Generation Y & Facebook
Generation Y refers to people born in mid-1980 and later which means young adults today. Generation Y grew up with technology and relies on it to perform a better life. Through technology students can make their class work done much easier than before, submitting work through the internet to avoiding late work. Some student may afraid to ask question during the class, they may email their professor to clarify their question, and it’s more convenient than having an appointment to see their professor. Technology in particular has made students’ lives easier and more fun. One of the biggest social networking phenomenon’s today is Facebook. It’s a web connecting people and providing them the ability to share. Facebook is highly popular among teenagers today. In her essay “Generation Why” British novelist Zadie Smith (at Harvard with Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerburg) justifies her negative stance toward social media by stating that Facebook is only the byproduct of the “mindless musings of a college sophomore”. The article “Growing up Digital, Wired for Distraction” by Math Richtel, he report how the emerging use of technology in the classrooms and how digital technology might be changing the way the brain develops.
It’s about both the positive and the negative aspects on technology for generation why. In “Frazzled By Face book? An exploration of Gender Differences in Social Network Communication Among Undergraduate Men and Women,” Sharon H. Thompson and Eric Lougheed explore the effects of Face book use on male and female college students, concluding that Face book, especially among female students, causes stress anxiety and sleeplessness. Based on three research sources above and my own experience, Face book has many disadvantages and several advantages for Generation Y; diminishing intellectual self-development, and the overwhelming time spending in Facebook cause stress and anxiety, but at the same time it’s creating the ability to learn and share new things.
The Essay on Is social media ruining our lives? Do you think social networking sites like Face book have an over all negative effect on society ?
The Negative Effects of Social Media & Technology Why so many people cannot live without their phone updating their face book? In this generation people are so addicted on face book. Before and after they go to bed they cannot help themselves checking other people’s status and updating their personal life. According to About.com Web tends, “Social media is form of electronic communication ...
One of the disadvantages of Facebook is diminishing intellectual self-development. I wouldn’t argue with Smith that Facebook is reducing generation yer language vocabulary. She wonders “is it really fulfilling our need? Or are we reducing the needs we feel in order to convince ourselves that the software isn’t limited?” (p94).
Yes! We are reducing the needs we feel in order to convince ourselves that the software isn’t limited. Facebook user is diminishing their vocabulary by using all abbreviation in technology. All teenagers often fill in their wall with abbreviation message and comment such as LOL (laugh out loud), Missin’ you…Despite with generation X, they used to read book to search for information, the more they read is the more they learn vocabulary. Similar to Vishal in the article “Growing up digital, wired for distraction”, a brightest students found his habit pulling his grade down from 3.2 GPA to 2.3 GPA. Vishal notes that “I know I can read a book, but then I’m up and checking Facebook,” he says, adding: “Facebook is amazing because it feels like you’re doing something and you’re not doing anything. It’s the absence of doing something, but you feel gratified anyway.” (Web) In short, Facebook could reduce the intelligent of human if we excess the limit of time spending in social networking. Not only reduce the intelligent of our brain, addicting to Facebook can cause another affect to our health.
The Essay on Facebook: Friend or Foe?
On September 7, 2012, Amanda Todd posted a 9-minute YouTube video entitled “My Story: Struggling, Bullying, Suicide and Self Harm,” which showed her using flash cards to reveal her experiences of being bullied. During the video, Amanda writes that when she was in seventh grade, she once used video chat to meet new people over the Internet and soon began receiving compliments on her looks. A ...
The overwhelming of spending time on Facebook can cause stress anxiety. Most young adult rely on the site to keep in touch with their friend, and they don’t want to miss out something important or offend other. Some Facebook users may enjoy collecting hundreds of virtual friend, but it turn out that those online relationships can cause a lot of stress, as well. According to the study of gender differences in social network communication among undergraduate men and women, Sharon H. Thompson and Eric concluded that “Facebook provides a venue for young adults to express themselves and interact with each other; however distinct gender differences are found related to anxiety and stress from Facebook use.” In fact, there are 88% of women out of 268 college students who were primarily freshmen strongly agree and agree that Facebook was a part of their everyday activities and they are using almost two hours a day. Otherwise, 76% of male are strongly agree/agree. The increased stress for women could become greater stress and anxiety than male reflected on the survey (Birnbaum & Thompson, 2011).
Most of young adult are reporting that Facebook user often losing time of sleep, feeling addicted, and feeling a loss of control over checking Facebook (survey 2001).
Despite its distracting potential, Facebook does have some advantage for generation Y, the ability to learn, share new things and keep up with the world. For example, I was able to learn a lot of new rules and important information, after the communication with many friends from CCP in Facebook who went to the same field such as what course should we take first or when should we apply to the CLT (Clinical Laboratory Technician) program. In “Generation Why”, Smith wonders “if the whole internet will simply become like Facebook: falsely jolly, fake friendly, self-promoting, and slickly disingenuous” (p192).
I totally disagree with her at this point. I think she makes a mistake to diminish the value of technology. We can be 2.0 persons living and working within the realm of the Internet. But it’s doesn’t mean these make the connections weaker, quite the opposite actually. However, it’s important to remember that we also use the Internet to share photos, songs and e-mails with people we love, people we wouldn’t necessarily be able to share ourselves with. Our appetites may hunger for more, faster, better, stronger versions of this Internet based reality but I believe there will always be a part of our identity, our spirituality that keeps us from completely living within a matrix; it’s that special something that keeps us intellectually, undeniably and lovingly human; whatever the meaning of life may be. Another example of my-self, one of my high school friend pass away during the car accident. Without Facebook, I had never known this happen because we haven’t keep in touch after the high school graduation. In short, if we keep up with Facebook, we are able to learn more things and keep up with the world.
The Essay on Internet Generation
We live in the age of information and technology, a great milestone which humankind has reached within a remarkably short period. Just only a few decades ago the average persons had very limited access to information because due to lack of technology. Everything transformed since the introduction of the Internet, which is a relatively novel phenomenon in the history of mankind. We are the ...
In conclusion, Facebook is social phenomenon of generation today. Facebook gives us ability to share and learn but it also brings us many troubles with the addiction of Facebook. It seem like there are more negative effect than positive effect through our research.
Works Cited
Richtel, Matt. “Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction.” The New York Times. 10
November 2010. Web. 29 Mach 2012.
Sharon, Thompson, and Lougheed Eric. “An Exploratory study of gender differences in
social network communication among undergraduate men and women.” Frazzled by facebook?. 88-98. Print.
Smith, Zadie. “Generation Y?” Edwidge, Danticat. The Best American Essays. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2011.
