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Luis Alvarez
Professor Lewis
English 113A
December 11, 2015
Social Media an Antisocial Epidemic
Social media has created a social problem in society and it is distorting how people are
communicating with each other face to face. Social media in todays day is seen as a worldwide
antisocial epidemic amongst the younger generation and a few older adults born in the
millennial. Social media is notably used more by the younger people in our society and around
the world, considering that technology is more accessible and easier to use for them. This is
because their generation was born into a technological and advancing society that it has adapted
into modern societys culture. Social media has become a part of todays norm, in which people
who own a smart phone have downloaded some sort of social media app in order to stay intact
with family members and friends around the world. This newer generation is being affected in a
way that not only impairs their social skills, but it also disrupts their way of communicating
physically with other human beings through one on one conversations. Social apps such as
Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat are affecting our generation by terminating face to face
communications through cellular or computerized systems. Communicating through social media
apps has become an everyday custom that makes it not necessary to meet up with people face to
face in order to say what you want or just have a normal conversation. This is because we have
become accustomed in communicating through a small screen and it is more time efficient to
communicate this way. Although some people might find it more reliable and efficient to
communicate through social media apps, it has become a social epidemic, in which people are

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losing their social skills and tradition form of communication due to the lack of physical
confrontation.
The younger generation of our society are the ones being affected the most throughout
this epidemic since they are the ones who are constantly using social media apps. In the article
Negative Effects of Social Media Ashlie Brooke Kincel states, people begin focusing so
much of their time on their relationships on social media networks that [it has] become difficult
to distinguish between our real life relationships, meaning that those who put more effort into
communicating electronically can eventually be seen as neglecting their real relationship with
someone close and it can one day become awkward or be as emotional connected as it once was.
This can happen because writing through social media apps lacks body language, facial
expressions, tonality and even physical contact, preventing a healthy and normal conversation.
When using social media apps, people use fewer words to communicate because it is fast and it
gets straight to the point. In the 2013 issue of newspaper magazine Social Work Today, the article
Social Media and Interpersonal Communication, by Maura Keller states, our interactions on
social media tend to be weak tiesthat is, we dont feel as personally connected to the people at
the other end of our communication as we do when were face-to-face. Here, Keller tries to
explain how communicating through social media apps does not carry the same meaning of
building a social relationship as talking to someone physically because a strong connection
between the people is not being made. Therefore, social media is causing an antisocial epidemic
amongst the younger and older generations who tend to constantly use and rely on social media
apps as a form of daily communication with family and friends.
Social media has affected the way young people interact amongst one another by taking
away their social skills. In the article Psychologist: Social Media Causing A Distancing

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Phenomena To Take Place Regina F. Graham references two people, Krystine Batcho and
Michael S. Broder, to demonstrate how social media is affecting the younger people of society.
Graham quotes Batchos statement, kids are not learning how to behave in a face-to-face
conversationwhat you do you in cyberspace is quite different than what you do face-to-face
and kids may be losing those important social skills. This refers back to the notion of the
younger generation of our society losing social skills because instead of developing interpersonal
communication skills, the young people are expanding their social media skills. Graham, then
quotes Broder on how kids have learned to communicate certain things online than it is to in
personkids who have a problem relating socially have found a way to avoid learning those
skills. Again, this relates back to the social epidemic our society is facing with social media and
how the younger generation is inhibiting the necessary communication skills they will need in
life. Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat all revolve around this social issue people are facing and it
is because they neglect the action of meeting face to face to have a conversation, instead it
provides people with Direct Messaging on Instagram and commenting on tweets or retweeting
what others have posted on Twitter to interact with others. Snapchat has also gone through an
update where people can talk through a chat instead of talking through pictures, adding on to the
communication problems social media apps have undergone. Thus, the social epidemic society is
facing today can be seen as an ongoing phenomenon that is clearly affecting the way our society
is communicating amongst one another.
On the other hand, others argue otherwise that social media can potentially have a
positive impact on communication. In the scholarly journal A Social Society: The Positive
Effects of Communicating through Social Networking Sites, Ebony Wheeldon explains the
significance placed on interaction and participation within these social networking sites is

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evident in the numerous ways that social media apps like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can
encourage communication. But this form of communication lacks the amount of emotion and
types of body language that allows people to form bonds through conversing face to face.
Wheeldon also states, people have the ability (depending on privacy settings) to comment and
respond to status updates and statements or comments that others have posted, thereby
initiating communication. Again, this is a form of communicating with people but it does not
bring the same feeling, nor does it improve social skills because people are not getting that one
on one conversation where emotion and tone is being established in the communication.
These social media apps installed in our mobile devices have distorted the traditional
form of communicating with a person and has alternated the way in which we talk face to face.
When communicating with someone, people usually focus on hand gestures, tone, physical
contact and eye contact. These traits are what define a traditional conversation since you are now
able to express yourself freely unlike social media apps, where people might misinterpret what
you have written. When commenting or chatting with some online, there is a social barrier where
people might not understand if you are joking or being serious. People have adapted different
dialect when texting in order to try to express your emotion in a comment or chat by typing
LOL at the end of a text in order to address that you are joking or being playful. Forgetting to
type this social dialect can result in a misunderstanding by the other person. This occurs most of
the time with my friends and I when I reply with something jokingly but then end up forgetting
to insert texting dialect and it comes out looking like an insulting comment. When talking face to
face, people do not have to stress about this problem because people are able to hear your tone
and look at your facial expression to know exactly what you mean. For this reason, social media
is responsible for impacting and changing the way people are communicating with others.

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Despite having to blame social media on the behalf of changing the way people react and
communicate towards one another, it can still be a positive thing on societies influence. In the
article Social Media - A Good Thing or a Bad Thing? Syed Norman Ali states how The
sharing feature available on the social networks makes your opinion about any topic reach huge
number of people. This demonstrates the concept and features of communication that social
media apps allow people to use when trying to in touch with whomever they want. Even though
social media apps are seen as a means to modify the way in which people talk face to face, it
allows, to a certain extent in communicating with people however they please. It can be seen as a
positive thing because it builds up the way people are communicating with one another, but it is
developing social media skills, not actual face to face social skills. Social media does allow
others to communicate but it is not developing or helping people with their actual socializing
skills because people are talking or commenting through a small screen rather than actually
going out and talking out physically. Hence, social media does allow communication skills to
develop, but to a certain extent and it is developing social media skills, not actual verbal
speaking skills.
Ultimately, social media apps as we know are disrupting the way people are
communicating now because these apps allow people to communicate more efficiently through
the internet rather than meet someone face to face. Even though social media apps have allowed
people to communicate easily and faster, making it much less time consuming and being
beneficial to most people, it is actually not as helpful as many would say it is. Social media apps
have disrupted the traditional way of how people should actually be speaking to others when
confronting them, by taking away the emotional feelings to a conversation. There is less body
language, tone and physical contact being made in conversations because people are now getting

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comfortable with social media and the way it is allowing people to communicate with others.
Social media has developed and changed the ways people communicate because it has a different
form of communication, it disables people to fully put their emotions out in a text or comment
section of the social media app because people are not able to hear the tone or emotion that is in
a text. This indicates the downside to social media apps and how it is a misconception of what
people think about social media apps benefits. Thus, concluding that social media apps are in fact
distorting the traditional ways of communicating face to face with other people.

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Works Cited
Ali, Syed Noman. "Social Media - A Good Thing or a Bad Thing?" Social Media Today. Social
Media Today, 08 Aug. 2012. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.
Graham, Regina F. "Psychologist: Social Media Causing A 'Distancing Phenomena' To Take
Place." CBS DC. CBS Local Media, 16 Apr. 2014. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
Keller, Maura. "Social Media and Interpersonal Communication." Social Media and
Interpersonal Communication. Social Work Today, May-June 2013. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.
Kincel, Ashlie Brooke. "Negative Effects of Social Media." Applied Social Psychology (ASP).
Moveable Type, 27 Oct. 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
Wheeldon, Ebony. A Social Society: The Positive Effects of Communicating through Social
Networking Sites (n.d.): 1-5. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.