How Social Media Is Ruining Your Social Life
Looking at the Effects of Social Media on Social Interaction Through Science and Symbolic Interactionism
Participating on social media websites is among the most common activities of today’s children and adolescents. Any website that includes social interaction is considered a social media site, including sites such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter; and video games/virtual worlds such as Sims, Animal Crossing, Minecraft. Sites such as these “offer today’s youth and adults a portal for entertainment and communication and have grown exponentially in recent years” (O’keeffe). For this reason, many have grown wary of the nature of social media sites, given that not all of them are healthy environments for adolescents.
Twitter, and Instagram have changed the way people associate with each other to a major extent and play a role in defining one’s social status friendships and social habits.
As social media advances to become increasingly popular, claims that it has started to overcome the lives of millennials and has given them unhealthy social environments have increased as well. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have changed the way people associate with each other to a major extent and play a role in defining one’s social status friendships and social habits. While the changes posed by social media are extensive, they are not all negative.
A basic understanding of the sociological perspective of interactionism is needed to fully grasp the gamut of impact social media has on social interaction. The perspective emerged in the mid-twentieth century from a variety of influences, but its greatest influence was American philosopher George Herbert Mead with his ideas and theories about the relationship between one’s self and one’s society. Symbolic interactionism addresses how “society is created and maintained through repeated interactions among individuals” (Carter).
Face-to-face interaction requires people to take some responsibility in the way they portray themselves…Social media acts as a mediator between each person and those barriers are removed.
Summarized concisely, the basic tenets of symbolic interactionism state that: (1) individuals act based on the meanings objects have for them; (2) interaction occurs within a particular social and cultural context in which physical and social objects (persons), as well as situations, must be defined or categorized based on individual meanings; (3) meanings emerge from interactions with other individuals and with society; and (4) meanings are continuously created and recreated through interpreting processes during interaction with others (Blumer).
For symbolic interactionists, the prevailing perspective was that society was just a constraining body that essentially defined an individual. Symbolic interactionism moved away from perspectives that created over-socialized views of people and moved toward such that conceives the individual as fundamental in molding their social world (Carter).
With the knowledge of the perspective of symbolic interactionism, one can dive into the ways in which social media changes how people interact. Face-to-face interaction requires people to take some responsibility in the way they portray themselves. Social barriers are built around the direction of communication: seeing, hearing, and speaking. (Meyrowitz) Whether that be emotional behavior, word choice, or body language there is an implicit sense of limitation when it comes to social interaction.
Social media acts as a mediator between each person and those barriers are removed. In many cases individuals feel no need to filter their speech, especially among secondary relationships and when an inappropriate statement is made the repercussions are minimal. With such low consequences, many see social media as a low risk way to publicly present their inappropriate and offensive content. Cyberbullying is a quite common and negative result of the lack of social barriers. Current studies show that an individual participating in social media is more likely to experience bullying which can cause psychosocial outcomes such as depression or severe isolation (O’keeffe).
This behavior link in social interaction is referred to by psychologists as the “chameleon effect” and suggests that the mere perception of another’s behavior dramatically increases the likelihood of engaging in that behavior oneself.
One of the aspects in the interactionist perspective demonstrates that meanings are continuously created and recreated through interpreting processes during interaction with others. If one’s interactions are tainted by bullying, the way they define their identity will be affected by that. As interaction on social media continues to influence the way people interact face-to-face, the risk factor is worrisome. Although the removal of social barriers can be intimidating and may cause conflict, blunt and to the point mentalities towards face-to-face interaction may help to facilitate more honest and open conversations and people decipher which of their relationships are genuine and which are not. In other words, unfiltered speech risks controversy and could end relationships, but the relationships maintained would be built on honest interaction and because, meanings emerge from interactions with other individuals and with society, this would be a beneficial change brought by social media.
The breakdown of social barriers is one of many changes social media brings to social interaction. Another is its effects on one’s social behavior or mannerisms. Psychological studies have shown that people who use social media often show similar changes in their behaviors such as postures or facial expressions. People started becoming less aware of how they held themselves. Experiments conducted for the study demonstrated that the motor behavior of individuals who will use social media often subconsciously mimicked the mannerisms of their friends, acquaintances, and even strangers (Chartrand). This behavior link in social interaction is referred to by psychologists as the “chameleon effect” and suggests that the mere perception of another’s behavior dramatically increases the likelihood of engaging in that behavior oneself. This could be a problematic effect of social media on social interaction because if one individual is interacting with another who behaves negatively, that first individual will likely have a negative outcome as well. Likewise, if an individual is interacting with another who behaves positively, that individual will likely have a positive outcome. The chameleon effect refers closely to the idea that individuals act based on the meanings people have for them and has both a positive and negative outcome.
Symbolic interactionism focuses on how individuals interpret the interactions they have with other people. This sociological theory can be directly related but not limited to social media and its effects on society. Being is one of the most popular forms of entertainment and communication, social media fascinates some but worries others about the vast changes it brings to the rules of interaction. As social media continues to advance and grow its positive outcomes increase as well as its negative outcomes. Once people perceive the negative outcomes to outweigh the positive, a call for change will come and an attempt at social reform will be enacted to restore healthy social interaction. Until then, social media will continue to dramatically change the way people associate with each other for better or for worse.
Citations:
O’keeffe, Gwenn. S., and K. Clarke-Pearson. “The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families.” American Academy of Pediatrics 127.4 (2011): 800–04. American Academy of Pediatrics, 2011. Web. 1 Mar. 2017. <www.pediatrics.org/ cgi/doi/10.1542/peds.2011- 0054 doi:10.1542/peds.2011–0054>.
Carter, Micheal J., and Celene Fuller. “Symbolic Interactionism.” Sociopedia. Sociopedia, 2015.Web. 26 Feb. 2017. <http://www.sagepub.net/isa/resources/pdf/Symbolic% 20interactionism.pdf+>.
Blumer, Herbert, “Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method.” Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969. Web. 1 Mar. 2017.
Meyrowitz, Joshua. “Physical Passage and Social Passage.” No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior. New York: Oxford UP, 2014. 121–22. Print.
Chartrand, Tanya L.; Bargh, John A. “The chameleon effect: The perception–behavior link and social interaction.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 76(6), Jun 1999, 893–910. Web. 26 Feb. 2017. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.6.893>.
