Over the past decade, the use of social media has taken the world by storm. Countless hours spent on apps and sites like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other mass media consume the time of more than half of the American population. For those who are not sure what is really defined as social media as it generally means applications or sites used to provide easy access for a person to network with others. Although social media is the most effective way to get news and information to others, it has a negative impact on the individual. Several studies have shown that the more time you spend on social media correlates to how lonely you may actually feel. It may seem contradictory to say that social media makes someone lonely despite the fact that you spend most of your time socializing with others on the app, but in a real-world view it has only made it harder for its users to socialize in the world real. Not only is loneliness a symptom, but it causes additional problems that come with it, such as depression and other harmful issues. However, the way the social question is viewed, whether from a functionalist, countertheoretical or interactionist point of view, plays a very important role in how this problem is determined. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Among the majority of the population affected by this problem, teenagers and young adults are the ones who most fall victim to loneliness caused by social media. However, according to National Public Radio, “for young adults, social media may not be so social after all. Among people in that age group, heavy use of platforms like Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram was associated with feelings of social isolation, according to one study” (npr.org). This study outlines the entire topic of the social issue, however the age group that affects the most is between 15 and 25 years old. In recent years there has been an increasing number of diagnoses of adolescent depression and adolescent suicide. These increasing statistics seem to have a lot of correlation with social media and its cause of loneliness. Loneliness, however, can lead to many different paths to other problems. For example, the Huffington Post states in its article that many websites and pages related to these applications are sometimes devoted entirely to feelings of depression, isolation and loneliness (Huffingtonpost.com). These feelings can arise from various emotions you experience during your time spent on social media daily. An example from Menshealth.com provides an example of feelings and emotions, if a student who comes from a family below the average poverty level and spends a lot of time on Twitter watching his richer, wealthier friend post about their amazing vacations and wonderful fancy dinners could damage his self-esteem and even damage the friendship between the two due to envy. These are real-world situations influenced by social media (menshealth.com). Finally, social media can make us feel even more alone because it makes users feel even more alone than before. It erases the need for authentic human-to-human interaction. socialmediaweek.org says: The problem with social media is that people only share the good things in their lives. This constant barrage of good news causes a vicious cycle where people post about the great things that are happening, which causes their friends to only share the good things that happen to keep up. This kills any sense of vulnerability, of authenticityshared experiences that were so crucial to the emotional closeness between friends. Letting someone see you as embarrassed/vulnerable makes people like you; but with this being a no-no on social media, how will people ever connect? (socialmediaweek.org). To elaborate, social media leaves people feeling disconnected because people are so busy trying to stay positive that they don't realize that the situations or events that shape relationships the most are the negative ones. Despite how much statistics or research evidence one can locate, there is still a divide between those who firmly believe that social media is a creator of loneliness and those who believe that it is not. In this case, it is mostly the younger general who believes that social media cannot actually make a person lonely, while it is the older generation who believes that it can. This is because both generations come from two different generations who used communication differently. Now the older generation believes that the key to communication is personal contact. For them, there is no genuine interaction unless it happens on the phone during a call or face to face. However, due to technological advancement over the years, the new generation believes in efficiency and speed. From their point of view, the faster they can communicate with someone, the better. The fact that they are able to communicate with different people on a daily basis and not have to make an extra effort is also an advantage for them in their belief that it is positive. In their mind they are already communicating with someone, so why should it be considered lonely? While the older generation believes that real communication happens in person and it will feel lonely until you learn to interact outside of social media. This is an ongoing social issue debate that seems to have no end. See the social issue of social media from the three main perspectives of sociology which are; functionalism, conflict theorist and interactionism one must first be aware of what the perspective means and how it applies. To begin with, functionalism can be defined as the theory that involves how small parts of society contribute to the mainstream society (Cliffnotes.com). Therefore, if you look at social media from a functionalist perspective, you might not consider that it makes us lonely. This is because they are able to follow others and network with each other. From this perspective they are growing as individuals while continuing to contribute to society, even if society is now predominantly online. The second major perspective of society is conflict theory. Conflict theory usually implies that there is competition between groups and always a difference between how a higher rank controls a lower rank in society (Cliffnotes.com). Now, if you look at social media and its effect on loneliness from a conflict theorist's perspective, you will notice that there is competition between almost everyone who uses apps like Twitter or Instagram. This competition can come from who can get the most likes on a photo or post or who has the most followers on their page. It starts to create a barrier that the more followers you have, the more popular or attractive they sometimes are. This perspective allows people to see how one can become a loss in the “competition” of social media and this is where loneliness begins to arise. Now, the final perspective through which social media can be viewed is the sociological lens of the symbolic interactionism viewpoint. This perspective generally means that interactions between people amount to the pursuit of.