Basiccomp
Cassie Yeung
Professor Goeller
Paper #5
Basic Comp
Final Draft
Strong Ties Unravel
Today, new generations have adapted to a lifestyle where we invest the majority of our time in technology. Technology has allowed social medias such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter to control who our friends are. Malcolm Gladwell highlights whether or not these friendships are truly genuine, or inauthentic ones just kept over social media. In his essay, “Small Changes: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, Gladwell distinguishes between these two types of friendships as either “strong ties” or “weak ties”. He defines weak ties as a group of friends that we keep over social media, but don’t really exist in real life. Although weak ties come off as a negative thing, Gladwell sees strength in weak ties. Sherry Turkle, the author of the essay “Alone Together”, would disagree with Gladwell’s views on friendships kept through social media. Turkle believes very strongly in authentic relationships, and she therefore does not see technology as something that will benefit us. Turkle believes that technology makes us unable to hold authentic relationships. Personally, I disagree with Gladwell and agree with Turkle. Technology and social media have made us loose focus on who our real friends are, and people will continue down this path of inauthenticity until fake relationships, or weak ties, are all that we have left. New generations have begun to invest all of their time in the friends that they make over social media, leaving little to no time for their real friends. Weak ties, in the long run, will completely take over the time we invest in our strong ties, thus diminishing authentic relationships. Before we can understand the negative affects that weak ties have on our relationships, we must first recognize how prevalent weak ties are in our daily lives. New generations have begun to focus all of their time and attention on the friends they meet on Twitter, Facebook,
Professor Goeller
Paper #5
Basic Comp
Final Draft
Strong Ties Unravel
Today, new generations have adapted to a lifestyle where we invest the majority of our time in technology. Technology has allowed social medias such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter to control who our friends are. Malcolm Gladwell highlights whether or not these friendships are truly genuine, or inauthentic ones just kept over social media. In his essay, “Small Changes: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, Gladwell distinguishes between these two types of friendships as either “strong ties” or “weak ties”. He defines weak ties as a group of friends that we keep over social media, but don’t really exist in real life. Although weak ties come off as a negative thing, Gladwell sees strength in weak ties. Sherry Turkle, the author of the essay “Alone Together”, would disagree with Gladwell’s views on friendships kept through social media. Turkle believes very strongly in authentic relationships, and she therefore does not see technology as something that will benefit us. Turkle believes that technology makes us unable to hold authentic relationships. Personally, I disagree with Gladwell and agree with Turkle. Technology and social media have made us loose focus on who our real friends are, and people will continue down this path of inauthenticity until fake relationships, or weak ties, are all that we have left. New generations have begun to invest all of their time in the friends that they make over social media, leaving little to no time for their real friends. Weak ties, in the long run, will completely take over the time we invest in our strong ties, thus diminishing authentic relationships. Before we can understand the negative affects that weak ties have on our relationships, we must first recognize how prevalent weak ties are in our daily lives. New generations have begun to focus all of their time and attention on the friends they meet on Twitter, Facebook,