Social Media Impacts on Interpersonal Relationships

Social Media Impacts on Interpersonal Relationships

            In accordance to basic social science, interpersonal relationship has been defined as either a short term or long term association existing between two people or even more (Arnold & Boggs, 45). This essay looks at both sides of the coin in regard to the impacts of social media which basically encompasses Facebook, Instagram, twitter and more others as a tool for building health interpersonal relationships. The contrast argument however states that social media has been an agent when it comes to hindering interpersonal relationships.

Well, human beings are basically social creatures with natural desires which eventually drive them to connect with others. Without fear of contradiction, social network popularity has really made positive impacts when it comes to the manner in which human being interact every day (Arnold & Boggs, 45). Among many types of interactions necessitated by social media, romantic relationships are the core. Research has revealed that courtship has changed from the old way of initiation where people had to look for each other and converse to just an instant message on social media platform. Facebook for instance has had a great impact as far initiating relationships is concerned. Here people can make friends and proceed to even sharing photos without even physically meeting. In addition, business people have met customers and other partners on social networking sites. It is therefore clear that there are many working relationships as well as business deals currently courtesy of social media platforms

Without reasonable doubt, it is clear that social media platforms have become one among the most fulfilling and convenient ways of keeping people in touch. Facebook for example, it has approximately a billion people actively using the platform on daily basis. The platform also assures its users instant audience and attention as well, if need be especially in relationships. There is freedom of sharing about each other’s feelings especially when it comes to romantic relationships and therefore, despite of distance barriers, people can still reconnect, locate each other, share and even re-ignite a relationship under one social media platform or the other (Arnold & Boggs, 45). Other social media sites like twitter enhances development of the users socially as they purpose to be abreast with what is happening in the whole world. The more people get accustomed to interacting with friends online the more they learn how to accommodate each other even under diverse personalities.

On the other hand, social media platforms have really stressed many relationships today. According to Hudson et al, dating on this Facebook, Instagram and twitter obsessed world requires people to be fully aware of how these platforms can influence an already established relationship. The platforms have been programmed under a lot of privacy to an extent that, it becomes very difficult for partners in a relationship not to imagine that one of them might be sending some direct messages secretly to other people on twitter or liking some stranger’s photos on Instagram whom they are obsessed with. It therefore creates stress in a relationship especially if there have been cases of cheating before.

Facebook can really be a source of uncertainty, anxiety or even miscommunication. The information in this platform has been ambiguous in most cases to an extent of arousing anxiety and suspicions in relationships (Utz & Beukeboom, 57). Facebook has a tendency of constantly creating negative loops of responses which in turn creates chances for online surveillance between partners. Eventually, these steps act as forces to destabilize relationships. This social media platform may therefore not be appropriate for anxious people.

The excessive time which is usually spent on social media platforms has also proved to harm interpersonal relationships. Festus, in his study revealed that obsessive use of social media platforms like twitter and Facebook has recorded some unwanted outcomes like marriage break-ups as well as relationships terminations. He argues that the outcomes have been fueled by constant conflicts and arguments emanating from complaints of reduced attention especially for the couples. Obsession to social media has also recorded some severe detrimental results associated with jealousy and dissatisfactions experienced by people in relationships (Utz & Beukeboom, 57).

Research has showed that social media has completely replaced the traditional physical interactions which were very convenient. As inferred by Jeniffer Mattern, social media has killed personal relationships. She outlines that social media platforms have inhibited the deeper personal associations among individuals which was in its development process. According to Jeniffer, most of the friends who people tend to connect with on social media platforms, the relationships always tends to be very casual and very little can be exchanged when compared to platforms like e-mail (Utz & Beukeboom, 57).

Studies as well as personal experiences have showed that individuals mostly pretend when engaging on social media platforms. Weakness, conflicts and emotions are just minimized and hidden on social media platforms (Hudson et al., 68). This makes it absolutely hard to define whether relationship intimacies expressed in social media platforms are real or fake. Relationships initiated through social media platforms should therefore never be taken as supplements for authentic relationships much as they seem to offer awesome platforms for engagement. This is because real life relationships usually take some time to build hence giving people both time as well as opportunities to know and understand each other better. It is therefore crystal clear that online relationships, however much significant they may appear from different points of view, most of the times don’t lead to profound and lasting closeness.

Finally, social media has led to increased moral decay in our today’s society, which in turn has destroyed the basis of interpersonal relationships traditionally established. With the emergence of different social media platforms, most of the teenagers have got some easy access to sites displaying illegal literature like pornographic sites with a lot of ease (Hudson et al., 68). This has resulted to sexual deviations like cyber-sex and some other forms of immoral behaviors which could have not been evident if social media platforms were not available. Exposure to immoral behaviors has reduced the age at which teenagers used to get engaged before. This as a result has encouraged development of more unhealthy interpersonal relationships.