Nick McKinney
New
media has so many dangers, that people can’t help but be affected by at least
one of them. It’s mainly with Facebook
where you see these dangers. Don’t get
me wrong, there are dangers in other types of new media, but Facebook presents
the most by far.
What
could be the number one danger with Facebook? Spending too much time on it and
neglecting other stuff, your boss finding embarrassing photos? Nope, and nope. People have been getting obsessed with stuff
long before Facebook, and "Facebook addictions" making the news now
mostly because it's so new. Meanwhile, not everyone finds themselves turned
down from a job because of embarrassing pictures, but every Facebook user is
affected by the No. 1 danger. It's not Facebook addiction, in the sense that
you need to get your fix like a shot of caffeine. It's Facebook dependency, in
the sense that you need Facebook. There are
people that need to check Facebook daily, just because they are so use to
it. The danger isn't that Facebook will
stop working all of a sudden. It’s that
people out there need to get their Facebook fix. It’s not necessarily an addiction it’s just
looking at it throughout the day. Sometimes
people can’t go a day without posting something on Facebook, and based on how
many comments and likes they receive they for some reason feel better about themselves. “Scientists have found what compels people to
constantly update their Facebook status. College students who posted more status
updates than they normally did felt less lonely over the course of a week, even
if no one "Liked" or commented on their posts, researchers found.” (Gannon) It’s not that Facebook is addictive, it’s
more as if people need it to feel important and noticed. That is what I believe to be the worst danger
in regards to Facebook.
Works Cited
Gannon, Megan. Why Some Facebook Users Constantly
Update Status. 3 January 2013. 21 April 2014
<http://www.livescience.com/25972-facebook-status-updates-loneliness.html>.
nick,
ReplyDeleteI like the choice you made as to what a big dark side of new media is. I think Facebook is one of the biggest dark sides out there right now for a few reasons, one being to is easy to fond someone and learn all about them. All your have to do it type in their name and in seconds you can be looking at their profile. The choice you made saying addiction is a dark side is completely true as well. People feel the need to always know whats going on and what everyone else is doing. To people it becomes a habit and becomes a part of a daily routine. There is really no solution, unless the users take it upon themselves to cut back on Facebook.