The Effects of Social Media on Interpersonal Relationships

Social media has become a completely ubiquitous phenomenon within modern society over the course of the last decade or so. This has usually been celebrated as a sign that people are able to remain more connected with each other than ever before; but in truth, the whole picture may be considerably more complicated than that. The purpose of this Ultius essay example is to critically explore the effects that social media has on interpersonal relationships.

Interpersonal Relationships and social media

The essay will begin with a basic definition of what social media is. Then, it will describe the obviously beneficial effects that social media does in fact have on interpersonal relationships. After this, though, the essay will shift into a consideration of the dark side of social media, or the way in which it actually undermines genuine interpersonal relationships. This will then be followed by a theoretical consideration that attempts to orient this understanding of social media into a broader sociological discussion.

Definition of social media

In broad terms, social media refers to any phone- or Internet-based application that can be used in order to engage in communication with other people across space and time. The most popular ones, such as Facebook and Twitter, clearly exist in order to serve this purpose. Other common ones, though, include Tumblr and Reddit; and indeed, any kind of blogging application or websites that allow users to interact with each other could be identified as a kind of social media. The defining feature of social media is that it enables a large number of people, potentially strangers, to communicate with each other in a streamlined way and, in doing so, it expands our understanding of communication.

Beneficial effects of social media

Given this definition of social media, it is clear enough that social media fundamentally exists in order to enhance interpersonal relationships. As Zakaria has put it, for example:

"Using something like Skype brings people closer when they can't always physically see each other. Texting people through Facebook or any other texting platform allows us to be in contract with anyone anywhere in the world, no matter how far they are away from us, at any point in time" (paragraph 3).

The scope of social media is thus global, and the technology opens up possibilities for communication that were almost literally unthinkable prior to its advent. It is now possible to keep in touch with friends and family, no matter how far one moves away from them; and especially through Facebook, it is also possible to find long lost persons from one's own past in an extremely easy and straightforward way. These can be understood as real gains for the sustenance of interpersonal relationships. 

Moreover, emerging social media platforms are beginning to focus not just on virtual interactions, but rather on getting people offline and into relationships in the real world. The dating platform HowAboutWe is one example of this. Likewise, DiBlasio (reporting two years ago) has discussed an application called Grubwithus, which was intended bring strangers together to share meals at actual restaurants.

So, social media has begun to focus not just on either supplementing existing relationships or sustaining virtual ones, but also on actually turning virtual relationships into relationships in the empirical world. This is an excellent example of how social media can be said to have a positive effect on interpersonal relationships: it can genuinely bring people together who may have otherwise not even been aware of each others' existences. Technology can thus clearly be made to serve the genuinely values of friendship and interpersonal connection. 

The dark side of social media

Thus far, it has been indicated that to an extent, social media can in fact be understood as enhancing interpersonal relationships; after all this is the very reason it exists in the first place. However, it must now be asserted that social media also has a significant dark side: it can not only bring people together, but also (and somewhat paradoxically) alienate people from each other.

Zakaria has provided a good example of how this works:

"You always see a bunch of friend groups hanging out together when each of them is caught up in their digital devices; they constantly