When I first read the Pittman and Reich article, I was very hesitant to accept their findings because I have been told my entire life that social media is bad and has very few positive benefits. However, as I think about the article now, I think about how they studied loneliness and not happiness. I think loneliness and happiness can be interrelated, but I also think they are two very separate concepts. When I think of image based social media and why it has decreased loneliness, I think of the fact that seeing your friends or family in image form can remind you that they are there and that you aren’t completely alone. However, the fact that you can’t physically be with them in the moment can be quite disheartening and cause unhappiness. I think if the authors had studied happiness, the experiment would have had a much different result.
One Reply to “Blog Post Week 6”
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Well, they do ask questions about happiness and “satisfaction with life.” But all these concepts are very unclear, and might mean very different things for different people.
I wanted you folks to read this article because I find their findings so challenging. Their method seems legit, but I have a hard time thinking that images would contribute so straightforwardly to decreasing loneliness. And I think you’re onto something: there is something about the definition of what they are studying that produces these results.