Why Does Relying on Social Media Affect our interpersonal Skills and Leave Us with the Fear of Being Alone?

Every year new technology is released to the public that is supposed to make life easier. This new technology allows us to do various task from looking up recipes to setting reminders by voice activation. It seems however, that with all this new technology being released, it is becoming more socially acceptable to avoid interpersonal commutations with one another and just communicate thought the use of social media and all these fancy gadgets that “serve as portals” to one another. (Sherry Turkle, 155). Technology that allows social media communications to be possible so easily is relatively new to humans which leads us to question what are the long term benefits and consequences associated with the use of technology to make life easier. The authors William Dereseiwicz, Sherry Turkle, and Peter Singer all wrote essays on the similar topics about how the rise of technology and social media in general as vastly changing the way human beings interact with one another and the effects the internet has on our brains. After reading their work and looking at their evidence, it is evident to me that technology affects us human beings by making us lose our ability to speak to one another with the same confidence level that our past generations and inflicts fear of us being out of the circle.

After reading the works of Dereseiwicz, Turkle, and Singer it evident that human beings now have more excuses to avoid meeting new people. They rather be stuck on their smartphone tweeting about how bored they are rather than putting their phone down for a while and talking to new people around them. Turkle’s essay “Always On” supports the claim that we humans fear leaving the safety associated with our available communications technology. Tuckle gi...

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...t become consumed by it because we still need our interpersonal skills when it comes to the professional world like interviews. Even if your resume is the best of the stack, your interpersonal skills will need to be just as good or even better. So although most would argue that technology is the best thing that has happened to us since the wheel, its drawbacks are evident as it draws our constant attention and not allowing us to be in the moment as we are in fear of being alone.

Works Cited

Dereseiwicz, William. “The End of Solitude.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. 30 Jan. 2009.

Web 16 April 2009.

Singer, Peter. “Visible Man: Ethics in a World without Secrets.” Harper’s Magazine. August

2011: 31-36

Turkle, Sherry. “Always On.” Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less

from Each Other. New York: Basic Books, 2011. 155-168