Effects of Social Media on Interpersonal Relationships Essay Example

People spend more time on internet; they stay online for long hours texting, posting photos, or contributing to different online debates. The more time they spend on internet, the less time they do with family members. In reference to critical social theory, reduced face-to-face communication reduces sensory awareness and human contact needed for psychological and well-being (Berlinger, 2000). Sharing of photos or feelings online lacks emotional quality of sharing experience. For example, seeing friends post photos regarding an exciting event can be wonderful, but being with them at the event has a deep emotional impressions. People sharing through phones or laptops involve cold machines. Therefore, communicating with people online may not meet demand of family or friends socialization in the real world.
It is hard to maintain privacy in social media platforms. The probability of privacy exposure is very high. People stalk their partners using Facebook, Twitter, or other social Medias. People try to things like phishing by trying to access other peoples’ passwords or usernames, which creates trustworthy issues. People stop sharing due to fear, making social media communication lose its meaning.

Social media negatively affects peoples’ emotions and psychology. According to John Cacioppo, people can transmit their loneliness through social media. He states that if a person through internet communicates to another lonely individual, the person is 52% more likely to be lonely (Cacioppo, Fowler, & Christakis, 2000). Therefore, whatever the emotions the other party whom one has a direct contact through a social network is going through, it is possible for them to affect the person. People also post photos of their new cars, house, or any exciting lives. The sharing changes to display

of successes. People start feeling envious and jealous. They start cursing saying their friends are boastful. At this stage, sharing gives people many negative emotions, making the act of social media sharing lose its original meaning.

Teenagers have become too much dependent on social media use. The invention of portable internet enabled phones or tablets have led to addiction cases. People spend all their time texting; they text in kitchens, dining rooms, and even washrooms. Others spend days indoor playing online games. This addiction makes teenagers develop sedentary lifestyles. This is because the teenagers spend most of this time alone, instead of being with other teenagers playing other games like soccer or field hockey. There have been many cases of bullying through social media. Teenage girls, for example, like damaging their colleagues’ image by spreading gossips. The affected party develops low self-esteem, which negatively affects the development of interpersonal relationships.
Social media usage is expensive. Daily usage increases expenditure compared to one’s income. Increased expenditures lead to increase in stress levels, due to cash difficulties of climbing the social ladder. Increased social media usage decreases time spent on work, reducing one’s revenue. People find it hard to participate in many social activities due to financial constraint.

Moral decay is on the rise in the societies due to social media. They destroy the roots of interpersonal relationship establishment. Teenagers accesses pornographic materials at will on internet. They start engaging in sexual activities at young ages, something that would have been difficult if social media was unavailable.

Some controversies can arise where some disagree with the issue regarding alienation of authentic relations. They can disagree stating that social media expands relationships

of all users, both socially and geographically. This is true in that social media makes the world a global village. However, the distance relationships offers shallow emotional connections compared to face-to-face interactions. Other researchers like Kietzmann et al (2011) state that social media creates a platform where individuals and communities share and co-create contents. It has raised the interactive levels to higher heights. However, there is a lot of self-disclosure through these platforms. People with bad intentions do not see the platforms in that perspective. Their aim is to locate a hurting personal information, putting one’s privacy at risk. Therefore, although a controversy can arise regarding provision of interacting platforms and expansion of people’s relationships socially and geographically, the negative effects arising from social media use are more, compared to the stated benefits.

In contradiction, Putnam (2000) argues that social media use improves peoples’ living standards, shaping the national socioeconomic development. Others state that social media improve social relations as people can create virtual groups and use them to pursue their interests together, making them develop good friendship. Social media has led to increase use of computer-mediated communications. Through these communications, people are earning their leaving. For example, people use social media platform to advertise themselves or their products locally and international. This has led to creation of durable relationships of mutual acquaintance. The broad social network created by some social media platforms has enabled users to gain social currency. Social media also enlarge one’s sphere of influence by including people one wishes to like or know better, which may improve one’s interpersonal relationships.
Social media has some good effects on interpersonal relationship as it provides a

platform for people to interact unlike the traditional media. It also provides one with social capital, and broad social and geographic relationship expansion. However, it has many negative effects on interpersonal relationship for facts; it cannot guarantee user privacy, it increases individual expenditure, creates alienation, negative emotions, and moral decay.

References

1. Cacioppo, J. T., Fowler, J. H., & Christakis, N. A. (2000). Alone in the crowd: The structure and spread of loneliness in a large social network. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
2. Berlinger M. R.(2000). Internet and Alienation. The New York Times. Retrieved from
   http://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/23/opinion/l-internet-and-alienation-946346.html?scp=1&sq=internet%20and%20alienation&st=cse
3. Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. P., & Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business Horizons, 54(SPECIAL ISSUE: SOCIAL MEDIA), 241-251.
4. Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-839X.2007.00242.x/full#b1