After reading the article "Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?", I knew I had to post something on this blog. This article made so much sense to me. We've all probably heard or read accusations that spending time on Facebook - or the internet in general - replaces our desire for human contact, and we search for friends online instead of in the real world now. It's the entire idea behind The Social Network, which is one of my favorite movies.
I am an active user of Facebook, and I do log on at least once a day, usually more. I have a few hundred contacts on Facebook. A lot of them are family and friends, and then there are classmates and coworkers I added to make communication about homework and projects easier. But I have never requested to be friends with someone I have never personally met or accepted a friend request from a stranger. I have never understood the logic behind that.
And here is the true insight of the article: Facebook does not REPLACE your social network. It merely TRANSFERS your contacts from one platform to the other. I agree with Burke's research in that the people who experience loneliness on Facebook are most likely lonely in real life too. Online a Greek brother or sister can have 1000+ friends and then you see the profile of a socially awkward person you know from class who has maybe 30+ friends. Those numbers may not be precise, but they are generally accurate in contrasting the size ratio of the social circles these people would probably have in real life.
Finally, the communication I have with my friends over Facebook doesn't replace my desire to hang out with them in person. I didn't spend Friday night in my room looking at Facebook, I went out with my friends to see The Avengers. I don't know for certain what I'm doing tonight yet, but I guarantee it won't be updating a Facebook status.
On the idea of transference of actual numbers of friends, I would like to comment though, that the article did mention that those numbers actually do have an affect on the actual affects of Facebook & loneliness. If someone has 1000+ friends on Facebook and they do actually know a lot of people in the real world, the chances are still that that person checking Facebook actively is far more likely to get lonelier because they see so much social activity, and if they're not the center of a lot of it, they statistically show greater increase in loneliness. BUT I do agree with most of your opinion. I believe that Facebook is merely an extension of the person behind it. It isn't solely responsible for a lonely person being lonely.
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