What´s a Cyber Relationship?

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Introduction

Cyber Relationship is the connection and involvement we have with our computers, or something that is of virtual reality. In our context, Cyber Relationship refers to the commitment and social connection we have with the people we meet through Cyber platforms like Social Media platforms. Some examples of Social Media platforms that encourage Cyber Relationships are Facebook and Twitter. Internet Addiction refers to “an individual’s inability to control their Internet use, which in turn leads to feelings of distress and functional impairment of daily activities.” (Douglas, 3)

Why is Cyber Relationship Addiction in Singapore an important topic of interest? According to statistics, 74% of Singaporeans actually make use of Social Media platforms. With such a high usage, people tend to form online relationships much easier and frequent than before. Hence, is it true that there’s an addiction to forming Cyber Relationships in Singapore today? If so, what is the extent of Cyber Relationship Addiction in Singapore today? How does this form of addiction affect us in our daily lives? Why do we choose to allow Cyber Relationship Addiction to take place? We will be exploring and answering these questions in the Literature review, with reference to relevant academic sources.

Literature Review
What is the extent of Cyber Relationship Addiction these days?
There is an increase in a total of 318% in Myspace.com, a highly used networking site among youth from 2005 to 2006, as reported by ComScore (Infographics.sg). Relating it to Singaporeans on the Social Media platform, Facebook.com, we actually spend an average of 19.6hours per month, making of 19 posts a month each on top of comments made. This makes us twice the user of th...

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... comfort or understanding from their primary relationships, they turn to the cyber platform as the other option. Eventually, this source of comfort will turn into a preference and the individual will end up choosing cyber relationships as opposed to their original primary relationships due to the pros and cons on both ends measured.

Conclusion
The extent of Cyber Relationship Addiction in Singapore today is considerably high. With a higher usage in Social Media platforms among not only the youth, but adults as well, we can conclude that Cyber Relationship Addiction is affecting a relatively larger group of people. Cyber Relationship Addiction is serious to the extent where they are affecting our primary relationships and discouraging us from non-virtual interactions with our partners. This may lead to little face-to-face interaction and socializing in the future.

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