As technology advances, more and more sites are being published that allow people to easily stay connected. Facebook, was originally the first “big” social media site followed by others like Twitter, Myspace, Instagram, and Snapchat. While these social media apps and websites become more popular, the younger generation has not lived a life without technology and social media. It’s not unusual to see toddlers be better at using a IPad than speaking full sentences. Living in an American culture society, day to day life is centered all around social media and this is a growing concern for many people. While social media is a pleasure in itself, it also has many downfalls, such as, social media and government corporation censorship and profiling, decrease in personal relationship satisfactions, and younger generation's decrease in communication skills and mental stability.

 The Feed by M.T. Anderson is about a future, dystopian American society where the main character Titus lives and science in this society has advanced far enough for space travel. Titus’ world is desiccating. Most animals are extinct, the pollution is causing lesions amongst the population, and the environment is on the verge of death. About one-third of the population has something called “the feed” installed in their brain. It’s a form of internet combined with every social networking site possibly imagined, and becomes a part of these people’s lives just as much as their body parts. Upon a spring break trip to the moon, Titus meets a girl named Violet. During their trip, an underground revolutionary organization called “The Coalition of Pity” hacks the feed of Titus and his friends. After getting rebooted at the hospital, they return back to Earth where Violet and Titus start a relationship, but something keeps them from connecting on a more personal level. Being the typical teenagers they are, Titus and his friends ignore most current events and instead, focus on partying. Unlike her friends, Violet tries her best to stay invisible to the “feed” by going on fake shopping sprees to keep from being profiled. Violet’s “feed” continues to malfunction and she is taken to the hospital after making horrible accusations at Titus. In an effort to fix things, Titus takes Violet on a weekend trip, but unfortunately the trip ends in a break up. After a couple months, Titus sees Violet, who is now brain dead and lost all motor skills due to her malfunctioning “feed”. Titus finally connects with Violet and tells her about herself, and in the end he eventually becomes her “feed”.

As technology advances and younger generations are exposed to social media as infants, many people ponder whether or not it affects their social growth. Kathryn Porter, Jessica Mitchell, Meghan Grace, Shawna Shinosky, and Valerie Gordon, students at Chapman University, conducted an experiment called “A Study of the Effects of Social Media Use and Addiction on Relationship Satisfaction”. Chapman University was curious about whether or not social media affect personal relationships and their satisfaction. While the results did not support their hypothesis, they found a negative correlation between social media use and couple’s relationship satisfaction. In other words, Chapman University discovered that as the use of social media increases, satisfaction between people in relationships decrease. The study conducted two hundred and nineteen individuals between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. All candidates are users of social media and they all participated in an online survey about their satisfaction with their closest interpersonal relationship. With background research about the topic and using past studies from other groups, Chapman University’s results were conclusive with multiple results from other studies.

An average time spent on social media is about 1.75 hours a day, and teenagers spend about 27 hours a week lurking on media sites. When social media first became relevant in the everyday American lifestyle, it was a necessity for people to be aware of their privacy on sites to help protect themselves from any danger. Today, the younger generations have open pages, sharing almost everything online. With all this information online, it exposes the generation to corporate governmental intrusions. This allows the American government to be able to profile their citizens, just like the characters in The Feed. Government corporations watch Titus and his friends. Everything that happens in their life and on the “feed” is sent back to these corporations where they are profiled. M.T. Anderson uses the “feed” to help highlight the issue with people unwilling to protect themselves from government profiling. The government’s ability to control what is seen on social media keeps people from living their life independently themselves, just like the dystopian world in The Feed. 

Not only can the government censor social media, but “the IRS trains agents to scan the media for information that can help resolve taxpayer cases” (McGillivray). Government isn’t the only corporation that can control social media and profile its people, “insurance companies use information gleaned from social media, as well” (McGillivray). A user can like a medical-related post and through this like, insurance companies are able to determine their rates and essentially raise them (McGillivray). In The Feed, government corporations use the “feed” to send data back on what the user likes and dislikes. By retrieving this data from the “feed” they recreate the ads that people see to connect more with their interests. This is very similar with how ads on Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites work. Google retrieves data similar to The Feed to help sites like Facebook and Instagram add ads to user’s profile based on sites the user recently visited or recent searches in Google or Yahoo.  Censorship amongst the internet is happening in all different kinds of form, “some governments are taking advantage of social media’s newfound power, pressuring them to further national security interests. In the US, that means enlisting social media companies to help fight ISIS and other forms of extremism” (Gourarie). 

Just like government censorship, each social media site has their own rules and expectations for posts. These rules, force people to edit posts and sometimes even change the post to fit the guidelines, thus censoring the information. For example, someone may get reported online for posting a girl with a period stain, but, images of nudity are allowed. This type of censorship doesn’t control the people like government corporations, but it does affect how users view issues. Whether it’s the site's own censorship rules, or government corporations profiling and censoring media sites, social media can have false information and not fully tell the story of a post, or use information to change a user’s view on a specific issue. In The Feed, Titus and his friends are unaware of the dying planet because government corporations work with the creators of the “feed” to change how they see the environment and keep news of the dying planet from its civilians. Violet learned the truth about the dying planet early in life because she grew up without the “feed” for eight years, while Titus has always lived with the “feed” and believes everything he sees and reads about is true. These two opposing views is one of the reasons why their relationship fails and it’s due to government corporations having the ability to change how Titus and his friends see environmental issues in The Feed.

Another issue with social media is its effect on relationship satisfaction. Through the study conducted by Chapman University, the results can conclude that the more time spent on social media, the satisfaction in personal relationships decreases. The Feed, is a love story between Titus and Violet, and throughout their relationship, something keeps them from connecting on a deeper level. Violet believes in living life without the “feed” and being as independent as possible without anyone telling her what she should wear, eat, look, and like. However, Titus makes the “feed” the center of his life. Though the two characters have contradicting views, the “feed” is what keeps them from truly falling in love with each other because it acts as a third party in their relationship. With the results of the Chapman University study finding a negative correlation in relationship satisfaction and the use of social media, the study and the Feed very much relate. Both infer that social media is the third wheel in relationships, and it keeps the two partners from feeling intimate because of its distraction. Social media highlights unreal relationships and gives users an idea of what they should expect from their partners. Everyone should expect to be treated right, but sites tend to show off the giant teddy bears, or the thousand dollars’ worth of Victoria secret from their partners. Relationships on social media sites also highlight Disney type relationships. Love isn’t based on what is bought, it’s based on how deep the couple connects and it’s almost impossible to connect on such a deep level when social media acts like a figure on one’s shoulder whispering in their ear. Titus and Violet are unable to fully connect with each other because the “feed” has more control over Titus’ thoughts than he does himself. This is why social media is considered damaging because of its ability to keep people from connecting on deeper levels. The study conducted by Chapman University already proves a negative correlation in relationship satisfaction between the ages of eighteen to twenty-five only after fifteen years of the new social media era, creating a pondering concern for future generations relationships.  

Younger generations have developed new, and very extreme perceptions of how life is supposed to be because of social media. Social media highlights princess like relationships, rich car, mansions, and closets filled with an absurd amount of clothing or accessories. They also highlight women that are beautiful and skinny, and men with perfect jawlines and abs. The younger generations have not lived a life without social media, and believe, through what they see on social media, that is how life is. This misguided information forces this generation to try to be like these extreme perceptions and can affect their mental stability. A study conducted by National Citizen Service “found that, rather than talking to their parents, girls seek comfort on social media when they are worried” (Udorie). Social media also pressure girls to be perfect with their body, clothing, and friend groups. The same goes for boys, however, girls are already more invested in their appearance and social media adds on to this stress. “Teens are so emotionally invested in social media that a fifth will wake up at night and log on” and this doesn’t include the multiple hour’s teenagers spend texting (Udorie). Studies have found that late night social media interaction amongst teenagers can be “damaging their sleep and increasing their risk of anxiety or depression” (Udorie). 

Social media also damages younger generations ability to communicate and connect with each other. Due to the over use of social media, younger generations has grown up believing their communication through media is socially normal. This harms their ability to talk to adults and their peers. “A study conducted for online casino Yazino found that one in four people spend more time socializing online than they do in person” (Fowlkes). Recent relationships are not only about the love shared between the partners, it’s about how the relationship is portrayed on social media. Though it allows people to stay connected from all over the world, it is impacting the younger generations ability to communicate face to face. Also, social media doesn’t allow for individuality, just like in The Feed. Titus and Violet's relationship doesn’t fully develop because the “feed” keeps them from completely interacting with each other. Social media keeps people from paying attention to reality and focus more on their virtual devices. Chapman University’s study can also underline how social media is damaging the younger generations. Though the study wasn’t conducted with ages under 18, it still shows that there is a negative correlation between social media and relationship satisfaction upon the generation between eighteen and twenty-five.

Some people may argue that social media is a great resource to keep people connected and inform, but most posts seen on social media are ads, ads with viruses, or misinformed information. Not everything read on the media will always be true and its naïve to believe that social media only states facts. Social media also misguides people into believing how life is supposed to happen. Though social media does increase teen awareness of worldwide connections and news alert, a lot of that information is misguided, and affects the youth in harmful ways or distorts reality. Some will say it helps people learn how to treat partners in a relationship, but Chapman University study proves this argument wrong and shows that it does in fact affect relationship satisfaction because the study results highlight the increase in social media use is causing a decrease in satisfaction between personal relationships. Also, others may disagree with the idea that social media is under government corporation censorship because America is a free country. There isn’t enough factual evidence to one hundred percent prove government censorship and control through social media, but it’s an opinion and a concern many have. Social media sites have censorship upon their own, and because of this people are forced to change their post to fit guidelines leaving information out of the context. Another argument is that social media increases marketing exposure. Though social media has expanded the playing field for marketing, many online users get multiple software viruses from ads. Most of the viruses implant themselves on computers and steal passwords, bank accounts, identification, and money from social media users. There may be positive sides to social media, but there are also a lot of downfalls that follow.

Technology will always be advancing, and social media sites will forever be changing. It has become a huge part of the American culture and will be around for a long time. Social media is a great invention and keeps thousands connected from all around the world. The media has many benefits to its part, but there are many downfalls such as censorship, decrease in relationship satisfaction and decrease in mental stability and communication amongst younger generations. It is important for cultures, like America, to take action to prevent these downfalls. There are many pros that go along with social media, however, it’s the long term damages that are a concern for some. 
