How Facebook Ruins S.A

In the article titled, How Facebook Can Ruin Study Abroad, the author talks about how social media ruins cultural experiences that students could have. He believed that when students listen to music or are engaged in social media that it reduces their knowledge and protects them from culture shock. He also talks about his experiences studying abroad. In 1980 he did his first study abroad in Mexico City and this was before the wave of social media. Robert had a huge culture shock because there was no way for him to branch back to the way of life before entering Mexico.

Without social media communication would have been difficult, taking days to receive mail from friends and family. Now you can stay connected with friends back home within seconds of sending a message. Keeping in touch with your friends may seem like a very important thing but by doing so you are reducing your culture shock. Some people think that culture shock is a bad thing, but I believe that it is very important. Without going through a culture shock you will never become accustomed to the culture. Facebook will always keep you in touch with back home thus eliminating your cultural experience and keeping you from going through a culture shock because you are holding yourself back from the host culture. If you only read about topics that are occurring in your home country you will miss out completely on events happening in your host culture. My first week here I turned my computer on and every page asked me if I wanted to be directed to the French sites, without fully understanding what I was doing helped me get involved with the French culture very fast. All of my advertisements changed from topics I looked up to back home to topics I may be interested in here in Paris. I lost most of my connection to news because I didn't have a T.V. and if I tried to look anything up on my computer it would be translated in French and would only be about the news in Paris. I stopped using my computer because I was tired of seeing French adverts. Then I started walking around Paris and everything came together. There is more advertisements and they were easier to understand with all of the French people walking past. When living in a country you shouldn't rely on the internet to get around but rely more on the citizens of that country. By putting yourself out there and making attempts to get in touch with the host culture makes a huge difference. It helps learn the language and helps you understand the daily grind in your host country.