The more active people are in online social networking, the more isolated they become in the

real social interaction.

In this modern world, social networking sites grow fast. Whoever did not know what
Facebook is, or even Twitter, MySpace, and Friendster will be called lame. Currently, there
are 12365780 Facebook users in the Malaysia, which makes it #17 in the ranking of
all Facebook statistics by country (Socialbakers, 2012). We cannot deny that these
networking sites are good to society, but using them without boundaries can lead to many
problems. One of them is the people who tend to be a heavy social networking addict may
become isolated in the real social interaction.

Social networking sites can cause people to spend more time online. This also means
that, they spend less time on face-to-face interaction. Social networking sites usually dine the
people to ‘enjoy’ lots of time wasting activities. NSBA (2007) stated that, teens spend
average nine hours per week on social networking sites. That quality time should be used for
them to meet their friends, exercise or even doing social work.

But how they are prone to become isolated while what they do is interact actively
with their friends in the social networking sites?

Let’s look at the family perspective. When the family members spend hours of their
valuable time on social networking sites, they would not have the time to communicate.
Parents spend less time with their kids and vice versa, because they are using internet instead
of communicate with each other. Thus, the family bond will slowly affect. The parents will
not know how to talk to their kids, and the kids will not share any of their problems or
happiness as they do not know the exact way to approach their parent. Their attitude might
also change, given that they will not respect each other. Young Soo Shim (2007) stated in his
study also found that decreases in the desire for face-to-face communication with family were
significantly associated with using the Internet for escape. In other words, as teenagers spend
more time online, they lose desire for spending time with their parents and other family
members and try to find an escape in cyberspace.

Apart from that, you might not know the person behind the screen whom you talked
to. As Larry D. Rosen said in his blog, "Everything you do on social networks, you're doing
behind the safety of a screen," he said. "You're not paying attention...there's a real flesh and
blood human being at the other end of cyberspace and your words might have consequences
for that person." In this imaginary world of online social networking, we tend not to respect
the sensitivity of other person. The words we throw might hurt another person’s feeling and
thus broaden the gap between people.

People who tend to use social networking sites as the medium for them to express
their anger and frustration are also more isolated then those who are willing to face the
problem. This is because they do not have confidence in their selves and low on their self-
esteem. Usually, they feel more comfortable expressing themselves in the social networking
sites rather than having a friend to talk to, face-to-face. This will contribute to a big impact as
they will never know how to face and solve their problem professionally.

Most of the people who used the social networking sites share their photos and private
information. Yes, this info might help our friend in finding us, but it will also expose us to
cybercrime. Irresponsible people might use our private information against us and may result
depression and losing self-esteem. There have also been several instances where employers
or prospective employers have used information posted on these sites in evaluating
employees. Worst still, some people find sharing other’s weaknesses as fun. People might get
offended and become scare to face the reality.

So, all of us should take appropriate actions to prevent social networking from making
our future generations become introvert person. Parents should spend more of their free times
with their kids. The Internet itself is not a problem. The real problem is how people use it. As
the results showed, people who go to online social networking site to avoid contact with
others and to escape from the real world may be more likely to lose the desire for social
interaction even with their family. As McKenna and Bargh (2000) rightly said, the Internet
may only be what the users make of it. In this context, the social networking sites could
become a great public technology to help people to connect with others and to expand their
social horizon. At the same time, the Internet could become a socially isolating technology if
people use it to avoid contact with people around them and to escape from the real world. It is
up to us on how we use the technology.
Bibliography
Gupta, D. S. (2011, August 6). Kids and social networking: Pros and Cons. Retrieved March 20, 2012,
from CNN Health: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/06/kids-and-social-networking-
pros-and-cons/

Shim, Y. S. (2007). The Impact of the Internet on Teenagers’ Face-to-Face Communication. Global
Media Journal.

Socialbakers. (2012). Malaysia Facebook Statistics. Retrieved March 20, 2012, from Socialbakers:
http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/malaysia

The National School Boards Association. (2007, July). CREATING & CONNECTING//Research and
Guidelines on Online Social — and Educational — Networking. Duke Street, Alexandria.