The Power of Social Networks

Communication: a way to keep in touch with your close ones, to feel more connected to them and to maintain those important relationships. Right? Maybe not.

While a catch up over the phone, or constant emailing are definite ways to keep in contact with friends and family, the mode of communication that the Western World now regards as second nature, social media, can almost have the opposite effect.

Although Facebook, Twitter and Google+ all set out to create platforms where we can be constantly connected with each other, do they really create that warm, positive feeling we get after we’ve just had a long and lively phone call with an old friend?

I think everyone can honestly admit to using Facebook as more than just a way to talk to friends. Let’s face it, we stalk. No-one should try to hide away from the fact either, we all do it. Whether you log in every day or just a few times in a month, it’s very hard to resist the urge to have a little explore around your news feed. It’s almost as though it’s become a natural facet of Facebook: the stalking element.

So when you’re having a snoop around your “friend’s” latest album, where they went on that amazing trip with all their beautiful friends, going to the hippest places and having the greatest time; does this make you happy? Yes, we may feel glad – particularly if it is someone you genuinely like – that they have enjoyed themselves, but does it not provoke a slight tinge of jealousy? Does it not simply make us question whether we are having as good a time as those joyful people in the photos?

Perhaps I’m just too cynical, but it is easy to see how social networks have the power to force a feeling of comparison upon their users. Status updates and profile pictures can be manipulated to become merely ways for us to compete with each other; devices used to try to portray our own lives as more exciting and inspiring than others.

Now I know there are people who couldn’t care less about what crops up on their news feeds. They have their account for singular purposes such as to keep in contact with long distance family and friends and to me, that's admirable. But, it does seem as though the more and more addicted we become to social media, the more it engulfs our lives.

I am one of those social media victims, yet I can still see the absurdity of it all. Although I may check my Facebook and my Twitter as often as Apple releases a new product, I am still fully aware that this constant need to always be in contact with your hundreds of friends is really quite pointless.

While I do believe that the internet can be a great way to keep up to date with your true close ones, it’s ridiculous to think that over the years I have collected such a multitude of so-called ‘Facebook friends’, that I can now hardly remember some of their surnames. 

If I really wanted to know about a friend’s latest escapade, I think I’d get hold of my phone, not the Facebook homepage.