Do you ever think about the real price you are paying when
you log onto Facebook or Twitter? Do you think that you are losing anything by
staying plugged in 24 hours a day? I never really thought of there being a cost
to social networking because it’s free, right? In the blog “The Addiction and
Cost of Social Media,” the author Sam Fiorella questions if our access to these
sites really comes free of charge. He argues that social media outlets keep
their doors open constantly to track and analyze our behavior and habits by
saying “if you’re not buying the product, you are the product.” It’s an odd way
of thinking about it but he does have a point.
Fiorella states that the biggest cost of social networking
is time. Everyone’s internet usage is different but as a whole most of the time
spent online is on a social networking website. Nearly 121 billion minutes were
spent on a social networking outlet in the United States. It makes you
wondering, is this time being used in a constructive manner? Probably not.
Another cost that we pay, according to Fiorella, as social networking consumers
is emotion. He argues that social networking
encourages people to post about everything which leads to “over sharing.”
People posting all day everyday on Facebook never consider that social networking
sites may not be a constructive outlet. Whether we notice or not, social networking
takes a toll on us. Some studies show that Facebook can cause depression in
some people. The last cost that Fiorella names is privacy. He says that the
more data we publish online, the more access advertisers have to your personal
life. It is a little disturbing that everything you do online can be tracked
and recorded.
Why do you think we are so willing to pay these prices for a
social media outlet? Do you ever think of the price you’re paying daily?
I see the point you are trying to make. Sure Facebook is free, but you can unknowingly spend far too much time on it. The more time spent on Facebook, the higher the opportunity cost becomes, and the less enjoyment you actually get from it. I don't discredit Facebook for being a fun outlet for many people, as well as keeping people connected, but at what point does Facebook usage start to take its affect? I can see it with many of my friends. Sometimes it seems like all they do is constantly check their phone and Facebook, even during conversations. It has become too much, their addiction to social networking is clearly taking away from real life experiences. Personally, I don't find anything more obnoxious than someone pausing an in-person conversation to continue an online one. To me, that is just rude.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was an interesting point of view. The article was a really interesting perspective on how there really is a cost to the usage of social networking. I had never thought about the price I really pay by logging on everyday.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is an interesting article. I have never thought about my time as currency, but it makes a lot of sense. But it can definitely take a toll on your emotions and what kind of work your turn in either for school or your job. I used to get on Facebook all the time, and now I barely get on. I felt it was to distracting to my school work and I would end up spending hours on there. I know a few people who used to spend every free time on Facebook looking up people's pictures and commenting on status's and when they got done, they were depressed because they felt everyone on Facebook had a better life than they did. But when you think about what else they could have done with their time instead of being online, it is amazing what they could have accomplished.
ReplyDelete-Lauren Gorowski
I think that the cost of social media is very big, and can impact our lives in different ways. I saw this video that was filmed in London, is this guy that pretends to read your hand and tell you what is going on in your live. He sits and tells people about their live, how old are they, what car they drive, if they broke up with partners, and so much more. People that were in this video were schock to see how much this guy knew about them, at the end of their interview, this hand reader guy drops a wall and behing the wall they were 5 guys searching their information in facebook, so the hand reader guy got all the information from each persons facebook account. I think that we search to much information in facebook, and we make ourselves vulnerable. in my Country Venezuela there was even a case that a teenager got kidnap because he always posted where he was or where he was going, the kidnapers got in to his facebook account and knew where he was going to be at a certain time, and they kidnap the teenager. Its is crazy how can social media can affects us in so many ways.
ReplyDeleteBack when Myspace was popular, I was one of the one that never wanted one and then I got one and was hooked! I understood why people were on it constantly. It was like an addiction and for awhile it went away and Facebook became the popular one and I wasn't planning on getting one but, then, Bam! Was hooked on it again..I realized as I got older how it was affecting my time. I wasn't productive and since realizing that, I was able to stop that addiction. I think the reason for us getting addicted to social networking sites because we get to see what's going on in our friends lives. Another, people use it as a online dating thing..you can request and chat with a crush that you have or had that you wont do in person and as that escalate, your emotions gets detached.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article, the biggest concern for me would be my personal information, to use facebook it costs users, should we get paid instead of paying? Why are we not compensated for our data. I wonder how we accomplish anything with the amount of time on average we spend on social media.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting article, but I think why people will be willing to pay these prices is because they want their friend and family to know what going on in their life. They just want someone to talk to about how they feel as a individual and share their feeling.
ReplyDeleteKawg Yang
Enjoyed reading this point of view about social media. I have seen many people just become totally consumed with it. I also find it odd at how I will see people out that I may just 'know of', yet I feel as if I know every single thing that is going on with them because of how much they post on Facebook. Privacy is a huge issue, and you never know who is looking at your posts through even a mutual friend. I think a lot of people, including myself at times, have felt too comfortable on social media sites, and given out too much personal information.
ReplyDeleteLindsay Laws
I think this is a very relavent topic to todays culture since it seems that any collage students free time is seem to be spent on a social media website. Though I personally have not had Facebook in 3+ years since i realized how much pointless time is spent on it. Now I have twitter and Instagram and the tradition continues through these now. Social media sites i believe are good and all but one spend an excessive amount of their time on it it becomes more of a problem than a source of entertainment. (jcapatin@uncc.edu)
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting post. For a long time I had wondered how social networks, which are free to the public, can be so lucrative. It's because these sites are selling our personal information to advertisers. In a sense, even "private accounts" aren't necessarily private. I feel like social networks definitely take a toll on its users, especially heavy users. Some people spend more time posting what they're doing (or about to do) than living life.
ReplyDeleteI found this post to be extremely interesting. Completely agree with the whole post because social networks do come at a cost even though they are free. I actually believe that social networks come at a very high cost mainly because we spend so much time on them when most of the time we should be doing something else. A great example of this to me is when a college student should be studying most of the time they are actually on Facebook or Twitter instead. They take away time from important activities like this. I even find my self looking at Facebook while I'm working. Things like these are reason for why social networks are so costly.
ReplyDeleteChandler Love
Interesting Article. I find myself contemplating, "Why do I feel the need to check Facebook, so often?" all the time. I honestly gain absolutely nothing from Facebook, besides wasting my time. Maybe everyone just has an addiction to something. My husband enjoys playing a ridiculous game called "Bubblemania" that brings him no extra benefit in life, and my mother-in-law is addicted to her TV shows which are just dramas with no extra educational benefit. I honestly look at my life, and sometimes just want to put everything down-computers, TVs, and smartphones-and just see how it would be to be totally disconnected.
ReplyDeleteI hate to admit it, but I know for a fact that I use social media way to much throughout the day. Most of my time is spent using my IPhone. It just makes it too easy to be connected every minute of everyday. This article makes you think about what costs you are really paying by constantly being plugged in. I really wonder how things in the future will be changed because of the easy access to these sites. For example in the work place and in schools. Will there be more regulations and time limits? It's interesting to think about.
ReplyDelete