One thing that immediately came to mind when I read Silver’s
article was the obvious question of how accurate it was. Immediately one red flag that emerged was the
study about how Americans had fewer close confidants than ever before. It was a 2006 study that Silver cited, as the
chart I am attaching back in 2006 Facebook did not have nearly the market
penetration it has now. To be honest
Americans started to lose close confidants well before Facebook began to
dominate social interactions. That would
suggest that the cause of the loss in close friendships wasn’t as much social
media as it was other factors that changed in society. In fact, the study even concludes by
suggesting that social media might help counter the effect of this demise in
close confidants.
On the other hand, Facebook was hardly the first social
media project. Before it there was
MySpace, chartrooms, and a plethora of other forms of electronic interaction. Any social effects of social media would have
been felt long before facebook showed up on the scene. Anonymous message boards where people don’t
disclose their own identity certainly can make Silver’s hypothesis true, after all
how can you be friends with someone you don’t even know the name of?
