Social Media
Social Media: The Overlord of 21st Century Relationships
Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Vine, Instagram…The list goes on and on. Social media is an ever advancing part of modern society that has not only become a major part of most of our lives but also has played a key role in our relationships. These websites depend on user communication through the internet, which means that nothing is truly face to face. Every message, picture and post can be changed and modified the way the user would like, which can be viewed as either an advantage or disadvantage to the user. Social media also offers convenience and sense of instant gratification as every conversation occurs immediately and quite literally, at the tip of one’s fingers, but is it truly worth the toll? The intriguing thing about this concept is that although one has so much control in what’s happening, they also have absolutely no control at the same time. All in all, this epidemic, due to its nature of regressing people’s social habits and causing psychological issues, is damaging to relationships.
Extensive use of social media can affect people’s social habits for the worse. Justin Marley, an acclaimed psychiatrist says, “…having another Internet technology that uses people’s time might mean that they spend much less time with people in face-to face contact…people may become deskilled in using verbal and non-verbal methods of communication in real world interactions…Real world interactions might take longer, they might occur less frequently or Twitterers might be less likely to be included by their non-Twittering peers.” When a person’s only contact with people is through the internet, if faced with real life situations they might not be able to communicate in a proper fashion. This is because they are no longer used to normal colloquial language but instead text and chat language. This will make them awkward, which consequently makes it harder for them to maintain a relationship. Other evidence of
Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Vine, Instagram…The list goes on and on. Social media is an ever advancing part of modern society that has not only become a major part of most of our lives but also has played a key role in our relationships. These websites depend on user communication through the internet, which means that nothing is truly face to face. Every message, picture and post can be changed and modified the way the user would like, which can be viewed as either an advantage or disadvantage to the user. Social media also offers convenience and sense of instant gratification as every conversation occurs immediately and quite literally, at the tip of one’s fingers, but is it truly worth the toll? The intriguing thing about this concept is that although one has so much control in what’s happening, they also have absolutely no control at the same time. All in all, this epidemic, due to its nature of regressing people’s social habits and causing psychological issues, is damaging to relationships.
Extensive use of social media can affect people’s social habits for the worse. Justin Marley, an acclaimed psychiatrist says, “…having another Internet technology that uses people’s time might mean that they spend much less time with people in face-to face contact…people may become deskilled in using verbal and non-verbal methods of communication in real world interactions…Real world interactions might take longer, they might occur less frequently or Twitterers might be less likely to be included by their non-Twittering peers.” When a person’s only contact with people is through the internet, if faced with real life situations they might not be able to communicate in a proper fashion. This is because they are no longer used to normal colloquial language but instead text and chat language. This will make them awkward, which consequently makes it harder for them to maintain a relationship. Other evidence of