Debora Lima/Contributing Writer
If one were to create a modern day adaptation of T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” it is likely that the line “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons,” would be modified to “I have measured out my life in Likes and retweets.”
To say that social media has become a vital part of everyday life would be the understatement of the century. Studies have shown that living in a world so permeated by networking sites has had alarming, even adverse, effects on users. Junior political science major Warlfrantz Aldajuste believes people become a different person once they log in. “People tend to go online and be who they wish they could actually be,” Aldajuste said.
According to a study by the Journal of Consumer Research conducted by professors from the University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University, reports that Facebook users show highly elevated levels of confidence due to positive feedback from friends.
Leandra Medine, fashion blogger, expressed horror at her emotional response to Facebook interaction in the aptly titled post “Think Before U Like” on her blog manrepeller.com: “I am highly disturbed that a digital thumb up has the ability to fill a highly visceral void manifesting within me with the same level of compassion that say, a compliment, hug, or, heck, confession of undying love could,” Medine said. “The maniacal pace at which I check newly uploaded Instagram photos, tweets and Facebook statuses is disconcerting.”
That spike in self-confidence, the study revealed, leads to other forms of crazed behavior in the form of loss of self control. Greater social network use was linked to weight gain, lower credit score and higher debt, researchers Andrew T. Stephen and Keith Wilcox reported.
Stephen and Wilcox measured self-esteem to demonstrate that browsing a social network lowers self-control by increasing self-esteem. Stephen said social media users feel that “it’s like a present. It’s saying I’m going to give myself a gift. I deserve to get that unhealthy snack instead of sticking to my diet for the day.”
Although many people are indifferent to social media usage, they still acknowledge its superficial nature. “Personally, I don’t really care about social media because I don’t care what people are doing or saying today, but I know that there are a lot of people who do,” junior business major Suraj Karamohandari said.
Social media has proven to be a useful tool for participatory politics in instances such as the Arab Spring but realistically, Facebook and Twitter are rarely used to sow seeds of revolution. As various experiments have shown, social networking sites are a source of negativity and unfavorable outcomes for those who dabble in it.
“People who spend a lot of time on social media are basically living a double life,” Karamohandari said. “If you are someone who is social in real life, you are not going to care about social media.”
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