Does Social Media Cause Isolation?

Social media allows us to communicate with millions of people all over the world. However, it is constantly criticized as meaningless and something that causes isolation. For the past few years, people all over the world have enjoyed videos on the internet. They could film a video, post it online, and the whole world could see it. Social media flourished as people flooded these sites. However, we have since moved into the age of live streaming. Unlike other social media sites that resemble texting, people can interact with each other right then and there. Past studies have mostly focused on social media, content, or the effects of streaming in the educational and vocational settings. Little research has been done regarding the impact these

Despite the fact that social media connects us billions of people, those who use social media more have higher levels of perceived social isolation (Primack et al., 2017). More studies must be done though as it is still unknown whether people flock to social media as a result of perceived social isolation or whether the actual site contributes to it. Those who use social media more may be more likely to have an anxiety disorder (Vannucci, Flannery, & Ohannessian, 2017). The fear of missing out is a major factor in social media usage, and other factors such as extraversion, neuroticism, and insecure attachment may also influence this (Blackwell, Leaman, Tramposch, Osborne, & Liss, 2017). Although social media may attract many different people, it elicits an emotional and physical response. When using Facebook, people feel happy, but also display signs of stress (Mauri, Cipresso, Balgera, Villamira, & Riva, 2011). During the use of Facebook as compared to being relaxed, the skin becomes a better conductor of electricity, respiration rates are heightened, and less pupil

If users visit social media sites to communicate, is this a similar goal when it comes to streaming? It is one of the factors. Social activity, boredom, entertainment, co-viewing, and information seeking are just some of the reasons why users visit video sites like YouTube (Haridakis & Hanson, 2009). When it comes to sites like Twitch.tv, users experience cognitive, affective, personal integrative, social integrative, and tension release gratification depending on the number of hours they have watched, the number of streamers they watched, the number of streamers they follow, and if they are a paying subscriber (Sjöblom & Hamari,