The Escape Of Anomie Analysis

Victoria Roney
Professor Fitz Gibbon
10-24-17
Essay 2

The Escape of Anomie Through Social Media

Durkheim’s interest would have been heightened by the technological revolution. Many arguments have been made that attribute anomie to social media. A common conception about the usage of social media is the perceived correlation it has to loneliness, seclusion, and fragmentation among members of society. The state of anomie is the state of nothingness: there is no fulfilling feeling because there are too many options and we do not know what to pick. Social fragmentation arguably can occur when certain individuals feel disconnected to others around them. Higher feelings of anomie are anticipated with the rise of smartphones and the internet. There

People found work within cities in factory jobs. Labor became specialized as society became more modernized. In chapter 5, Forms of social solidarity, Durkheim addresses both forms of solidarity: organic solidarity and mechanical solidarity. In conditions previous to the industrial and technological revolutions, similarities found within smaller communities brought unity between members. Social solidarity was formed through similar experiences, situations, and religion. Prosperity and despair within these mechanical social structures were felt as a whole. Durkheim argued that pre-industrial revolution, these shared struggles, and religion were the invisible glue that held society together. Durkheim contended that through the rise of urban cities and the population of people within them, it was the differences between people that formed the social solidarity versus the similarities in previous years. Mechanical solidarity occurs at higher rates in less complex societies. Attitudes are shared by individuals in a society that functions off of mechanical

Durkheim would argue that social media helps to bring people together and form a certain social solidarity. Durkheim would argue that through mechanical solidarity the internet provides it becomes the invisible glue that holds us together. For example, texting and Facebook provide us with a way to talk and connect with people around us. Goals and desires can be attained through the internet. When there are no objectives to reach, anomie becomes present. “But if at any point this barrier weakens, these previously restrained human forces pour tumultuously through the open breach; once loosed they find no limits where they can stop.” (Durkheim 173) He is explaining that when the barrier that contains society (the totality of moral rules) is broken, there are individuals left with no sense of attainment ultimately leading to anomie. For instance, on Instagram, when a goal of 1,000 likes is reached, an individual feels that a desire was attained and that their value was reaffirmed. Social media provides us the objectives to connect ourselves to other people. We are able to find meaning through networking which has become extremely