Introduction
The growth or advancement of information technology globally is shaping numerous elements of human life. How individuals interconnect or relate is one of the scopes undergoing significant changes that have also led to certain changes in their relationships. The world is becoming annulled of any limitations, be it time limitations or geographic boundaries. Technology gives the customer power to examine products to criticize and label them in equivalent measures. Technology coupled with social media is why some relationships or communications are booming/ thriving, which converts into positive and negative effects. According to Burch (2020), the digital era opens up numerous opportunities for individuals to build social ties and communicate. Communication is becoming both easier & more complex at the same time. Neubaum& Kramer (2017) argue that cyberspace has combined both mass & interpersonal communications, making the line between private and public less noticeable. Personal relationships are also extremely impacted by social media. Whereby social media is becoming a crucial part of the lives of millions & a powerful tool for influencing people’s conduct or behavior. For example, about 72 percent of Americans use social media for communication, which is gradually increasing (Burch, 2020). Though the negative impacts of social media are deceptive, social media platforms are advantageous for establishing relations/ affairs due to the opportunities to reach extra individuals, co-create conversations & communicate flexibly.
Thesis statement: Prolonged utilization of social media results in negative relations among parents, siblings & their kids, or other people in intimate relationships. The influenced individual will have minimal opportunities for cooperating effectively and refining their interpersonal capabilities. On the other hand, social media keeps individuals connected (in touch) & permits them to build new relations based on what is posted or on the post that individuals “like.”
Causes of social media on Relationships and Communication
One of the main causes of social media on relationships and communication is the prospects that cyberspaces grant to businesses or relations. Whereby convenience is considered one of the advantages of social media because individuals can reach each other within minutes or instants. It is convenient and easy for social media end users to trace diverse communities and people that can be significant or interesting. According to Kapoor et al. (2018), scholars are bearing in mind the part social media inclines to pay the most consideration to or how it applies to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Aspects like relatedness & belongingness are closely associated with the utilization of social broadcasting. According to Baccarella et al. (2018), social platforms help sustain an individual’s need in areas such as presence, communication, identity construction, sharing & relationship building. Staying in touch with a particular sphere of people is one of the reasons why people enjoy social media. Often, individuals link with communities and digital groups to feel connected & recognize themselves with an individual they find significant.
Secondly, creating discussions or communications is another element for most social media users. Individuals might “like” a post by another individual or support it with an extensive comment to give the post feedback concerning numerous issues. At this point, social media users might feel confident and safe to contribute to diverse kinds of communication, anticipating the disclosure that social media might grant. Every social media can add to these debates by remarking on an individual’s post or comment. Therefore, a conversation on an image from another nation will end up in an extensive debate on the ecological issues of the whole world or region. These discussions frequently grow into a further discussion that converts public opinion & presents firm changes in communities. Notably, debates on worldwide topics associated with political issues, the environment & economics regularly lead to discourses working around individual issues. Every cyber user could co-create the program for bigger discussions or particular dialogs, considered the most appreciated characteristic of social media.
Thirdly, social media causes individuals to establish social bonds so that people can find them relevant. Individuals utilize these social bonds to identify better professional prospects (jobs), locate individuals with similar opinions & creating families. Professional or expert social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn assist individuals in getting their ideal jobs. Such social media platforms are influential in addressing needs like achievement & self-actualization, making most individuals join these professional platforms. In addition to professional platforms with a fairly narrow target population, like employers or business people, other social media platforms are used for networking purposes. For example, Facebook end users form communities that are mainly created for a particular group based on the end user’s interest or preference: for instance, it can be an alum group of educational launches or a pregnancy group for women to stay in contact. Currently, making or forming friends online is the daily trend worldwide & these relations frequently extend the restrictions of online communiqué (Baccarella et al., 2018).
It is essential to bear in mind that individuals use social media to grow romantic, friendly & other forms of relationships because they can effortlessly trace like-minded individuals & get in touch with them. According to Vogels & Mcclain (2023), three in ten American adults confessed to having ever utilized a dating application or site matching to the Americans who confessed the same in 2019. This comprises 9% of adults who confessed to online dating in the previous year (2022). Furthermore, compared to older individuals, online dating is a common habit among fresher individuals. However, most people confessed that they feel safer when beginning online relations. When end users feel satisfied and secure with the type of relations, they are changed into physical and social relations.
Lastly, one of the causes of social media on relationships and communication is the approval of social media targeted explicitly to some clusters. For example, the LGBT society highly benefits from utilizing various social media networks. Burch (2020) discovered that more than 50 percent of the LGBT society date online. Individuals have resorted to online dating due to insecurity, social anxiety & other associated problems. Social media has had a significant impact on the personality traits of people. Whereby individuals with low emotional stability and higher openness discovered that social media is a harmless platform for the growth of relationships. Therefore, it is attainable to declare that online relations become the initial phase of social relations for some individuals or groups.
Effects of social media on Relationships and Communication
Social media has affected every type of relationship and communication in both negative and positive aspects, though it mostly helps individuals stay in touch even in different nations. Firstly, social media affects the openness and freedom of individuals both in communication and relationships. Confidentiality & shaped identities allow social media handlers to share perspectives openly. Whereby openness empowers individuals to address important issues, & individuals manage to identify solutions during enormous communications. Individuals can easily discuss delicate topics more efficiently & identify solutions that could become part of their physical lives (Neubaum& Kramer, 2017).
Secondly, social media facilitates the development of diverse kinds of relations. For example, romantic relations have obtained considerable devotion among academics. Social media has increasingly become a podium for locating possible partners in romantic associations. Though social media platforms like Tinder were designed for individuals searching for romantic partners, end users regularly develop romantic relationships with numerous social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook & Twitter (Kapoor et al., 2018).
Thirdly, social media aids in sexual gratification. Regarding romantic relations, social media could assist partners to accomplish sexual gratification (Johnson, 2023). Specifically, this denotes pornography ingesting on social media. A study carried out in 2019, comprising 379 contestants, discovered that pornography exploitation might knowingly assist an individual’s sexual satisfaction in their romantic relations. Though, the extent to which the contestants felt this upgrading was reliant on the individuals’ sexual compulsivity and confidence.
On the other hand, social media harms relationships and communication namely; First, social enhances functional damages. Replacing social media relations with face-to-face interactions might influence the current associations and an individual’s capability to form other relationships. For instance, while some academics bear in mind the need for more studies on social media usage and social anxiety, it is likely for individuals with social anxiety to encounter continuous functional damages like being unbearable or incapable of engaging during face-to-face associations whenever they substitute physical individual connections with cyber media usage. Besides, failure to maintain or make in-person associations might result from social media usage (Johnson, 2023). While learning at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University (Saudi Arabia), scholars found that over 59% of the 300 contestants reported that extended usage of social media influenced their social connections, negatively influencing their friendships and family relationships while similarly making physical communications harder. Though the research entailed only scholars acknowledged as ladies between 17-29 years, thus more research is needed.
Secondly, social media offers a path/direction for infidelity-associated behaviors. Infidelity-associated behaviors like speaking with substitute partners lead to relationship breakups, dissatisfaction & divorce. Social media offers a path or direction for these behaviors. According to Johnson (2023), there is no experimental evidence concerning social media infidelity-associated conduct & marital relations; an increasing study is needed on the topic. For instance, investigators surveyed (2017) among 338 cohabiting or married partners on social media infidelity-associated conduct. A small number of individuals reported partaking in social media infidelity-associated conduct. Though, investigators found that additional participation in social media infidelity-associated conduct was significantly associated with high relationship uncertainty, low relationship satisfaction, and other numerous worries.
Social media influences how individuals assess other individuals’ relationships & their self-esteem. Associates might compare their relationships with other couples they see online on numerous social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook hence causing insufficient satisfaction in their relationships. Depending on the conditions, other couples’ photos, posts & videos may destroy strong or weak relationships. Notably, an individual’s psychological characteristics describe how other users reply to other people’s posts.
Social media also reduces quality time among couples hence leading to relationship dissatisfaction. Extreme usage of social media negatively affects the quality of time for couples, creates fights, and decreases relationship gratification, whether it is a friendly or romantic relationship. In a survey carried out in 2021, investigators used Instagram & it is time-tracking skills to learn more about the association between relationship satisfaction and social media. It was found that a rise in using Instagram led to a reduction in relationship gratification & a rise in negative results and conflict. Also, the conflict, dissatisfaction & negative results activated an addictive usage of Instagram. On the other side, making everyday sacrifices for the association partner had an optimistic effect on relationship gratification & decreases the chances of fights and negative results. Although, the act of ignoring an individual in a public setting by focusing only on the smartphone is called phubbing. This act can cause couples to fight because one tends to focus a lot on their phone, which reduces face-to-face conversations. To a bigger extent, phubbing has led to heightened jealousy among romantic partners, weakened their bonds & lowered their satisfaction in the relationship.
Conclusion
In conclusion, social media’s comfort and convenience make platforms a crucial part of people’s lives. Thus, social media has substantially affected how individuals communicate and build diverse relationships. Today, communication is becoming easier, more open & numerous. This is because social media end users can influence more individuals, helping them to please their connectedness and belongingness. In the aspects of romantic relationships, social media has destroyed or improved them depending on the individual’s mood and psychological traits. Henceforth, social media has infiltrated individuals’ lives & remains a powerful aspect in shaping how they build and communicate in relationships. The growth or advancement of information technology globally is shaping numerous elements of human life. How individuals interconnect or relate is one of the scopes undergoing significant changes that have also led to certain changes in their relationships. The world is becoming annulled of any limitations, be it time limitations or geographic boundaries.
References
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Burch, K. (2020). How social media affects relationships from partners to friends. Insider.https://www.insider.com/guides/health/sex-relationships/how-social-media-affects-relationships
Johnson, J. (2023). How does social media affect relationships? MedicalNewsToday.https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/social-media-and-relationships
Kapoor, K. K., Tamilmani, K., Rana, N. P., Patil, P., Dwivedi, Y. K., & Nerur, S. (2018). Advances in social media research: Past, present and future. Information Systems Frontiers, 20, 531-558. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10796-017-9810-y
Neubaum, G & Kramer, N. (2017). Opinion climates in social media: Blending mass and interpersonal communication. Human Communication Research, 43(4), 464-476. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318184622_Opinion_Climates_in_Social_Media_Blending_Mass_and_Interpersonal_Communication_Opinion_Climates_in_Social_Media
Vogels, E. & Mcclain, C. (2023). Key findings about online dating in the U.S. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/02/key-findings-about-online-dating-in-the-u-s/#:~:text=Three%2Din%2Dten%20U.S.%20adults,July%205%2D17%2C%202022.
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