Social media is a combination of websites and applications that allow you to communicate with people all across the world. Although there are good attributions to using social media, it can greatly affect people’s relationships and cause problems in communication.
Social media is bad for romantic relationships and friendships for many reasons.
A huge reason that social media causes issues in all types of relationships is miscommunication. Often through social media, regular talking or texting can be seen in a different light. When seeing how people are talking to you through text messages, you cannot tell the attitude they have with the messages. People often take something that was meant to be light-hearted differently, just because they can’t hear how the person is saying the statement or the gestures they would make. Also, because of social media, there is a huge amount of oversharing. In relationships, you might see your friend or partner doing several things through what they post on social media and you can feel severely left out. Many might overthink that they might not be as fun to hangout with than the people they are posting on their social media. According to Pew Research Center, “Fully 88% of social media-using teens agree that people share too much information about themselves on social media, with 35% agreeing strongly. These data hold true regardless of which social media platforms teens use.” These statistics show how much teens usually overshare through social media. This can cause several problems and often leads to severe miscommunication.
Although social media does cause problems, some might say that social media is a good way to connect people together. Although social media does make communication between people easier, it still causes issues frequently. Using text messages to communicate with others is a much better way to communicate with friends and family without the extra drama that social media platforms bring. Or, even a simple phone call would help create even better conversations.
There are many ways that this issue can be fixed. Firstly, stop normalizing the use of oversharing on social media platforms. Not only is it toxic for relationships, but it is also toxic for the person oversharing. Every personal detail of a person’s life should not have to be shared with everyone. Teens should start monitoring what they should be posting and things that should just be kept to themselves. Also, teens can start calling more than texting if they are having problems communicating with their friends or in relationships. This way, anything that is being said can be interpreted to its fullest.
Overall, with any relationship, communication is always key. If someone is not communicating to their furthest because of social media, maybe it’s time to take a step back. Our society has consumed ourselves with social media, and has allowed us to swipe through people’s lives and see all of the “exciting” things they are doing. It’s always a good idea to really make sure you’re communicating with those you care about, not only through social media, to create long-lasting friendships and relationships.
