Social Media and Interpersonal Relationships

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Social media has become popular with the Internet’s increased influence on communication. Naturally, this change has both negative and positive impacts on society and the way we interact with each other. So, what effect does social media have on interpersonal relationships? This essay will try to answer this question.

Today, the number of social networks is growing drastically. The developers of social networks like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, among others, have been competing to offer excellent features.

This can be categorised in terms of privacy, interaction, socialization as well as entertainment. Through the use of wide range of communication platform, the sites can be accessed from laptops, mobile phones, iPhones, and iPads. This has made it easy for people to interact freely anytime given that they have internet connections.

The social media has made it easy for people to communicate without need for face to face interactions. However, the concern has been whether social media is eradicating the essence of interpersonal relationship. Interpersonal relationships involve the association between people for a long period, where the association is based emotional feelings, social commitments as well as regular interactions.

The relationships can occur in different situations, such as friends, clubs, acquaintances, family, workplaces, and churches among others. The difference between the two is that interpersonal relations are determined and regulated by society, law and customs that are shared. Social media has both the negative and positive impacts to individuals’ relationships that affect daily activities.

The social media has both negative and positive impacts on relationships. However, the social media is expected to have more positive than negative impacts because of lowered constraints of traditional communication (Anderson, 1). This has made it possible for people to connect more rapidly with more zeal and zest. According to Jain (1) the social media enables people connect easily with many other people from different parts of life far more than the people we meet in the street.

This is true because people share what they have in common and they make a relation out of it. However, this is degrading the traditional ways in which relationships were initiated and accomplished. But the social media has that ability of bringing people from different social and cultural backgrounds more easily than the traditional mode of communication. Therefore, social media can help one meet many friends than they could ever meet in their life thus enriching their relationships.

Introverts have the chance of strengthening their relations through the social media. Relations in the workplace can be strengthened through the social media and it has been made easy for employees to exchange ideas (Conlin and MacMillan 1). Through the social media brands can be enriched through the wider range of friends and followers. However, it also ruins the relationships in the workplace and reduces productivity. This is because a lot of time is spent and hate and hatred can be spread over through social networks.

In a negative way, social media is ruining some of the relationships based on the comments made by other people. For instance, intimate relationships can ruined because of some post like in face book or twitter. Meraji (1) note that some posts made on face book or tweets made can lead to resentment that generates hate and hatred.

This can ruin closer relationship because of some comments made on your wall. Some forgotten relationships can no longer be forgotten and escaped if one is using the social media. This is because it has become a platform where everybody meets and friends of friends are on it. Social media can be detrimental to relationships because of the negativity it may arouse. For example, negative or moody response can affect the real time relationships.

Social media and the internet are robbing off people the time that can be used in a more constructive and intimate face to face communication (Anderson 2). This is because most of the friends in the social media use fake names, give wrong information about themselves, and even create the aspect of intolerance and impatient. This harms the real relations more and it is happening in the real world.

The communication that creates the feeling of remorse when wrong is done, is not present in the social media relationships. Social media interactions can now strengthen far away relationships. This is because the people can easily communicate and according to Anderson (2) geographical distance is no longer a hindrance to relationship. This has made some of the relations blossom

It can be concluded that social media has both positive and negative effects on relationships. The mode in which they are necessitated consumes a lot of people time that could have been applied in a more face to face communication. This has endangered the traditional mode of communication and can be detrimental to relationships.

However, it has made it possible to enhance the communication and keep long distanced relationships in check. It has also made it easy for people to interact more easily and one can make friends online rapidly than it can occur in real life. Contrary, the social media can break relationships and create aspects like intolerance and impatient. It is believed that social media would be having more positive impacts on relationships as time goes on.

Works Cited

Anderson, Jenna. Q. “The Future of Social Relations”. Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. 2010. Web.

Conlin, Michelle and Douglas, MacMillan. Web 2.0: Managing Corporate Reputations. 2009. Web.

Jain, Rachana. 4 Ways Social Media is Changing Your Relationships. 2010. Web.

Meraji, Shereen. In The Age Of Social Media, Can You Escape Your Ex?. 2010. Web.

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