Saladaga, Kean Debert T.

BSOT-1A

Purposive Communication

We were given a task to read some articles about social media and cyberspace,
and I could say that the two articles are very interesting to read. After reading the
articles, I’ve observed that there has been an exponential increase in the use of social
media for interaction. When social networks become more common and prominent, this
new form of communication has become unavoidable cynicism—since Myspace was
founded. One of which, is the Atlantic article "Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” such
sites are argued by Stefem Marche to damage the social health of society and the
whole of humanity. Tons of ideas rise from my mind because of the principle implied in
the article. However, the same article published by Zeynep Tufekci in reply to Marche's,
"Social Media's Small, Positive Role in Human Relations," states that human interactive
behaviors are not hindered but improved by social media. It is evident, based on the
articles, which the claim of Tufekci offers far more solid evidence which in today's
society is more critical and which is easily observable.

On the article that Marche made, he makes many claims, although the idea of a
positive mindset towards digital communications does not highlight that much, and the
article itself is not concrete in pointing ideas. Despite to its twisted ideas, I’ve come to
understand his emphasis in which social media and social networking sites are not as
universal. He stated about the three factors or variables that are entirely omitted from
this claim. First of all, a correlation does not mean a direct link, and coincidence can
describe from its similarities clearly. Secondly, the cited study also applies to social
media use of the Internet with no term. As the third reason, is that it was published
before the turn of the century and the advent of social media because of its redundancy.

Contrary to Marche, Tefukci’s article succeeds in educating and persuading the

reader because of its importance and its direct approach to the truth. She always
provided well-defined evidences to her claim that are more reliable than Marche’s.
Tufekci speaks about how all the information she read reflects increased physical and
digital social activity. She also discusses how the initial communication is one of the
most important obstacles to social interaction. She claims that it has never been simpler
by using social media and the Internet, and that social media is also an outlet for people
whose voice is seldom heard. She argues that all the problems that teens have
experienced today are problems that occurred even then when no social media was in
existence. The distinction of it is that it is gradually noticeable with the Internet in
contrast with before.
 To sum up the ideas of both articles, technology allows human cultures to
develop and prosper as they remain interconnected with the world; it's evident that
technology helps bind humans with society; some can see the social media as a barrier
between people and the real world. It is an undeniable fact that technology is the
foundation of the next step of human evolution in spite of the large criticism. We must
not, however, lean back but learn to adapt as our culture and society is continuously
improving towards modernization.