Social networks are a comparatively recent invention, but it is safe to say that they have practically changed the lives of millions of people all over the world. All genius is understood to be plain, and the beautiful simplicity of the concept of social networks has brought billions of dollars to inventors thus forever altering the principles of social networking of everyday people. Parallel to the growing value of social networks, there is a rapid growth of a number of "gadgets," or portable mobile devices that allow access to favorite accounts at any time and from any place. The advantages of modern social networks are difficult to underestimate, as they help people stay connected, despite the place and country. However, it is difficult to deny that they have almost replaced real life communication and turned people into humans, who are gradually losing the sense of reality. Thesis: Facebook lets people stay connected, meet new friends, support active communication and share moments from life, yet some argue that people spend so much time on social media that they lose contact with real life. The aims of the paper are not in calling people for refusing from their social media life, but convincing to reduce time, spent on Facebook (one of the most popular social network).
One thing that is necessary to emphasize is that social media networks erase the sense of reality. Communicating in the social networks, people are trying to create some sort of image, which they support through posting of bright and vivid pictures and phrases from favorite books and magazines, attempting to embellish their real life. They are spending hours online, and, as a result, they eventually lose the ability to differentiate reality from the virtual world, in which they live.
In addition to the negative effect on the vision of real life, many psychologists have long warned that the use of social networks can affect mental health and self-esteem. Social networks offer unlimited opportunities for people to compare themselves with others. Therefore, scientists and psychologists warn that it is very easy to get depressed and feel dissatisfaction with your life, seeing photos of friends demonstrating a new car (country house, cool gadget), selfies from the gym or just a variety of other people's leisure in their Facebook accounts. It has become a widespread problem of modern youth, who prefer watching lives of their fellows through the prism of social networks and prefer communication in Facebook to real life meetings. Moreover, social networks develop a sense of fear of missing an event, and under the pressure of this fear the user is constantly living by his virtual life (Shabnoor and Tajinder 73). Numerous studies show that a person is always worried about the way his status, photos and other details placed on his web page will look in the eyes of other social media users. This is one of the signs that virtual life becomes more important that real one.
Besides the lost reality issue and negative effects of Facebook, as one of the most important social network tool, it is necessary to mention the problem of Internet addiction, in general. It is observed when individuals simply cannot exist without a virtual space, losing any interest to reality. A person becomes more immersed in a world of fantasy, fiction and virtual communication, with which he/she receives necessary social support, such as inclusion in a certain social group (community), where the opportunity to compensate the needs for communication and a sense of security are provided. This sense of false security, respect and involvement leads to the sense of confusion, when individual becomes unable to perceive reality as it is. We can say that dependence on social networks is the same Internet addiction, which was officially recognized as a psychological disease, but in a more definite form. These problems, as well as the lost of reality, caused by excessive use of social networks, are caused by the desire to communicate with a large number of friends in social networks. At first, this dependence is not felt by a person, at least until he gets what depends on, but if he does not have access to a social network, the symptoms of dependence immediately appear. Specialists in the field of psychology believe that such dependence can lead to problems with sleep, feelings of anxiety or fear, mood swings or even sexual disorders (Bryer and Zavattaro 326). It is rather difficult to get rid of such dependence. In this case, it will effectively switch to real communication with friends, who in turn should help a person to recover.
Equally important to the problem of dependence is the issue of cognitive violations and disorders, which, in their turn, negative affect psychological and moral state of the person, leading to a wide range of cognitive disorders. Decrease of cognitive abilities, namely, the reduction of the possibility of prolonged concentration of attention on one object. Thinking cannot cope with specific task - we are all the time sprayed into smaller issues. Children's thinking is especially prone to such deformation, due to the plasticity of the psyche of the younger generation. The latter is, by the way, more subjected to the development of disorders and getting the sense of lost reality. Unfortunately, the popularity of social networks, such as Facebook, among the youth, makes them the most vulnerable to all sorts of mental, physical and psycho violations (Common Sense Media 12).
Taking into account the frequency of cases of the lost reality among the users of Facebook and other social networks, immediate solution of this problem is required. It is difficult to imagine the modern world without computers, information technology, and the Internet, because they have already penetrated in the life of each person and took its special place in hearts and minds of the audience. One of the widely spread and effective recommendations to be given is to reduce the amount of hours, spent in Facebook in order not to be overwhelmed by the information, presented through social networks.
It has been demonstrated that less time, spent in social networks, such as Facebook, does not lead to the sense of addiction. As a result, the user gets the opportunity to comprehend the information and differentiate between reality and virtual reality.
Conclusions
The influence of Internet and social networks of life of modern people is huge. On the one hand, its use is obvious, since this is the most convenient way to stay in touch with friends. However, on the other hand, excessive use of Facebook leads to the sense of lost reality, when users lose the ability to perceive real information.
Works Cited
Shabnoor Siddiqui and Tajinder Singh. “Social Media its Impact with Positive and Negative Aspects”. International Journal of Computer Applications Technology and Research vol. 5, Issue 2, (2016), pp. 71 – 75
Bryer, T., & Zavattaro, S. Social media and public administration: Theoretical dimensions and introduction to symposium. Administrative Theory & Praxis, Vol. 33, issue 3 (2011), 325-340
Common Sense Media. Social media, social life: How teens view their digital lives. Web 2012. http://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/research/socialmediasociallife-final- 061812.pdf
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