Technology’s Negative Impact on Romantic Relationships

2407 Words5 Pages

Social networking and other social technology allows for interactions to occur between friends and family regardless of their location. While people remain social through communicating at a constant rate, the essence of face-to-face interactions is in part affected. In romantic relationships, open and honest communication with one’s partner is critical to the trust and development of the relationship. Young adults use social technology such as the Internet and mobile phones on a daily basis to maintain their relationships. Due to the miscommunication that often occurs from not a lack of face-to-face interactions, social technology shapes the way romantic relationships function. Therefore, social technology impacts romantic relationships through a technological determinist outlook, leading to trust and dissatisfaction issues through the Internet and mobile devices, thus negatively changing face-to-face relationships. Different rhetoric of online communication shapes and transforms problems such as deception in online dating, social monitoring and control on social networking sites, creates negative interpretations and implications of text messages, and thus creates a new image and mindset of romantic relationships.
Technological determinism “sees technology as the cause of cultural and social change” (Morris, 2013). Within technological determinism, there are two different types. Hard technological determinism is “an oversimplified, cause and effect explanation for social change” (Johnson, 2013). Soft technological determinism views “technology is one of many social factors that drive social change” (Johnson, 2013). Viewing the Internet as one of the many factors in shaping social change is a technological determinist view. Young a...

... middle of paper ...

...n-Madison, Madison WI.
Morris, J. (2013, September). This is your brain on the Internet. Communication Arts 346. Lecture conducted from University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI.
Morris, J (2013, October). Digitizing difference. Communication Arts 346. Lecture conducted from University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI.
Tokunaga, R. S. (2011). Social networking site or social surveillance site? understanding the use of interpersonal electronic surveillance in romantic relationships. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(2), 705-713.
Toma, C. L., Hancock, J. T., & Ellison, B. N. (2008). Separating fact from fiction: An examination of deceptive self-presentation in online dating profiles. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 1023-1036.
Weisskirch, R. S., & Delevi, R. (2011). "Sexting" and adult romantic attachment. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(5), 1697-1701.

Open Document