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The connection to social media and mental health
The connection to social media and mental health
The connection to social media and mental health
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Regardless of their characteristics, and outward appearances, monsters have one common ground; encountering them may have devastating repercussions in our lives which may be irreversible. It is easy for us to think of people or things that purposefully intend to cause us harm, such as rapist and murderers as monsters among us. This is undoubtedly true, the aftermath victims and their families have to endure are detrimental and will have lifelong negative effects. However, the reality is that the majority of the individuals in our society will never have to face these monsters head on and since we are taught from childhood different ways to avoid these monsters by not talking to strangers and so on, there are known ways for us to protect …show more content…
Naturally, we all have the need to be accepted. This is one of our fundamental desires. We were not created to be alone so logically we seek approval of others and long to be a part of our peer’s world and they in ours. Social media has turned this primary desire belong and reduced it down to likes and retweets. This continual need for validation, when sought online, may be extremely dangerous because we are attempting to define and establish the value of who we are. This causes us to take greater external measures to increase this misdirected classification of our …show more content…
We post pictures of ourselves after they have been edited and then share the good news. We never post pictures or update our status to share the bad time that always linger in the background clouding our lives. We are in the pursuit of developing an image of perfection then attempt to rely on this imaginative image we have of ourselves while burying the truth of who we are and what we are going through. The maintenance of this facade can further decrease our self-esteem and self-worth. While in the process of creating these artificial connections we fail to realize we are isolating ourselves from forming real relationships. This complied with the unjust evaluations of our accomplishments can lead to a lowered self-esteem and deepen our depression. Now I am not placing total blame on social media of these negative effects. I am however attempting to make it known that this is just a tool that has made it easier for us to see our voids and short
The attraction of users to Facebook, or social media in general, isn’t that difficult to comprehend. Over the course of the past 60 years, the percentage of people live alone has increased by 17 percent. In the 50’s it was 10 percent, in 2010, it was estimated at 27 percent. The promise of a greater connection seems extremely attractive to those living in solitary. Here is the irony, what Facebook and Social media provides, differs a great deal from what is needed to create and sustain deeper emotional AND Lasting
Monsters are supposed to scare people and represent their fears. In most monster movies, the monster is a huge, ugly, non-human beast that terrorizes the city and destroys everything. But in the 1985 film The Stuff, the monster appears to be an innocuous dessert; what does that say about the fears of society? Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, an expert on monster culture, explains this and more in his article “Monster Culture (Seven Theses)” reprinted in the textbook Monsters in 2012. Cohen’s first thesis of monster culture, The Monster’s Body is a Cultural Body, argues that “The monster’s body quite literally incorporates fear, desire, anxiety, and fantasy, giving them life and an uncanny independence” (12). According to Cohen, the outward appearance of the monster reflects the fears and anxieties of the culture from which it originated. The first thesis says that the monster is not just a monster; it embodies the things the society wants to cast out as different from it, made into flesh.
Furthermore, it is thought that social media lets humans connect with others and have more friends than those in the real world. However, this is not always true. People worry about their online worlds and whether people will like them. Online, people are more judgemental than real world friends, which can lead to a low self-esteem. The article “YES: Connecting Virtually Isn’t Like Real-World Bonding” by Larry Rosen states that “...our constant need to check comes from anxiety…” Obviously, technology has a negative effect on people as far as lower self-esteem and
Do you ever wonder how monsters are created in our society? The dehumanization of individuals can cause both the perpetrator and the dehumanized to act in monstrous ways. But, why and how are they created in our world? Some monsters are created to “help us cope with what we dread most in life” (Donovan) and in turn bring communities together. Philip Zimbardo, a social psychologist, believes that anonymity and the situation a “good” person is in can cause them to act monstrously. Although the effects of a monster can be devastating, communities come together to combat them through reconciliation as well as the promotion of heroism.
Have you ever made any friends via Facebook, Twitter, or Snapchat that you have never met before? I know I have through Twitter due to having the same interests. Some may say those friends are not really your friends, but virtual ones instead. In the article, “The Limits of Friendships,” by Maria Konnikova, she talks about friendships that are made virtually and in reality. The author argues that the use of social media has hindered friendships and face to face connections within one’s social circle, however, she does not address that they have met their closest support group through social media. Face to face connections help identify who one’s true friends are and they are more realistically made when it is in person rather than over social media, but there Konnikova fails to address the fact that social media has allowed many to connect
A monster is a group that doesn’t obey common societal rules or regulations and is often viewed as an oddity of our society, according to Jeffrey Cohen’s Monster Culture. When the dominant part of our society trusts in an idea or holds something to be legitimate, the monsters dependably trust the inverse. Monster’s have the aspects to think outside the common societal norm. Monsters represent the ideas of our society that we are fearful to contemplate further into that it is something outside of our nature. Monsters cause us to contemplate a societal perspective that we wouldn't ordinarily think as our own. Monsters challenge our basic perspective and encourage us to think deeper into the common themes of our society. Finally, Monsters incite
“ The real world is where monsters are”, Rick Riordan states in the movie, Lightning Thief. Many people consider monsters as wicked malicious creature who haunt or torture others. Although this is true, monsters can also be found within the souls. Modern day monsters can be found within people, in stores, and in the real world.
In the book Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein creates a monster in his laboratory as a grief outlet for the recent death of his mother. The monster roams around Geneva to learn the patterns of life and how to be accepted into society. Why does the monster turn violent toward Victor’s family and not to society in general? The monster hurts Victor’s family members to punish Victor because he feels rejected by society due to his grotesque appearance. Victor doesn’t try to make him this way; he just is experimenting and happens to create the being this way. The monster is trying to get revenge on Victor for creating him as an “outcast”.
In her article “Friends Indeed?” Joel Garreau explains that for two decades, online social networks have been touted as one of the finest flowerings of our new era. But what is the strength of ties so weak as to barely exist? Who will lend you lunch money? Who’s got your back?” Technology has overtaken individuals by social media, allowing many people to communicate online rather than having face-to-face communication. Many “relationships” begin online, and end online. Although, true relationships are rarely created fast, it gradually grows and becomes stronger and stronger over the years. However, in our immediate society this is not the case. But the questions still remains, as Joel Garreau points out “Who would lend you lunch money?” in other words, who will help you physically not online. In our impatient society, technologies influenced the way individual communicate, and that often times leads to depression, loneliness and addictions.
In this world, from a long time ago, monsters have appeared and presented around us in many telling story. In fact, monsters are considered as something which is abnormal, and usually accused of having the ability to threaten and destroy humanity. Perfectly, the film The Elephant Man emphasizes about John Merrick who has a disfigured appearance, and also is called a monster. Fortunately, Dr. Frederick Treves finds out about Merrick when he is wandering around the freak shows, and tries to examine and help Merrick come back to the real society. On the other hand, people have opportunities to observe and judge Merrick as a new phenomenon. In the connection to the same focus, Jeffery Cohen’s Monster Theory gives contentions about monsters and their influences to the real life and humanity in the relation to the film, especially the first thesis – Monster’s body is a cultural body, the sixth – Fear of the monster is really a kind of desire, and the seventh one – Monster stands at the threshold of becoming.
We went without new “monsters” for some time, before they began to be recycled, with twists. Instead monsters were humans without affect, without boundaries, without human feelings, psychopaths and sociopaths, killers without remorse, brutal murderers who fit in and appeared to be “normal”: the monster within (Think Hannibal Lector, the boy-next-door character in American Psycho, the female murderer in the 2003 film Monster, which is in part an ironic title. Charlize Theron won the best actress Oscar for her
Social media has taken over the world of communication and has changed the ways in which we communicate on a daily basis. It is extremely influential on our lives because of how easily we are able to access these mediums of communication. I’m intrigued by the effects that social media has on people’s perceptions of their self-worth. Almost all of the social networking sites seem to measure, at least to some extent, the popularity level or status of its users. All have a number of ‘followers’ or ‘friends’ which if there’s a high number of followers or friends that seems to elevate a person’s popularity level or their online status. This in turn could make their self-esteem or ego rise, whereas if their follower level is low it may disappoint or aggravate that user. All of these sites also offer areas where followers can ‘like’ pictures or posts, ‘comment’ on these pictures/posts, ‘share’ the post, and what have you. How important are ‘likes’ and whatnot to our actual self-esteem? Do we value online popularity the same way or more than we value real-life interactions? How could this affect the mental health of those who use these networking sites? Is this kind of online community promoting more narcissistic persons in the community? So many questions… I’m not alone in asking these questions. I’m convinced that social media has a negative influence on the self-esteem of its users.
"We believe that more relationships provide more opportunity." (Source 2). It has gotten into the minds of avid Internet users that the more people you have retweeting you, liking your pictures, or your status, the more social you become. How many of these followers are actually their friends? The more notifications you have on social media does not equal the amount of friends you have. It does not make you social, it just makes you another active user on social media. Receiving notifications does not help you make friends. Even just having a little chat with people online does not mean you are friends. More relationships with people online do not provide any opportunity of creating any real friendships. Friendship are not created by liking someone's status or retweeting someone's picture. ". . . online Americans tend to have 644 ties on average." (Source 1). There is more focus on making connections, than making real friends. A casual conversation does not automatically create a real friendship. Online you can create a larger group of connections, but this does not make you social. The social ties that the internet offers do not create a real bond between people. Social media connections do not help you create a real relationship with another person. More social ties do not mean you are interacting with more people, it just means you have connections with a larger group. I don’t agree with the belief that
These things have become so common that not having them almost makes it seem like there is something missing. Because of features such as these, it is incredibly easy to share every aspect of what we are reading, doing, eating and listening to with everyone in our social networks. While this has meant incredible advances in the way we interact with our world, it has also fundamentally changed the way our social relationships are created and sustained. Social medial led users to have false impression of others and changed our feelings. Because social media users tend to only show the most positive aspects of their lives, social media users have a false sense of reality when it comes to how they seem themselves, how others see them and how they see other people. “It is not difficult to say that social media effect our perception of others” (Goshgarian213).
“According to Cornell University's Steven Strogatz, social media sites can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media” (Jung, 2016). It is not a shocking fact when you notice that it requires much less energy to just sit around and text. It sounds innocent at first but when you realize that people are now spending hours and hours on their screens some concern