Facebook is a social media platform, created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 while he was a student at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Zuckerberg wanted to connect the world. That idea is what sparked the Facebook we know now. He started small with just Harvard and now he has achieved connecting people all over the world. But how did he achieve this? How much did he have to sacrifice to make it to this point? Is Facebook still an innocent way to connect friends around the world, or is it hurting society? I will argue that Facebook has turned into something that hurts society. There are good parts of the platform. Yet, the bad outweighs the good. 

https://www.phocuswire.com/How-Facebook-plans-to-connect-the-whole-world-to-the-web

Similar to most forms of social media, Facebook can make people feel lonely. In the article, “Is Facebook making us Lonely?” by Stephen Marche, he argues that Facebook, while connecting people, also makes people more disconnected. The wider your social circle gets, the more shallow it becomes as well. With Facebook, along with constant communication, constant access to News, and the ability to see so much about so many people’s lives, comes alienation. This is the same across all forms of social media, but Marche argues that Facebook is at the center of it. Facebook is the most widely used social media and brings so many people together from all over the world (2). 

One reason for this loneliness is the possibility of connectivity that does not always happen. This also causes anxiety which is bad for society as well. The possibilities are endless. If you have an old crush you wish to connect with, you can click on that friend request button. But there is no promise of that friend request being accepted. This can lead to obsession, anxiety, and a deep loneliness. Always checking your screen and refreshing, waiting for a response that may never come. 

Facebook is also the perfect place for someone to go to find out they are being left out. If not actively left out of social gatherings by people who were thought of as your friends, you can also see aspects of other people’s lives that you wish to have but do not. This can cause jealousy, FOMO (fear of missing out), anxiety, and of course, more loneliness. 

Being lonely is not a good thing. Obviously we do not want all of society to be lonely. But it is important to note that loneliness leads to other bad behaviors as well. When people are lonely, they have less of a desire to workout. This leads to obesity. Loneliness also leads to a lack of sleep, lack of motivation, hormonal issues, depression, worse health, and so on (2). 

Using the Like button on Facebook does a lot more than add another number to the likes on a post. It affects people deeply. It affects what society thinks about things. This seemingly simple button plays far too large of a role in our lives. In the article, “The social significance of the Facebook Like button” by Veikko Eranti and Markku Lonkila discusses the social aspects of using the like button. By using Facebook, the idea of the like button becomes ingrained in people’s minds. They become overly obsessed with others’ reactions and approval. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Like_button#/media/File:Botón_Me_gusta.svg

In James Mathews’ Ted Talk, “How the Like button is Shaping your opinions” discusses how the like button plays a role in us losing our ability to think completely by ourselves. Facebook has an algorithm that shows you things they think you want to see. The amount of likes something gets, determines it’s likeliness for other people to see it. While at the same tie, the more likes something has, the more likely you are to also like it. This leads to a snowball effect. The way that Facebook really started to affect society was through these algorithms. In the past, before this technology came out people went to search for their information. You would go to a search engine and look up something you wanted to know more about. But now, Facebook decides that for you (3). Instead of browsing through a search engine to find a credible source that you trust, Facebook just throws these sources at you. It has made us lazy in how we learn information and has given Facebook too much power. We need to be more independent and in charge of the media we consume. 

So, I argue that Facebook is bad for society because of the loneliness it makes people feel, the anxiety it causes, the emphasis on other people’s opinions,  and the ability it has to choose what information is presented to us on a daily basis. There are plenty of other negative things Facebook can lead to as well such as privacy issues, their focus on making money and growing, instead of on the safety of its users and so on. But we can not forget the positive things it does as well. Zuckerberg achieved his dream of connecting the world. So, while Facebook, the way it is right now has a negative impact on society, I think that if some changes were made to the platform, it could be something truly great. Because connecting the world is a pretty powerful thing. I have a hope that connecting the world could lead to more peace because once you start talking to and understanding people who are unlike yourself, you are able to learn and appreciate what you previously thought of as foreign and unknown. 

Works Cited

Eranti, V., & Lonkila, M. (2015). The social significance of the Facebook Like button. First Monday, 20 (6). doi:10.5210/fm.v20i6.5505

Marche, S. (2012). Is Facebook Making Us Lonely? The Atlantic.

Matthews, J. (2012). How the ‘Like’ Button is Shaping your Opinions. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.ted.com/talks/james_matthews_how_the_like_button_is_shaping_your_opinions