Social networking sites lets us engage with a lot of people and share different types of data and be up-to-date on the latest news and the latest trends. However, even though this is the most common way of communication for a majority of people recent studies have shown that the overuse of social networking sites seems to have changed the way we communicate mostly on a daily basis and even the means of how we interact face to face. The social networking sites we have today like Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook have now grown billions of users. Even in today’s society it essential or most expected we use one type of social media or even all these social media platforms as a communication source. The growing habit of social networking sites has had somewhat of a positive and damaging affect on communication in today’s relationships. The main purpose of this essay remains to answer if social networking sites continue making are relationships dishonest or actually helping them to progress. The further social networking sites start to advance there are some aspects of communication that can begin to downfall. For instance, the social penetration theory, that describes a person as an onion with multiple layers of different information that has been compressed.
The exterior layer contains the sort of information that we would obtain when we first get aquatinted with that person, for example, their name, age, preferences and where they’re from. As the relationship amongst people begin progressing people may talk about more personal things such as family circumstances, political opinions and religion. However, because of social networking platforms, the purpose of progressing through these onion layers become unreal in today’s society.
When a person uses a site such as Facebook and you are Facebook friends with that person it is easier to know a lot about them such as what activities they like to do, if they like to travel a lot, who they dated, what they did last night and when their birthday is. This is because people have the idea of social acceptance because once you have accepted that friend request your life generally becomes public rather than private to the real friends you have. The research that has been done shows that the real-life characteristics of social penetration theory have changed a lot because the public find it hard to keep data private than public, which means people’s relationships can either grow or decrease faster. In relationships, there can be aspects that let people know the real you, but as social network sites have bios this lets people know a bit about the person and not really knowing if this is the representation of that person until you meet them face-to-face. As individuals we are the ones that are most likely paint the picture that we want based on the information we have been given and even though the activity that we post on social media sometimes shows a different side to others. Most of the time people tend to put the greatest parts of their lives on their social networks and portray the life they always imagined. However, this can be damaging to relationships as people are not showing who they really are and being honest. This is why when considering new relationships that person personality should be uncovered in the same way as layers.
This is why the growth of a great relationship requires effort from both people and this is not possible by going through a person’s Facebook or Instagram page to get to a deeper connection and that’s why we need face-to-face interaction to broaden that connection, which therefore decreases the impact that social networking sites have on our relationships. Furthermore, from the research gathered it shows that we use our phones every day for two hours or even more on social networking sites, this was explained by a communication expert Leslie Shore. Which she has advised that by encouraging online relationships can mainly affect relationships in real life and make us find it harder to communicate. The people that don’t have much experience when it comes to reading people also don’t have similar levels of social intellect that generations before had. If people continue to follow this pattern it will be harder to create stronger and deeper relationships and also harder to continue them.
As we continue to use our phones, we are beginning to form an addiction as we check social networking sites such as scrolling on Instagram or even checking emails and news notifications, it is important that know we have equal time offline with family and friends. Our devices are beginning to also have an unseen control over us and paying far more attention to the device than the person actually around us and only when a person physically calls us, we pay attention. This can make it really hard or nearly even impossible to create relationships when a majority of our time is spent on social media and limiting the time with the person in front of us. Although overusing social media at any time of a relationship can have a negative affect the expert Leslie Shore claims that it can be worse in the early events of a relationship. This is because at the beginning of a relationship we are more attentive to that person and want to know more about them, for instance, their likes and dislikes, religious views, family, aspirations and other things in their life. We are able to spend hours conversing and knowing new things about one another. We don’t mind knowing every story from long to short it just about getting to know that person.
The creation of new relationships is full of different surprises. This is why that social networking sites should not be used while having a conversation to guarantee that your full attention is being dedicated to that person respectively and continue learning that person personality. If real life communication did not exist and people only relied on virtual communication then people will become more isolated and it would cause many problems with relationships it a person was to only use virtual communication.
It is best to communicate face-to-face as there are moments people can’t capture with communicating online. This is because people need to have that bond of different facial interaction and expressions that a person shows in the real world rather than using social networking sites. When you’re not communicating in person it can be harder to know what a person really means for instance a text or message on social networking sites can be misunderstood and therefore lack meaning to the other person. This is why it’s best to have that connection offline and continue to form that great bond.
On the hand social networking sites can also have a positive affect on relationships because in the previous year’s people it was a bit harder to connect with people unless you’re the type of person to form discussions with the majority of people that are there, for instance going to a party where you had to get to know new people. Now we have different sorts of social networking sites that have assisted a lot of people in connecting with new people from different places and this has continued the development from the social media we use such as, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. These social networking platforms that let you create meaningful friendships and get to know that person personally and also spend time with them in the real world on a daily to weekly basis. Some people have never even met these people in the real world but feel they have a connection thanks to the creation of social networking sites. We sometimes spend too long on social networking sites talking about ourselves or even sharing our daily lives even through the good and hard times and sometimes think will people actually care most likely do care and will listen to your problems and talk to you to make they better.The fact is that people are able to connect with you as you share your ups and downs on social networking sites and show empathy for one another.
Someone might be able to share their similar experience with you and help you overcome it. This lets you know that you are able to get through it if someone else can and come out from that struggle. So social networking sites can help you as a therapy session but with online friends.
The time we spend during the week either working or with family obligations makes it harder for us to have time to talk with friends but, with the use of social networking sites, it allows us to easily send a quick message to that person and get an instant response. You could even post a Twitter update and it is able to get to the people you want instantly. Some people might not like making phones calls or even just don’t have time to, so this provides people with a quicker way to communicate all the time and from anywhere they are. Having social networking sites not only allows you to connect to your close friends and family members successfully but also provides the control to be more open to people all around the world and bringing people much closer to you than before. This could also be family members that live in a different country, can be kept much closer to you as you can communicate more often than before. As well you can talk to friends that have moved away but be able to still keep in touch with them with the benefits of social networking sites.
So, with the use of social networking sites, it helps the world turn out to be a smaller place and broaden relationships more. Even though social networking sites can cause relationships to break, it can also cause people to move on and build new ones that may have been better than their last one. Social networking sites can help you engage with a vast amount of people again and even find people with the same interests as you and this usually starts long-lasting relationships that can continue to grow.
This is why social networking sites can help begin relationships. As mentioned before, social networking sites can assist people in finding people that share the same interest as you. For instance, Facebook requires you to add your likes when you create an account and this, therefore, makes it way easier to find a relation with other people. This also goes for Twitter as you follow people or pages that you are interested in, and this is considerably easier online than offline.
Even though social networking sites require you to share your data, which gives up some of your privacy and this might not be accepted by everyone straight away. However, with social networking sites you can keep control of the main data that goes private, but still be able to share what your interests, likes and dislikes are and your opinions that can help others in the world. This is why social networking sites can make it much simpler to fit in, but only if you put yourself out there.
It has been demonstrated through society that social networking sites can have a positive but also negative affect on our relationships as we have discovered. This is why people should stop their obsession on using social networking sites and be more open with themselves to the realisation of actual relationships in reality. The fact is people need to focus more on their lives and not concentrate on other people’s lives.
Social networking sites have shown to be somewhat of a detriment in relationships and also causing socialisation pressure from society. However, when used in a reasonable way this can prove not to have a terrible affect on relationships and still remains neither a detriment or benefit. Does this make you feel that social networking sites are in actuality affecting our relationships or advancing them?
