Social Media and Relationships
There are hundreds of social media websites and platforms that have been developed thanks to the technological developments and the digitization in the world. There has been substantial growth for the market for various social media companies; for instance, Facebook being the most prominent social network boasts of about 3billion users worldwide. Social media plays an integral role when it comes to connecting people and developing relationships. There are, however, some scholars who have come forward to oppose these observations. This paper will investigate whether social media is a useful tool for building and enhancing relationships. There is, however, a strong inclination to the argument that it is significant in establishing solid relationships.
There is evidence that social media helps establish relationships with both romantic and general relationships. Various studies have been put forward to explain this phenomenon. The results of this study support the argument that social media establishes relationships. Several premises were developed to explain those results from a study done in the university of Southwestern United States. Premise one indicated that social media helps to create relationships quicker as there is the provision of people meeting different people and enables them to find them with interests that resonate with each other. It was also agreed that couples with access to social media could share photos and interact widely regardless of the distance between them. This premise was found to help those couples maintain their relationship, despite the distance between them. Premise three opined that social media was an excellent tracker to show how couples are committed to each other (Hudson et al., 2015). It also enables them to manage and resolve their conflicts, therefore, being there for each other emotionally.
To support the above argument, the following was established. Setting up an active social media account say Facebook requires one to provide vital information about themselves such as sex, age, hobbies, location and others. This information helps people meet others with the same interests as them and thus be able to establish rapport much quicker. From a study done by scholars aiming to find the role of social media in relationships, participants opined that social media helped them “Meet new people,” allowing “those with similar beliefs, habits and hobbies to find each other more easily” (Hertlein et al., 2014). Formidable relationships are based on having healthy and similar interests, and social media provides a media for such. In the modern world, much of the relationships have been forced to be long-distance because of the difference in location of the jobs, schools and living locations. A participant from one of the studies said that technology is the medium through which a relationship is maintained. Social media makes communications more comfortable and much faster (Tosun, 2012). A particular study also opined that many relationships fail because of the inability to show remorse from all factions (Braithwaite et al., 2016). That has been made easier with social media.
There are also arguments that social media does not help build and maintain relationships. The studies have put forward their evidence to support these claims. Premise one indicated that social media makes a couple distant from each other since there is no close monitoring from each other (Irani et al., 2018). Another premise indicated that social media is the primary cause of distrust between couples (Nongpong et al., 2016). Social media also negates the need to observe personal boundaries since one may reveal so many details about themselves. Also, the intentions of a user are not clear, and one may have ulterior motives which may lead a relationship to its deathbed. To support these claims, Irani et al., 2018 opined that spending so much time on social media deters the growth of a relationship as may lead to one feeling valueless and unloved. Addiction to social media by one partner may make them oblivious to the presence of the other partner leading to feelings of being unwanted in a relationship.
Another observation is that there is a provision in social media websites which allow users to hide the vital information about their status, age, sex and location. This has been found to sow seeds of distrust among couples. People who put their relationship status in social media as private are seen to be untrustworthy. There is also a tendency of people fronting wrong personalities and attributes for themselves in social media. The provision by social media sites that allows one to view another person’s profile is seen as an invasion to one’s privacy as it disregards personal boundaries. The ability to view another user’s profile leaves them susceptible to hacking, and they may lose important information about themselves, or their information may be leaked to the public. Also, social media users are not all to be trusted as some login to these sites to bully others behaviour that may lead to others having depression and in other cases even death by suicide (Pourmand et al., 2019).
From the arguments, it is clear that both claims offer reliable support for their conclusions and why they opine the separate views. Scholars, like any other person, have their shortcoming and flaws. They may thus have overlooked certain aspects for them to advance their topics of interest. In conclusion, getting addicted to social media can ruin relationships. Moderate use is encouraged in making effective relationships. Comparison between the risks involved and the rewards, the rewards outweigh the risks.
References
Braithwaite, S. R., Doxey, R. A., Dowdle, K. K., & Fincham, F. D. (2016). The unique influences of parental divorce and parental conflict on emerging adults in romantic relationships. Journal of Adult Development, 23(4), 214-225.
Hertlein, K. M., & Ancheta, K. (2014). Advantages and Disadvantages of Technology in Relationships: Findings from an Open-Ended Survey. Qualitative Report, 19(11).
Hudson, S., Roth, M. S., Madden, T. J., & Hudson, R. (2015). The effects of social media on emotions, brand relationship quality, and word of mouth: An empirical study of music festival attendees. Tourism Management, 47, 68-76.
Irani, Z. B. & Rezaei, T. (2018). The Effects of Social Networking on Marital Relationships and Couples Quality of Life (Case Study: Couples of Social Networking Members in Shiraz). Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Research, 6(04), 72-78.
Nongpong, S., & Charoensukmongkol, P. (2016). I don’t care much as long as I am also on Facebook: Impacts of social media use of both partners on romantic relationship problems. The Family Journal, 24(4), 351-358.
Pourmand, A., Roberson, J., Caggiula, A., Monsalve, N., Rahimi, M., & Torres-Llenza, V. (2019). Social media and suicide: a review of technology-based epidemiology and risk assessment. Telemedicine and e-Health, 25(10), 880-888.
Tosun, L. P. (2012). Motives for Facebook use and expressing “true self” on the Internet. Computers in human behaviour, 28(4), 1510-1517.