Abstract

This paper examines how social media has become the biggest medium of communication throughout the world and how it had an impact on interpersonal communication and relationships. Social networking sites has changed the way people communicate and helped them to interact with others easily, without any barriers. Online interactivity and communication are rapidly growing, hence diminishing the amount of time spend on face-to-face human contact and increase time spent on having more intimate conversation online. This paper mainly examines how social networking sites has strengthen existing relationships; and how it helps people to forge their ties with acquaintances hence, building a new friendship/relationship.

Keywords: Social Networks, Relationship, Social Media, Online Communication, Friendship, Social Networking Sites, Facebook

Introduction

Social media platforms have significantly changed the propagation of information by making it unimaginably simple to share and to assimilate information on the web. (Akrimi & Khemakhem, 2012). Social media allow individuals to communicate with numerous people at the same time compared to the traditional means of communication, in this way, sharing of information become speedier and easier. The Web has revolutionized communications, to a degree that it is now the most favored mode of communication. Nowadays, we are able to send information from one end of the world to another within a few seconds. Moreover, the emergence of the Web has generated debates about how social relationships has been affected by online communications.

The Internet has brought people close together in today’s world since globalized society are now connected through the use of new technologies which has eliminated all communication barriers. The top four social media platform that are changing human’s mode of communication are Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. Facebook became a pioneer in today’s society by allowing individuals to connect with people all around the world. On the other hand, Instagram and Snapchat became very popular among younger generations and has consequently contributed to the shaping of the millennial culture. Moreover, the Web has changed the way people communicate with their family members, life partners and friends. Nowadays, individuals can handle their personal relationships by making use of devices such as their smart phones, laptops or tablets. Moreover, it encourages the creation and maintaining of emotional closeness between individuals who communicate through social network platforms. Without these communication tools it would be difficult for people to maintain a long-distance relationship with their family, life partner, friends and acquaintances. Individuals do not lose the emotional closeness of their personal relationship when their friends or family members move abroad since they can still communicate with each other on a daily basis through the use of social networking sites.

Maintaining long-distance relationship through social networking sites

Researchers such as Wellman & Gulia (1999) argued that the Web has not only enabled people to interact with each other without having to meet each other in real life on a daily basis but it has also enabled its users to keep in touch and not losing any emotional connection when maintaining a long-distance relationship. Other researchers also argue that the Web and face-to-face contact has been enhanced and extended each other, instead of replacing one another (Boase & Wellman, 2006). That is, the Internet has improved personal relationships among individuals by allowing them to keep in touch with their friends and relatives who are living far away from them as well as maintaining the relationship with those who they meet frequently in real life. Materials from Pew Research Centre and American Life Panel (2000, 2002) reveal that women are more likely to keep contact and communicate with friends and family through social media compared to men. Women are often the one who maintain long-distance contact with family, friends and relatives and preserve a stronger connection online with kin compared to men (Chen et al., 2002).

On-line strong ties are often said to have many characteristics that are similar to off-line strong ties, that is, they promote recurrent, companionable contact that are voluntary (Wellman & Gulia, 1999). Social networking sites such as Facebook gave its users the opportunity to send messages, call or video call anyone across the world for free, therefore this has helped individuals to maintain their personal relationship online whether they are distant or close in term of physical distance. Moreover, this new form of communication helps with long-term contact, by preventing the loss of the tie that often accompanies geographical mobility (Aguiton & Cardon, 2007). In addition, Clifford Stoll (1995, p.24) promote the idea that connection made online are illusory: “Electronic communication is an instantaneous and illusory contact that creates a sense of intimacy without the emotional investment that leads to close friendships.” That is, the Internet allow individuals to preserve existing ties, often to reinforce them, and at the same time encourage them to forge their ties with acquaintances. As Stoll (1995) has argued, ‘this sense of intimacy’ that has been created online brings people who communicate through social media closer and help them to strengthen their relationships. Moreover, when an individual spends time on social network platforms, the amount of time they spend on relatively unsocial activities, such as sleeping and watching TV, are decreased, therefore, we can say that this culture has encouraged its users to become more social.

Teenagers and online communication

Technology has increasingly mediated the communication in interpersonal relationships. Social networking sites support people who are in a long-distance relationship, where they lack face-to-face contact, to maintain their meaningful relationships (Baym et al., 2007). A study carried out by the UCLA defines the Web as ‘a catalyst for creating and maintaining friendships and family relationships’ (UCLA Center for Communication Policy, 2003). Social media strengthen social ties and help people become closer by allowing them to make and stay in touch with friends. Moreover,  teens are the main users of social media, it makes them feel more connected to their friends and they can get more information about what is going on in their friends’ lives through their smartphones. Social networking sites also allow its user to make new friends online. People who use social media are more likely to agree that they feel more connected to their friends than those who do not use a social network platform (Pew Research Center, 2015). Social media platform like Facebook allows people to make new friends without meeting the person face-to-face. Friendships are born easier with these types of platform since people do not have to make much investment. Where friendship beforehand demanded time, effort and communication skills, it has now been simplified to only a click of a button to find friends on a social networking platform. Starting a new friendship can be quite difficult, especially for people who are no longer in school or who do not have many co-workers to communicate with. Nonetheless, for shy persons and those in quests of new friends, social networking can provide them with an easy way to make the first step to the creation of a new friendship. By merely clicking on the “add friend” button, people can express that they are interested in getting to know someone, hence decreasing the barrier to friendship. This feature of social networking sites makes it easier for teenagers to communicate with their friends or to build friendships with their classmates who they are too shy to talk to in class.

It is easier to communicate with the opposite sex online

Some studies, have revealed that people are more likely to keep contact with their friends via an Internet connection rather than communicating with family members online (Chen et al., 2002; Dimmick et al., 2000). Moreover, other researchers have found that friendships between men and women were more likely to happen in online context rather than in a face-to-face situation (Parks & Roberts, 1998). It is easier to make conversation with the opposite sex when there is no face-to-face interaction and your body language cannot be seen. Hence, it is made easier for shy persons to talk more freely via a virtual context rather than having a real-life conversation with the same person. Moreover, Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe (2007) imply that social networking sites such as Facebook are often used to sustain existing offline relationships or to strengthen offline relations, rather than being used to meet and befriend new people. The people who add one another on social media may possess weak ties such as being classmates or work colleagues who share common offline elements but are not that close to maintain a face-to-face conversation. Therefore, it is an opportunity for them to improve their relationships through connections and communication on social media.

On the other hand, researchers such as Parks and Roberts (1998) have also found that although offline relationships were somewhat more developed and involved more face-to-face interactions and time spend together, there were significantly no variances in the depth and breadth of interaction between online and offline relationships. Other studies suggest that women have a tendency to give importance to their close relationships more than men (Duck and Wright, 1993; Aukett et al., 1988). Moreover, women have been discovered to be the more accurate senders (Buck et al., 1974) and receivers (Rosenthal et al., 1979; Hall, 1998) of non-verbal means of communication. Nowadays, meeting someone and starting a relationship through an online dating platform or through social media is seen as normal. Social networks help individuals to remove some social challenges, such as controlling the way people perceive them and what they want others to know about them. It also provides the public with a sense of freedom and removes the risk of being rejected by others. Social media allow its users to manage their personal information and allow people to know you on your own terms, which might be empowering and hence, encourage its users to take more risks when opening up and self-disclosing. Social networks also help people to connect with other participants who share mutual acquaintances and helps them to build friendships or romantic relationships.

Does the forging of relationships online have its drawbacks?

Moreover, social networking sites help people to build closer relationships with one another by sharing information about themselves such as their likes and dislikes, concerns and worries online. For people who find the sharing of information about themselves challenging when in comes to face-to-face interaction, the absence of physical presence online makes it easier for them to discuss these matters with others through the Internet. For example, people who are anxious in social situations can easily disclose their personal information and practice their relational skills with friends when online. Social networks also help people to find support from other users, even from strangers. There are many online support groups on the internet where the public can find friendships and supports for the important times of their life. Moreover, friendship can also be created through the online games available on social media such as 8-ball pool on Facebook, where individuals can play with anyone, even strangers, from across the world. Therefore, people playing the same game are more likely to make new friends while playing these social media games. Social media games often involve interaction, competition and cooperation with other players, which often requires communication among the players to achieve the game. This feature also encourages the participants to meet and socialize, even in an offline context by creating events where they can all play together or meet to discuss about the game. Friendship formation and loose social ties can strengthen among the users if they interact beyond the game through online chatting (Trepte, Reinecke & Juechems, 2012).

The strengthening and formation of relationships and friendships online have its drawbacks as well. Making affiliations through an electronic medium with strangers by sharing personal information with people who communicate via a persona or fake account and trusting these strangers are frequent among teenagers (Wellman & Gulia, 1999). This behavior can have severe repercussions on the privacy concerns and safety of the younger generations (Kornblum & Marklein, 2006; George, 2006). Usually, there are little to no verifications when people sign up to join social networking sites therefore it is easy for them to create fake persona and lie about their personal information online (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). People can create fake profiles and create fake connection with a series of other fake accounts to create an illusion of being a real person with real connections. As the main use of social networking sites is to help individuals to make new connections, teenagers may trust these people and bond with them in an online context (Donath & Boyd, 2004). Moreover, spending too much time on social media may cause high levels of physical isolation and encourage the absence of face-to-face communication which may end up in the deterioration of their real-life relationships, hence affecting their face-to-face interaction with other people.

Conclusion

To conclude, social networking sites such as Facebook do reinforce relationships and social ties as well as allowing its users to remove any communication barriers. People can communicate and maintain relationships with their loved ones even if they live across the world. The volume and frequency of social media users continue to grow as well as the amount of time spend on these social media platforms on a daily basis. More and more individual’s confidence and self-esteem has been boosted online where they are now brave enough to make conversation which they would have otherwise not made during a face-to-face interaction. However, social media should be used to a limit, and people should be careful about the information they share online and who they share it with.

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