Can people live a lifestyle without any social networks?
Are you a big fan of Facebook, Twitter or maybe Google Plus? I think most people would say yes. Even though some people are not big fans of these things, they still are the most common users for those networks.
Personally, I’m a big fan of social networks. To be honest, living without social networks would make me feel like I was isolated from other people. I would feel lonely if I haven’t logged into Facebook for a long time because I wouldn’t know what is going on among my friends. I don’t know whether it sounds weird or familiar to some of you.
Take one moment to look at your friend list; how many people do you actually know well? How many do you know very well? How many are just friends of friends?
I always hear people say, “The world is too small because of (insert social network tool).” Indeed, social networking makes the world smaller, and people get to know each other much easier than before. Is this a good thing?
At first I thought it was. I thought making more friends would mean having more fun in my life. I would accept people as friends because we had common friends on Facebook.
However, more and more unfamiliar people began to know about my personal life and make comments on it. It felt a little bit annoying.
Sometimes it is awkward when people who didn’t know you very well would judge you unfairly. Some type of interference should occur when situations like this happen.
Then, there is another group of people: The “friends” whom you know but no interaction between you occurs.
They never reply to your messages, like your statuses or comment on your events. I wonder if these people even exist in my life.
Besides those groups of people who may invade your private space, there are still some other factors that may affect your personality, which you should take into consideration.
People are inclined to become less independent due to social networks. You hear people say things like: “I hate staying alone and I need to talk to people all the time,” or “people are getting less confident if they always live in the virtual world rather than the reality,” or even, “people will lose the pleasure of hanging out with people in reality if they always take a long time to play with social networking.”
These are some of the opinions I have heard from my friends. Due to different cultures, you may not understand the significance of my words — but I believe people will be happier and have more joy in life from actually hanging out with friends in a physical space rather than virtual space and talking on social networks.
What’s your voice?
Yun Ye is a junior studying journalism and a columnist for The Post. Learn how you can connect with her at yy822809@ohiou.edu.
