Facebook helps you connect…or does it?

Facebook provides false promises of getting you connected, giving you the chance to meet new people, and granting you access to explore the world. These are the things one could hope for when socializing, right? In high school only one of my friend had a Facebook, being connected to all of the people you saw every day for some reason was not as important to us. But as soon as I started college back in 2008, the first thing one of my college acquaintances said, “You have to have a Facebook…get connected.” Now as a junior I have a Facebook that I barely update and the seven graders I teach are more connected, but of course under an alias because they would want to friended their mother who is also on Facebook. So the questions here are, why is there such a need to be connected and does Facebook really connected you to these people you will probably never meet in person? The truth is that Facebook has substituted human interaction with virtual interaction, causing people to become socially inept. Such people spend an exorbitant amount of time chatting online, updating statuses and looking at hundreds of other people’s photos instead of, for instance, playing a game of basketball with their peers or going out to meet new people face to face. The social skills that one would have learned from day to day experiences with friends, family, or just people for that matter, are now being replaced with the growing use of technology. If this dangerous trend continues, eventually people will never have to leave their homes. Neighbors will never know who the person is living next door, boyfriends and girlfriends will never know for sure if there significant other is really good-looking, and best friends will never get to hear the sounds of each other’s laughs when sharing an inside joke. Social networks like Facebook discourage physical interactions by bring people together virtually, defaulting one of the key components of social interactions.