Sociology is the systematic study of society and social interaction. In order to carry out their studies, sociologists identify cultural patterns and social forces and determine how they affect individuals and groups. They also develop ways to apply their findings to the real world.
smartphones in bed; more than 33 percent check them in the bathroom and 46 percent email and
check social media while eating (Cisco 2012). An International Data Corporation (IDC) study of
7,446 smartphone users aged 18 to 44 in the United States in 2012 found that:
• Half of the U.S. population have smartphones and of those 70 percent use Facebook. Using
Facebook is the third most common smartphone activity, behind email (78 percent) and web
browsing (73 percent).
• 61 percent of smartphone users check Facebook every day.
• 62 percent of smartphone users check their device first thing on waking up in the morning and
79 percent check within 15 minutes. Among 18-to-24-year-olds the figures are 74 percent and
89 percent, respectively.
• Smartphone users check Facebook approximately 14 times a day.
• 84 percent of the time using smartphones is spent on texting, emailing and using social media
like Facebook, whereas only 16 percent of the time is spent on phone calls. People spend an
average of 132 minutes a day on their smartphones including 33 minutes on Facebook.
• People use Facebook throughout the day, even in places where they are not supposed to: 46
percent use Facebook while doing errands and shopping; 47 percent when they are eating out;
48 percent while working out; 46 percent in meetings or class; and 50 percent while at the
movies.
The study noted that the dominant feeling the survey group reported was “a sense of feeling
connected” (IDC 2012). Yet, in the international study cited above, two-thirds of 18- to 30-yearold
smartphone users said they spend more time with friends online than they do in person.
All of these social networks demonstrate emerging ways that people interact, whether positive or
negative. Sociologists ask whether there might be long-term effects of replacing face-to-face
interaction with social media. In an interview on the Conan O’Brian Show that ironically circulated
widely through social media, the comedian Louis CK described the use of smartphones as “toxic.”
They do not allow for children who use them to build skills of empathy because the children do
not interact face to face, or see the effects their comments have on others. Moreover, he argues,
they do not allow people to be alone with their feelings. “The thing is, you need to build an ability
to just be yourself and not be doing something. That’s what the phones are taking away”
(NewsComAu 2013). What do you think? How do social media like Facebook and communication
technologies like smartphones change the way we communicate? How could this question be
studied?
Key Terms
AGIL schema Talcott Parsons’ division of society into four functional requisites: Adaptation, Goal
attainment, Integration, and Latent pattern maintenance
anomie a social condition or normlessness in which a lack of clear norms fails to give direction
and purpose to individual actions
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