Social Media and Relationships
Social media refers to online platforms that enable users to share information, images, and interact with others, impacting relationships in various ways. While initially popular among teenagers, these platforms have increasingly attracted adults, allowing individuals to stay connected despite busy lives. The positive aspects of social media include the ability for couples to strengthen their bonds through shared experiences and communication. Surveys indicate that many couples feel more connected and confident in their relationships due to social media interactions. Furthermore, it offers a way for people who may struggle with social situations, such as introverts or those with disabilities, to engage with others comfortably.
Conversely, the rise of social media usage has also revealed negative effects on relationships. Increased online interaction can lead to feelings of neglect among partners, with some individuals spending excessive time online at the expense of real-life connections. Additionally, reconnecting with past acquaintances can create trust issues and even lead to infidelity in some cases. The pressure to maintain numerous online friendships can be particularly taxing for teenagers, contributing to heightened anxiety and mental health challenges. Overall, social media plays a complex role in shaping interpersonal relationships, with both beneficial and detrimental consequences.
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Social Media and Relationships
Social media are websites or web-based applications that allow people to communicate with others by sharing information, images, and more. People network and maintain relationships through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter (renamed "X" in 2023), and Instagram. Teenagers are not the only ones using social media; more adults have turned to new forms of communication to stay in touch with others. Using social media can affect relationships with others in both positive and negative ways.
Positive Impacts
Social media can have many positive impacts on relationships. People can share information about their lives through posts and instant messages on Facebook, images on Instagram, tweets on Twitter (renamed "X" in 2023), videos on TikTok, and more. A 2014 study from the Pew Research Center reported that 74 percent of couples in relationships said that the internet has impacted their relationships in positive ways. The study reported that 21 percent of married adults or adults in partnerships felt closer to their spouses or partners because of exchanges through social media or by text. In addition, 11 percent of couples who use Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites admitted they share a social networking profile. Also, 67 percent of couples said they share passwords to social media sites with one another. A survey by the Pew Research Center conducted in 2020 found that younger adults were especially reliant on social media to show their love for their partner. About 33 percent of younger adults said they use social media to show how much they care about their partner.
Communicating through social media has advantages for many people, especially those who are very busy with school, work, families, and other activities and do not have the time to devote to maintaining social relationships. Social media gives people who are too busy to socialize in person a way to maintain their existing relationships and form new ones. It can also help them reconnect with those who they may have lost touch with, such as old classmates and former coworkers.
Online connections can help families and friends who live long distances from one another connect on a regular basis. They can talk online as well as share photographs of loved ones. For example, grandparents who live across the country can talk to their grandchildren regularly to stay informed.
In addition, it is sometimes hard for people to form new relationships with others. Social media allows people who may not have met in real life to meet online. People can now converse with others without leaving the comfort of their homes. Instead of physically meeting or visiting with someone, they can log onto a social media site. This gives those who are disabled or elderly a way to connect with others without traveling to do so.
Social media can also help introverts or those who are quiet, shy, or uncomfortable in social situations participate in conversations without actual face-to-face contact. They can use social media to interact with those who share the same interests. Participating in relationships in social media settings can help these people gain confidence as well as new communication tools to use in their social lives off-line.
A survey by the nonprofit child advocacy group Common Sense Media reported that 52 percent of teenagers aged thirteen to seventeen said social media impacted their relationships positively. They also reported that social media helped them build and maintain friendships and gave them more confidence.
Negative Impacts
As the amount of time people spent on social media rose significantly during the 2010s and 2020s, the negative impacts of such usage became clearer. A 2018 study conducted by Brigham Young University revealed that the more time an individual used social media, the greater the likelihood social media would negatively affect both the quality of their relationships and their overall mental health. One way social media negatively impacts relationships is that social media platforms give people the ability to look up people from their past, such as old friends or old boyfriends or girlfriends. A 2020 study by the Pew Research Center found that just over half of all social media users reported using social media to check up on someone with whom they had a past relationship. What may start as something as innocent as establishing contact with these past individuals could turn into something more, as messages get more detailed and the relationship deepens. This could cause a strain on their current relationships and cause spouses or partners to lose trust with one another, especially if one hides this communication from the other. In 2015, the family law firm McKinley Irvin reported findings that one in three marriages ends because of affairs started online.
Some people spend much of their time on social media, which puts a strain on real-life relationships. Spouses and partners could feel ignored while their other halves spend time online instead of with them. The Pew Research Center reported that nearly one-quarter of couples in relationships said that they were bothered by how much time their partner spends on social media in 2020.
Sometimes comments made on social media are taken out of context. This can create tension between individuals and affect relationships. Social media can create false perceptions of relationships. For example, some people have thousands of friends on Facebook but only a few in real life. This can lead people to focus much of their attention on these perceived online relationships and ignore real-life connections, causing misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and breakups.
The negative impact of social media on teenagers became starkly evident in the early 2020s as new research revealed how damaging social media usage is to teens' mental health, highlighting soaring rates of anxiety and depression among teens. One factor leading to such negative effects is the need for teens to maintain hundreds or even thousands of relationships with "friends" across social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram and a perceived need to like or comment constantly on friends' posts. Trying to keep up with the pressure to stay engaged with so many connections can cause a great deal of stress for teens. Many also worry that they are not giving enough support to friends who may be struggling with mental health issues that they have shared on social media.
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