Social Media has Reshaped Our Relationships

As social media reshapes how we as people connect, we have to rethink what we need to do in order to be fulfilled in our relationships, and realize, at the same, that no amount of tweets, texts or Facebook status updates can provide that fulfillment. While social networking is a great tool in the sense that it is quick in being able to communicate with people, there is a profound difference between an online social network and a real social network. Despite the fact that while online there will always be someone, somewhere awake to like our latest status update, when it comes to friends, quantity doesn’t equal quality. Thus proving that there are many disadvantages as well advantages to modern day technology on the Internet.
Recent studies have found that those who use social networks that supposedly bring about company are not feeling any less lonely. In the article, Virtual Companionship, author Jeremy Rifkin says “Despite being more connected than ever, people feel more alone than ever” (Rifkin). Surprisingly, studies have shown that those who report feeling most alone are people under thirty-five, who are the most fruitful of people in the social networking world. Another study, conducted by the Boston Globe, found that “People have fewer confidants today than they did twenty-five years ago” (Allen). So although there in now an expansive social networking online, the depth of our offline social networks has decreased. People no longer write or even call their friends via the telephone. Instead, communication is done purely through text. It seems that because technology makes it easier to stay in touch while keeping distance, more and more people find themselves feeling distant, never reaching out, and thus they feel increasi...

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...s going on for others.
As we rely on the Internet and social networking to communicate more efficiently in an increasingly global world, we mustn’t lose touch with the physical community around us. We must be careful that we don’t forget that human element within any relationship can never be replaced by technology. According to Charlotte Steinway, “The more we rely on technology in our lives the more mindful we must be to turn it off and spend time with people, without our gadgets beeping at us to return texts that really, aren’t worth our time to reply to” (Steinway). While it might be stating the obvious, if a person wants to connect with more people, they need to reach out and do so in person. People need to be able to converse with people more openly, authentically and with vulnerability. By interacting face-to-face with other people, one will never feel alone.