Facebook, the infectiously popular social networking service, has changed the way people communicate and has become a part and parcel of everyone’s life. Facebook is causing a significant mental deterioration of the society, especially in the youth. It can consequently become the untimely word of warning for the appropriate intervention of the mental and emotional health of teens by parents and analysts.
Recently, a team of researchers conducted a study of Facebook status and post updates of around 200 university students in the United States of America. Almost 30 percent of them were found to be suffering from the disorders like gloominess, insignificance, despondency, insomnia, too much sleep, reduced concentration, etc. as their updates met the criteria set by the American Psychiatric Association for the indications of such disorders.
Though Facebook has been promoted as a viable and well-accepted tool offering extra form of communication for building strong social networks, the truth is that it is incessantly contributing to depressive trends. With all these apparent worsening influences, Facebook can truly turn into a social pain to withstand in near future.
Isolation from the Real Life
With the step by step development of the social networking giant, people are getting alienated from the society slowly but surely. The service is simply trying to insert human sentiment into what is eventually a dehumanising custom. This effort causes nothing but a serious separation from realism in which the Facebook culture itself acts as a cause as well as a symptom.
The effects of this unhealthy practice are even going to be detrimental as empathy is getting squeezed, emotion is being converted into ‘likes’ and clicks just within a few minutes, inter-human relations are taking distorted forms, and above all, sentiment is getting cheapened. With Facebook, there is no need of experiencing an event as it is taking place, or getting familiar with a thought as it comes to mind. It is all about how these can be marketed to the Facebook audiences in the best possible way, which is enough to cause alienation from reality.
Issue of ‘Mass Attention Deficit’
Facebook might have immense potential to work as one of the most powerful aids in promoting mental wellbeing by bringing individuals closer through social networking. However, despite having the well-popularized outer shell of ‘interconnectedness’, the service is highly alienating inside, which is pushing the entire mass toward a neuropsychological condition named ‘attention deficit’.
We, the human beings, are basically made acquainted with face-to-face process of communication. But, the recent trend of social networking through the web has changed the scenario. These days, the natural method of connecting with other people has been replaced by electronic exchanges of feelings, emotions, and sentiment, which is undoubtedly inept in fulfilling our inherent requirements of communication.
Hence, it is high time for us to utilize the potential of Facebook in a proper way and stay in touch with our friends, families and relatives without getting separated from the real life.
