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Thalia Oyen 1 May 2012 English 1102 Rieman, spring 2012

This paper has been my best work so far this semester. It has really challenged me to learn and revise my own writing skills. The most influential suggestion I have received that has impacted my form of thinking towards my paper, is the formatting of my information. I have been challenged to think on how to sort my thoughts and ideas into a clear and more cohesive paper. After peer revisions and finding the perfect format .I have concluded that it has turned out well and my writing sounds thought-out and organized.

Anti-Social Networking Standing on the train listening to my music and ignoring the surroundings has me questioning myself if Im an outcast? Has technology affected me so much that I can cut out everything that is happening around me and go to my little world with my music? Have I been the only one influenced by technology? I have noticed other teens, and adults with music blasting out their ear buds, or watching teens rapidly texting on their cell phones. With this inquiry project I have decided to research and question the negative affects technology has caused upon society mainly with social networking websites. Influence:

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Technology has been the new member in our everyday lives and has affected us in the things we do and how we prioritize our things especially when using the internet. Such affect on prioritization on society has caused many advantages and disadvantages within the way we interact with each other, and with the things that we do in our everyday lives. Technology advancements has broken many barriers to long distance communication. and has made it available in the click of a button to have the person right in front of you on your computer screen .It has made the world so much smaller avoiding making the trip across the world. Compared to long ago when to receive a message from across a state it would take weeks and now to get a message across the world it would only take seconds. Disadvantages to so much power and quickness to communication has created people within a society to use the same techniques and lose the skill of socialization. Rather than meeting up with a person and spending time socializing, society just instant messages each other for a quicker response. If we do not know how to face reality by experiencing new things, making personal relationships and problem solving then we will never be able to function as adults states Mads942 on her article How Technology Affects Us. This topic intrigues me because it makes me realize how much society, and I have changed without even realizing it. For example, when I was a child I would play outside with dirt and plants. I was basically getting Dirty with nature. Now when I ask my six year old nephew to play outside with me he gives me a if Im crazy look and tries to convince me to play Wii, or use the computer. The problem isnt that he does not want to spend time with me outside nor that he doesnt want to to go play outside, the real problem is that he wont know how to react with society, and learn how to expect the unexpected. He wont know how to react to change nor have an open mind to imagination. Technology is all that children know now a days and it is said that

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thats the only form of entertainment they know. It like technology is not letting for children to explore their creativity, because it has already been created for them. It doesnt allow for children to bring up an imagination for the future and the things they want because everything is done for them. If society is like this now how it will be in a couple of years, will we even think or will the computer think for us? With the effects of technology I have realized I am exclude myself by becoming unsocial and very introverted.. I would rather listen to my music than speak with a strangers, I would rather communicate by text rather than a call, I rather Instant Message a customer service representative online than calling the 1-800 number and go through the excruciating survey questions to speak with someone that will ask the same questions again that were just answered in the survey. I have acknowledged that my socialization skills have gotten worse as time has passed. Its like I block myself out and give a sense of dont talk to me when I have my headphones on. I dont socialize much anymore because rather than calling I can be updated with what happening online on Facebook of how my family doing and what they are doing. I believe Im not the only person with this problem, and that its growing more and more until it will become a huge problem in which everything will be done electronically through the social networking websites and we wont even have to leave our homes, but I bet we can we even do that know if we wanted . All society talks about now a day is about Facebook, post made and Twitter with their tweets. Facebook has become a very competitive social networking website because of its large use in society and the ranking of the amount of friends that you have. It has become so competitive that some people are only focused on gaining more friends and more likes on the things they do or

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post. When most of the times these friends we might have are strangers we truly dont know, knowing all of our information and personal life. Addiction: Have these networks become an addiction? Am I obsessed with Facebook? Twitter? YouTube? I ask these questions now every time I log into a computer and notice that the first thing I do is long into Facebook and update myself on whats happening and if I have any messages. While Im working on something else like, homework or reading an article I still am logged in waiting for the famous Facebook Bloop for a new update or instant message from someone. Some say that they are addicted to social networking websites, and its ease to usage. Can this be caused by work and the constant check of emails or updates on changes? Can networking addiction come from work having an influence on our life? This question has made me conclude that the usage of technology for example in an office has escaped the barriers of work and has influenced society. That the technological advancement of using technology as a quick source to distribute information and getting instant gratification on information needed has been the new source for technology. Causing society to abuse its power and become addicted to its ease of usage and consistency, forgetting about socializing and just communicating by instant messages and video by these social networking websites. Social media has even become an addiction for some students who cannot manage their real lives around their cyber ones (Kirkley). Another thing that has caused rapid addiction to these social networking websites was the creation of the mobile apps of these social networking websites. Now a days most of society is influences with a smart phone in which is like a mini computer in the palm of your hand. Having these mobile apps it allows for people to login into their social networking page from their phone

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at any place or time. Many people of all ages that are influenced by social networking websites have a high chance of having the mobile app of their page and with any moment they find themselves bored, they can open up their webpage and become mentally absent. Such ease to the website is another reason how the addiction to social networking has grown so fast so quickly when its in the palm of your hand, located in your pocket, accessible 24 hours a day 7 days out the week. Data shows that those who use the internet frequently spend over one hundred minutes less with friends and family than non-internet users, according to Norman H. Nie and D. Sunshine Hillygus in their paper The Impact of Internet use on Sociability. Advantages vs. Disadvantages Technology has added many advantages and disadvantages to our everyday lives with these social networking websites. Advantages such as allowing social networking users to express themselves in a digital form, understand the concept of an ever changing world, where people move from one place to another frequently, and has caused cross cultural understanding and advancements. Disadvantages such as Infantilism, distractions from important tasks and most importantly strip down of the English language. Technology has broken barrier and has created an ease to communication and expression. Technology has given the opportunity for people to express their personality on websites with the way they decorate it and set it up. Users are allowed to put whatever they want on their page knowing that others will view their information and things they are interested in. It allows users to show their talents such as: Paintings, drawing, designs evens music that show there personality, and what they can do.

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The concept of an ever-changing world has also been challenged with technology. It allows users to communicate with people all around the world breaking barriers and creating friendships across the world. It allows for people to be updated with changes in peoples lives and updates in new changes done in other locations. It also serves as a tracker to realize how much a person has traveled and the places they have gone and their experience, with things such as pictures and descriptions of their adventure. The major change I think that these social networking websites has influence is the ability to contact with a person anywhere around earth. It also breaks ethnocentrism and allows the acceptance of differences of culture if wanted. It allows for users to learn from each other and how their countries are different. For example, Im half Norwegian but after my toddler years I havent been back to Norway so I dont remember much of how it is. So now I communicate with my cousin that is in Norway and we compare how different everything is in the form we live. She was amazed when I told her I was about start going to a University at age seventeen compared to her, that she still had four more years of high school, and she is a year older than me. We gain a firsthand perspective from a person that lives in that country compared to reading it from a book or a magazine. Allowing users to gain cross cultural understanding and advancements with other users around the world with their advancements and differences. . Scientist are mainly worried about the disadvantages that social networking websites and technology has caused upon society and the changes it has caused upon the people and the future. Especially with grown adults and Infantilism. Dictionary.com defines Infantilism as the

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persistence in an adult of markedly childish anatomical, physiological, or psychological characteristics. Scientist are worried that the use of social networking websites has created instant gratification, preoccupation, and user with short attention span which are the same characteristics as infants. Many of todays technology is surrounded with jingles, catchyslogans and quick-fixes causing society to have more infantilized adults. Another disadvantage that had affected many social networking users is the quick distraction that these websites create. As a college student I go to class with my laptop ready with Microsoft Word to take notes, but when I look at my surrounding thats the last thing I see. I mainly see Facebook, Twitter even YouTube. Cant Facebook, Twitter and YouTube wait? Is it more important than class? Is it your priority? Or is this lecture? When many people are using the computer they have many internet pages up , could be for information or to multitask in between assignments but one of those pages are logged into a social networking page. Such distraction is the cause for not allowing high school students to use their cell phones during school hours. This is to gain students full attention and to ensure they are not texting or using social media sites instead of paying attention(Prospectus News). The major problem I believe social networking websites have caused is the stripping down of the English language. For example, Facebook has opened the door to shorthand typing, abbreviations, emoticons and text lingo. Those messages include many grammar and spelling errors posted across profiles for everyone to see(Fox 21).These social networking websites have given us a word limit to our thought or to what we are doing like 140 word limit in Twitter and a 420 word status update limit in Facebook. These limits have obligated us to create abbreviations to commonly used words or phrases. Such abbreviations have been used so much that it has been created as a new networking lingo with the most famous one being LOL meaning Laughing

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Out Loud. As days go by more and more abbreviations are being created and published obligating readers to learn or recognize the abbreviation so they can get a better understanding of what is being told. The point I am making is .. Social networking websites have many advantages and disadvantages and is a challenge to decide which one exceeds the other. To really determine is social networking has impacted society in a positive or negative way and is we can control it more effectively. We need to learn to control our usage and guide young children to live a healthy and productive life. Obsessive users of social networking websites and introverted personalities have to realize that they have a real life and minimize cyber life. Not to only focus on your cyber life, focus on your surrounding and how you socialize because that is really what affects you in your everyday life.

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Works Cited Henderson, Makenzi. "Facebook Effects: Are Social-Networking Sites Hurting Grammar?" FOX 21 Online. Fox 21, 02 Feb. 2011. Web. 02 Apr. 2012. <http://www.fox21online.com/news/facebook-effects-grammar-and-spelling>. Kirkley, Alisha. "The Side Effects of Social Media." Prospectus News. 21 Feb. 2012. Web. <http://www.prospectusnews.com/mobile/the-side-effects-of-social-media-1.2791256>. Mads942. "How Technology Affects Us." Teen Ink. TeenInk. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. <http://teenink.com/opinion/social_issues_civics/article/166619/How-Technology-Affects-Us/>. Norman H. Nie and D. Sunshine Hillygus in their paper The Impact of Internet use on Sociability