isnt Making Us Lonely, After All, writer Kate Knibbs describes the relationship and connection that Facebook and loneliness have with each other. She argues that yes, there is evidence that teens who use Facebook are lonely, but that does not prove that Facebook is the ultimate cause, and not just a symptom. The link between people being on their mobile phones more and more, and people feeling loneliness are less linked than researchers say (Knibbs). People were already lonely before Facebook. Because of its personal but impersonal, connected but not connected, and distant but accessible nature, Facebook critics have always been skeptical. And because of its growth and permeation into almost every aspect

Biggs 8 of society, it is an easy target for blame. Knibbs brings up an interesting point, saying that just as Facebook may not connect people like real life interaction, neither does working, video games, music, or sitting in traffic. When people spend all their time on Facebook and texting at the expense of engaging in real-life diagogue, it does add to their feeling of isolation. But it does not create it (Knibbs). When as a society we are so wrapped up in modern living, running around busy with our technology, at least this technology encourages communication and connection. It may not be as good as face-to-face interaction, but holds the same idea. Desired Outcomes: These three researchers, Klinenberg, Fischer, and Knibbs, are advocating the notion that Facebook does not make us lonely. The desired outcome they would like to have in writing these articles is for people first, not to be worried about a loneliness epidemic. They are counter arguing peoples quickness to assume there is a major problem, and also that the sole source of the problem is Facebook. In a way, they are defending Facebook as a necessary means of communication this day in age. They would like people to continue to use Facebook, use mobile devices, and continue to build strong connections. Klinenberg requests specifically that instead of everyone focusing on the loneliness of teenagers through Facebook, for people to notice other kinds of loneliness, ones that have existed long before social networks.

MY ASSESSMENT:
After researching and reading related articles, I believe that loneliness was the wrong word to have this entire study based on. I felt at times, the writers were stretching possible evidence too far, trying to fit the word lonely, but were unsuccessful. Instead, words like sad, miserable and depressed were used, which took away from the central chosen idea of loneliness. Most of the main arguments were indirect and contained irrelevant information. Therefore, I do

Biggs 9 not believe that Facebook is necessarily making us lonely. However, I do believe that it is making us more competitive and narcissistic. As being a Facebook user myself, I cannot think of any Facebook specific functions that would directly make someone feel lonely. All the Facebook activity is based on positives. For example, you can like pictures and posts, but there is no dislike. You can create groups and events to be a part of. Facebook, in my opinion, does a good job of emphasizing connecting with people, supporting people, allowing for feedback, and including people. I do understand, however, that loneliness may come from the absence of these things. But a better way to describe that is competitiveness. People post and share things on Facebook for other people to see, and to receive feedback. The potential dark side of comments and likes is that it has taught us to perceive them as ego boosts. For example, if someone gets over fifteen likes on a picture, naturally they will feel flattered and good about themselves. Facebook allows you to put yourself out there, to broadcast a little bit of who you are. However, this is where narcissism becomes an issue. Results of the studies by Buffardi, Campbell, and Mehdizadeh in 2010 say that people with high levels of narcissism engage in frequent use of Facebook (Ryan and Xenos). According to the study, this trend is attributable to the fact that Facebook encourages users to engage in self-promoting and superficial behaviors, such as posting photos and writing status updates (Ryan and Xenos). People will put up pictures of themselves that has been edited, cropped, and photo shopped because it will give them the most attention, and will display them in the best way. Facebook image is now just as important, if not more important, than your real life image. So I think that the more prominent issue that Facebook creates, has to do with the effects too much Facebook interaction, as opposed to not enough.

Biggs 10

CONCLUSION:
Although the Facebook world might prove to be lonely, it is a growing, highly powerful commodity. It is something people, services, groups, and companies have started to take advantage of. Not only is it a social media website, but it is a public relations, advertising, and networking hub. Around 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook (Manago, Taylor, and Greenfield 377). In other words, it isnt going anywhere by any means. As much as it is fun, social, lonely, competitive, narcissistic, or whatever it may be, it is a form of entertainment, a form of business, and a form of society. Facebook adapts to and reflects what is important in our culture. As we go through periods of growing and lessening social connection, it will be interesting to see where Facebook goes along with it.

Biggs 11 Works Cited Fischer, Claude S. "The Lonliness Scare: Isolation Isn't a Growing Problem." Boston Review. 23 Apr 2012: n. page. Web. 2 May. 2012. <http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.3/claude_s_fischer_loneliness_facebook.php>. Flacy, Mike. "Study: Why Facebook is Making People Sad." Digital Trends. N.p., 22/Jan/2012. Web. 2 May 2012. <http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/study-why-facebook-ismaking-people-sad/>. Gulati, Daniel. "Facebook Is Making Us Miserable." Harvard Business Review. 09 Dec 2011: n. page. Web. 2 May. 2012. <http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/12/facebook_is_making_us_miserabl.html>. Klinenberg, Eric. "Facebook Isn't Making Us Lonely." Slate. 19 Apr 2012: n. page. Web. 2 May. 2012.<http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2012/04/is_facebook_making_us_lo nely_no_the_atlantic_cover_story_is_wrong_.2.html.> Knibbs, Kate. "Facebook Isn't Making Us Lonely, After All." Mobiledia. N.p., 26/Apr/2012. Web. 2 May 2012. <http://www.mobiledia.com/news/139464.html>. Manago, Adriana M., Tamara Taylor, and Patricia M. Greenfield. "Me And My 400 Friends: The Anatomy Of College Students' Facebook Networks, Their Communication Patterns, And Well-Being." Developmental Psychology 48.2 (2012): 369-380. PsycARTICLES. Web. 1 May 2012. Marche, Stephen. "Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?." Atlantic. 05 2012: n. page. Web. 2 May. 2012. <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-facebook-making-uslonely/8930/>.

Biggs 12 Ryan, Tracii, and Sophia Xenos. "Who uses Facebook? An investigation into the relationship between the Big Five, shyness, narcissism, loneliness, and Facebook usage." SciVerse. 27.5 (2011): 1658-1664. Web. 2 May. 2012. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563211000379>.