English Department Nile University ENGL003/ENGL102 - Spring 2022 Article 2 (1%) Read the text and answer the questions: How Social Media Ruined our Social Life When was the last time you missed a dear relative or friend, and you got dressed and drove to see him/her instead of sending a WhatsApp message “I miss you” with a yellow emoji? When was the last time you spent a family night with your parents, spouse or children leaving your phone away, not checking the number of likes or comments on your latest Facebook post? Can you recall the last time you went out and enjoyed a meal with your friends without getting busy posting photos on social media? With the accessibility of the internet, social media has occupied a big part of our lives. According to Statista (2022), more than 3.6 billion people used social media around the globe in the year 2020; this number is expected to jump to 4.41 billion by 2025. Statistics have also shown that internet users spend around 2.5 hours per day on social media and messaging apps. While some people may not get disturbed by these figures, some others consider them alarming, especially with the noticeable impact social media has started to have on us. It has reshaped how we do business, how we learn, how we communicate with each other, and many other aspects of our lives. Even though this effect is at many times a positive one, it is definitely negative when it comes to our social life and relationships. Social media steals the time and attention that should be given to family and friends and opens doors for miscommunications and harmful comparisons. Quality time is the time spent with the most important people in our life, having their undivided attention and full engagement in whatever we do together whether talking, cooking, playing or doing any other shared activity. (1) Social media scrolling nowadays have become an obstacle to spending quality time with loved ones. It is like a skinner box. According to GFC Global, “a Skinner box is a cage containing a mouse, a lever, and a delivery chute. Sometimes when the mouse presses the lever, it's rewarded with food. But other times, nothing happens. The mouse learns that if it keeps on pushing the lever, it might get something tasty. So, it pushes, and pushes, and pushes, until it gets more food”. This is obviously similar to our endless, mindless scrolling of social media, looking for something exciting, funny, entertaining or just simply we like. The one minute we intend to spend on one app turns out to be no less than 30 minutes, being so absorbed in a virtual world and ignoring the people around us. Can you imagine what that can do to quality time? Many families and friends reported having fights over the fact that their partners have become social media addicts that they cannot leave their phones to discuss important family issues or relationship-related problems. (2) This, in turn, makes the other partner feel neglected and that their partner do not put in enough effort to be around, leading to a definite deterioration in the relationship over time. In addition, distracted parents and heavy social media using children find it difficult to have real conversations and proper child-parent bonds (Chair et al., 2018). (3) Consequently, those parents fail to nurture their children and give them enough love and attention, and the children become absorbed in an open world with no limits that puts their lives at risk and lead them to commit suicide. (4) Communicating over social media lack the warmth and rigor of having face-to-face conversations with the people around us. It happens with all the people that their messages get misinterpreted because they cannot see the receiver/sender facial expressions or hear their tone. In addition, many people do not consider the potential effects of their words when typing behind a screen. Not seeing somebody’s facial feedback empowers people to be bolder and ruder while on social media. Renee Edwards, PhD, Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Louisiana State University emphasizes that “misunderstanding is much more common in computer-mediated communication (CMC) than in face-to-face (FTF) communication”. These instances of misunderstanding harm social relationships and cause people to be apart when repeated. Moreover, seeing different people’s posts on social media platforms on a regular basis triggers negative feelings of jealousy, dissatisfaction and inferiority. (5) People starts to compare their lives to the perfect picture shown to them on social media. “Why isn’t my husband so generous like her; he bought her a Ferrari for her birthday!”, “Lucky guy! How come he affords to travel to a new country every month!”, “Oh, she has got a new job, and I am still doing the same tedious job for 10 years now” ...These are just examples of what comes to people’s mind while manically scrolling through social media. They see the end result, but they do not see what’s behind. They focus on others and forget about their own selves. They start to have bad feelings towards family members, friends or colleagues for no real reason. (6) Some absent-minded people think that social media has had a positive effect on our social life as it facilitates communication between people when face to face meetings is not feasible. Many families have a member working or studying abroad, and social media has made it easy to keep in touch with him/her and lessen those feelings of loneliness and missing loved ones. They also believe that social media has been the only way to communicate with others during the lockdown. It has helped people feel less isolated and provided ways for them to enjoy their time while staying at home. (7) While this is true, there is still no replacement for a warm hug, a kind pat on the shoulder, or a deep look in the eye that are full of love and care. (8) Kelly Edwards, a licensed marriage and family therapy associate explains that “touch is essential because of the ways it communicate emotions to others and because it stimulates the production of oxytocin, sometimes known as the love hormone. Touch can be a powerful way of communicating emotions non-verbally. It offers a subtle and more nuanced approach in which we interact with others”. Truthfully, social media has helped leverage the negative psychological effects of the lockdown, but its excessive use has begun to have more disadvantages than advantages. It reduces people’s social skills and makes them less capable of communicating effectively in face-to-face communications, and it takes them to a fake world where they at times make fake friends and receive dishonest or inappropriate advice from other social media users while they can simply turn to their family or friends to have sincere and meaningful conversations. Hence, it is clear that when it comes to our social life, social media has proven to be antisocial. To sum it all up, spending less time with and giving less attention to family and friends, having frequent misunderstandings and slipping into harmful comparisons are a few reasons why social media has harmed our social life. Partners, family and friends spend less quality time together, and this has many negative impacts on all parties. Additionally, social media causes miscommunication between people and triggers many negative feelings due to unruly, harmful comparisons with others. It is highly important to reconsider the amount of time we spend on social media and find ways to control its use before we wake up to a nightmare of having separated couples, neglected children, and lonely individuals. 1) What is the main issue/idea of this article? …........................................................................................................................................... .............................................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................................. 2) What is the writer trying to prove in this article? What is his/her claim? Where is it in the article? …........................................................................................................................................... .............................................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................................. 3) What are the reasons behind the writer’s opinion? How many are they? Are they good reasons? …........................................................................................................................................... .............................................................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................................................. 4) How does the writer support his argument? Does he use evidence from personal experience, examples, statistics, research, observations, logical sequence of ideas, testimonies, etc.? Has the evidence strengthened or weakened the argument? …........................................................................................................................................... .............................................................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................................................. 5) Does the evidence come from relevant and reliable sources? …........................................................................................................................................... .............................................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................................. 6) Is the writer biased? If yes, why do you say so? If no, what is the opposing point of view to the writer’s argument? Where is it in the article? What are the reasons behind this view? Does the writer respond to the counterargument? Is the writer’s refutation strong enough to show the weakness in the opponent’s point of view? …........................................................................................................................................... .............................................................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................................................. 7) Comment on the use of rhetorical appeals in the article. Is the use of appeals effective? Have the appeals strengthened or weakened the argument? …........................................................................................................................................... .............................................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................................. 8) Are there any logical fallacies in the article? If so, Identify and name them. How have these fallacies affected the argument? …........................................................................................................................................... .............................................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................................. 9) Find and correct the subject-verb agreement mistakes in the underlined sentences. …........................................................................................................................................... .............................................................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................................................
