Facebook’s Impact on Social Structure
FACEBOOK HAS BROUGHT MORE HARM THAN HELP TO YOUNG PEOPLE’S RELATIONSHIPS The objective of this essay is to argue for this statement that says ‘face book has brought more harm than help to young people’s relationships’. Facebook is one of the fastest growing social network sites (Needham & Company, 2007). This social network site allows users to create understandable profiles describing themselves and then to also create clear links with other users, who are referred to as “friends” by the system.
A distinctive feature of the Facebook is that profile information can be verified other than in other social networks (Lampe, Ellison, & Steinfield, 2006). Relationship refers to the inter reliance between two or more individuals (Ledingham & Bruning, 2000, pg 74). The essay will cover the advantages of face book, the disadvantages and the theories related to this social networking, which include social learning theory and the uses and gratifications theory.
The essay will also show how the disadvantages overlap the advantages. Facebook has brought so much change within the social structures. These changes vary, some are advantageous while some are disadvantageous. The advantageous changes include Young people meet multicultural individuals on face book, from different cultural, racial and ethnic backgrounds (Bhugra & Becker, 2005). They meet different people through face book for many reasons, including broadly political, socioeconomic and educational.
The richness of this diversity of cultures, ethnicity, races can make one to end up loosing the individual self or identity, some individuals may be attracted to the cultures exposed to them on face book, then end up identifying themselves to those cultures hence loosing their own identity (Bhugra & Becker, 2005). These individuals will opt to practice and believe in most of what they are exposed to in facebook. Facebook has also affected youth’s relationships negatively in such a way that there is poor communication amongst family members as most time is being spent on facebook.
This often result in unnecessary arguments because the parents do no longer have that time to talk to their children, and children no longer have time to talk to their parents to understand each other rather they spend most of the time chatting with online friends. Parents have lost control over the socialising of their children, young people are now socialised by social networking and they learn what they are exposed to online.
Some are even exposed to immorals such as pornography pictures and violence, which to their parents they would not allow them to be exposed to such (Ybarra & Mitchell, 2008, pg 351). Facebook has further loosened the bond within family members, due to this social network family members do not have time to bond and get to know each other better through conversations and opinion sharing. Furthermore the usual family conversations or gatherings have been replaced by text messaging therefore leading to abbreviated words that lack true emotions.
Facebook has also brought change to the social structures in the sense that nowadays young people even become friends to people they have never met physically, this make them to end up not knowing people living in their neighbourhoods. This is also addictive, young people now rely on the social network for their socialisation, they tend to become sick when they have not got into social networking site (Rubin & Mc Hugh,1999, pg 279).
