Social media is taking over the world. In today’s society, it is nearly impossible to find someone that is not registered on any type of social media like; Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Myspace, etc. Social media is where people interact with others, share personal information, keep up with the latest trends and news, and communicate. Technology has advanced significantly throughout the last couple of years that it has begun to take over our lives. In the article, Assessing the Mediating Effect of Relationship Dynamics Between Perceptions of Problematic Media Use and Relationship Satisfaction Spencer states, “85% of all adults use the internet, 91% own cell phones, and 67% use social networking sites (Spencer 80). This article talks about the effects social media has on relationships and shows how likely one is to be affected by social media. Most of us in today’s society use our phones. It is necessary or nearly expected to use one if not all of these networks and we are all being affected by it.
We sometimes get so into our phones that we do not pay attention to what’s happening around us, and next thing we know an hour feels like thirty minutes. As social media reshapes how we connect with people, we have to think about what we need to fulfill in our relationships and realize that no amount of text, tweets, likes, or posts can provide that fulfillment. Although some assume that social media has positive effects, it’s negative effects out weight the positives. Despite social media being a great source of communication, Social media ultimately hurts individuals because, it’s known to cause trust issues, less face-to-face interactions, miscommunication, and can cause one to distance themselves.
Some may argue that social media is a way to shrink the distance between loved ones who we can not be with every day. It is so much easier to communicate with people through a quick text than it is to travel to them. Each individual has their own stuff going on like; work, kids to take care of, cleaning, cooking, homework, etc. and social media gives us an easy way to still communicate with others while we are busy. In the article, The Dangers of Social Media on Marriage and Family Northcentral University states “The effect of social media on relationships can positively impact couples who spend a lot of time apart. When both partners participate in social media together, it can be a way for busy couples to connect when apart” (The Dangers of Social Media on Marriage and Family). This article observes that when couples do have to spend time apart social media is a way for them to connect.
127 our experts are availableright now
I personally experienced this recently, because my boyfriend had to go up to Oregon for about five months for a Forest Firefighting Service. Being away from him was tough, but being able to talk through social media helped us stay strong. Although some might say connecting with new friends and your loved ones via social media makes you less lonely, social media has actually isolated people because it can make one lonely and depressed. In the article, A New More Rigorous Study Confirms: The More You Use Facebook, the Worse You Feel Professors Nicholas A. Christakis and Holly B. Shakya states, “The use of Facebook was negatively associated with overall well-being. We found consistently that both liking others’ content and clicking links significantly predicted a subsequent reduction in self-reported physical health, mental health, and life satisfaction” (Christakis and Shakya).
This article is confirming that social media, overall affects our well-being, because we often compare our lives to others. Frequently, new relationships are sparked because of networking and mutual friends through social media but unfortunately, these relationships are often low quality. Virtual communication is much less sincere than face-to-face interaction because engaging with strangers over the internet can be unsafe and may leave users with a lack of social skills. The negative effects of social media outweigh the positive because although it is nice to have a way to constantly talk to someone, social media has taken over our lives to the point where it causes trust issues.
Social media is known to cause trust issues within relationships for many reasons. The first issue is social media can lead one to cheat. For example, there are so many temptations throughout all the apps, it is so easy to communicate with new people, and you can easily delete conversations. As a girl, sometimes I see other females on social media and it makes me insecure because it is so easy to edit your photos and make yourself look “sexy”. In a relationship, I always compare myself to them, because I know my boyfriend sees the same things I see. In the article, How Facebook Affects Our Relationships Professor Seidman explains, “All the information contained on Facebook can create a sense of jealousy, suspicion, and uncertainty for coupled users” (Seidman). This article is explaining that social media can cause couples to develop jealous tendencies, suspicion, and uncertainty because of everything it has.
Although social media doesn’t make a cheater cheat, it adds fuel to the fire. Social media also provides easy access for a jealous or suspicious significant other to seek out information about the interactions of their significant other. Whether suspicions are founded or unfounded, people often feel uneasy about their relationship after discovering something on their partner’s social media accounts which may lead to increased monitoring, jealousy, and conflict in a relationship. This affects relationships because it may cause arguments. If the person gets caught then, of course, their significant other is going to be mad, and if one gets caught searching their phone then they might be mad that they don’t trust them enough.
In the article, Assessing the Mediating Effect of Relationship Dynamics Between Perceptions of Problematic Media Use and Relationship Satisfaction Spencer notes, “Researchers have noted that individuals in relationships with lower levels of relationship satisfaction may seek out media as a way to compensate and cope with the deficits in their relationship” (Spencer 81). This article is stating that when couples aren’t satisfied or when couples get in arguments they might use social media to get rid of their problems which may ultimately cause them to do things their significant other won’t like. Another way social media can cause trust issues is through catfishing. “Catfishing” is when a person steals another’s identity and likenesses off the internet. They create entirely fake personas, who lure unsuspecting users onto online romances or create profiles to harass, intimidate, and threaten others.
Someone can easily look at your profile and see what you look like, who you hang around, and maybe even where you work. Even if your account is on private there are still ways to contact you. My friend, Ariel found a Facebook account that had all her pictures on it. The account used pictures of her brother and said that he was dead, and used pictures of her to post selfies on the daily. This affects relationships because when you communicate with others through social media, you really don’t know for sure who you are talking to or who may be watching you. Social media causes trust issues, but it also causes less face-to-face interactions.
Furthermore, social media causes less face-to-face interactions because it can distract us. We all look at social media as a break from what needs to be done, but in the end, it only distracts us and makes life a little harder. Personally, I find myself pulling out my phone in many different types of situations like, when I have nothing to do, when I am in an awkward situation, and when I don’t know what to say to someone. Social media has affected individuals because in order to burn time, we tend to pull our phones out instead of having genuine conversations with the people around us.
Ultimately, this separates us from the world because it makes us more likely to only interact with the people we know. Roheeni Saxena confirms this in the article, The Social Media ‘Echo Chamber’ Is Real when she states, “people are significantly more likely to interact with their largest Facebook community” (Saxena). Saxena is reporting that on social media we follow the people who we are friends with and have the same beliefs with so, we are more likely to interact with the people who we are more familiar with. People don’t even look up from their phones to simply ask a person how their day is.
According to the article Are Social Networking Sites Good for Our Society?, internet users aged 16-64 spend an average of about 1.72 hours on social media daily. When one is alerted of a new notification, users take about twenty minutes on average to get back to their original task (“Are Social Networking Sites Good for Our Society?”). This website is observing how easily distracted one may be from social media. When we are busy and we go on our phones for a short period of time we get so distracted on the internet that we end up wasting our own time. Northcentral University also states in the article The Dangers of Social Media on Marriage and Family that, “The distraction factor is one of the biggest challenges with social media.
According to a study by Scientific American, the presence of a cell phone can be detrimental to interpersonal relationships” (“The Dangers of Social Media on Marriage and Family”). This article is also confirming how much of a distraction social media can be. It affects our relationships because we are so easily distracted by it. When one goes to a restaurant and looks around we see people on their phones instead of talking to others at their table, you sit down to eat dinner with your family and you are most likely checking your phone, and parents these days distract their own kids with social media so they don’t misbehave. Social media causes us to socialize less, but it also is easy to miscommunicate with others.
Communicating on social media is hard because you may not fully understand a person. It’s so easy to misinterpret and misunderstand someone’s actual intentions and meaning to the message, because through text it may sound like something else. What we say in person is a lot different than what we say through text message. Not only do we text differently than we speak, but you can’t hear our tone of voice or see the body language one gives out and the eye contact they use. So, when you say the same thing in real life and through text, you may interpret a message differently then, what you would in person.
Personally, I have had a lot of people misinterpret my text. I have had friends take a message that was meant in a nice tone and interpret it as if I was trying to argue or as if I was mad. I have had this happen so many times that when someone is trying to argue with me I will not do it over text because I know they are going to take my words the wrong way. I have found that my arguments have been solved way faster in person or on a phone call then it was over text. Not only does social media make it hard to understand a person’s intentions, but it also alters the way an individual speaks.
In the article Effects of Social Media on Communication Skills, Professor Chetan R. Bhamare states, “Another impairment of communication skills caused by the extensive use of social media platform is the impoverishment of language. Using messengers’ people often use shortened versions of words in order to type and deliver their messages as quickly as possible” (Bahamare). This article is stating that social media decreases the quality of interpersonal communication. This affects us because in our work relationships we often might forget to communicate “professionally”. Often if an employer hears you communicate unprofessionally they might not hire you or even fire you.
In the article, A New More Rigorous Study Confirms: The More You Use Facebook, the Worse You Feel Professors Nicholas A. Christakis and Holly B. Shakya claims, “While screen time in general can be problematic, the tricky thing about social media is that while we are using it, we get the impression that we are engaging in meaningful social interaction” (Christakis and Shakya). This article is claiming that social media makes us feel like we are being social when we are really not being social at all. Overall, social media takes away from our communication skills because it causes us to communicate with “slang”. It is easy to misunderstand and miscommunicate with people on our phones, but social media can also cause depression in individuals.
Most importantly, social media can cause depression which causes people to distance themselves from others when they feel depressed. There are many reasons for one to get depressed from social media. Cyberbullying is a way for one to intimidate, threaten or humiliate another individual without being discovered. Although it should not be done, it is easier to threaten others or just simply put someone else down behind a screen then, it is to do in person. Are Social Networking Sites Good for Our Society? has shown that 52% of students have reported being a victim of cyberbullying, and about 40% of students have cyberbullied (“Are Social Networking Sites Good for Our Society?”). Social media is the easiest way to humiliate or put someone down.
I believe the most damaging apps that can cause depression are Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. Twitter is a place that people express their constant opinions/thoughts. Snapchat is a very popular app where kids photograph what they do throughout the day. Instagram is a place where people post images of themselves and others scroll and either “like” or comment on the picture you posted. As you can imagine this can cause one to feel depressed and self-conscious about their own body. When one post images of themselves and they don’t get as many “likes” or comments then they begin to feel depressed. Body shaming is also caused by social media apps like Instagram.
I always see girls trying to outdo one another. Markham Heid stated in the article, We Need to Talk About Kids and Smartphones “between 2010 and 2016 the number of adolescents who experienced at least one major depressive episode leaped by 60%…34% were more likely to have at least one suicide-related behavior including feeling hopeless or seriously considered suicide” (Heid 44). Most adolescents escape from their depression and problems through social media. It is easily accessible and may seem like an easy way to become engrossed in something else to distract oneself, but this can be even more unhealthy. For example, Twitter is a simple and fast way for millions of people to voice what they are feeling and thinking to the public. While this may seem beneficial, it in fact, can do more harm than good.
When a tragedy occurs, social media blows up with posts about the event that occurred, and when this happens moods of social network users go on the decline. Everyone feeds into each other’s posts and as a result, more people become saddened and affected which causes them to post unhappy thoughts. Popular accounts on twitter get thousands of favorites and retweets at a time when they tweet about being depressed. This makes it seem like it is “cool” to have depression and causes those who already have it to feel that being depressed is a normal mentality to have. Thus, social media negatively affects Americans by causing depression.
In conclusion, social media is and will continue to be harmful to relationships unless something is done. The power it has over people is dangerous and often goes unnoticed. Despite social media being a great source of communication, social media ultimately hurts individuals for many reasons. Social media is known to cause trust issues in relationships because it makes it easy for others to cheat or hide behind screens. Next, social media can cause individuals to have less face-to-face interactions. Additionally, social media causes misunderstandings throughout communication.
Lastly, it can cause people to distance themselves from others. In order to make social media a little more positive, everyone should minimize their phone usage and communicate more with others. Imagine if people just cut one hour of their phone usage each day, people might actually start to talk to one another. Otherwise, if there are no regulations or limitations on social media, social media will continue to affect us more and more. People need to change the destructive patterns of social media use before it destroys society. The fast, easy access to information that is supposed to be beneficial to society is actually detrimental to society because social media is taking over our world.
