Counter-Argument: Social Media and Interpersonal Relationships

Social media can, and frequently is, the result, albeit indirectly, of relationships. Social media, within contemporary society, is an extremely powerful tool that allows for a degree of communication that was unprecedented even a decade or two ago. As a result, there are a number of growing pains that have led to countless numbers of relationships being ruined through social media outlets, such as Facebook. However, the problem here, when it comes to actually identifying these issues and how and why they are taking place, is because they are oftentimes subtle. That is to say, Facebook, for instance, emphasizes a reliance on relationships that can be done at a distance, even if the two people that are in a relationship are living in the same city. This can be problematic because it reduces the physical element of the relationship, and this physical element is one that is extremely important, even if the relationship in question here is not, strictly speaking, romantic. The long and short of it, then, is that social media has largely made face-to-face communication, hand-written letters, phone calls, and many other "old-fashioned" methods of communication obsolete.

Indeed, social media is actually much more wide-reaching than many realize. According to one source, for instance, many of the most popular websites that people devote hours of their lives to each day, such as Instagram, YouTube, Wikipedia, and many others are, in fact, social media, and they all serve this end of replacing person-to-person communication in some way (Manovich, 2009). This also means that there are a much wider array of tools when it comes to expression and overall entertainment through social media, which only further increases the number of people that are using it. This leads to the creation of shared content, something of an ecosystem, and this means that it is very easy for people to become pulled into this social media, causing them to neglect their other relationships. The direct impact of this on relationships, especially romantic ones, is obvious. With the increasing amount of attention that is being given to social media, even those that are not immediately obvious as social media outlets, such as YouTube, it seems that attention is at a premium.

Of course, there are also a large number of articles that directly reference the ways that social networking sites can be used as a way of ensuring that relationships are allowed to succeed, especially within the purview of long-distance relationships. For instance, according to another source, social networking sites have been seeing an increase in prominence when it comes to geographically close romantic relationships, yet the ways that they affect long-term relationships is less certain (Billedo, Kerkhof & Finkenauer, 2015). Essentially, this means that social networking can be effective if it is utilized as a supplement for an existing relationship. However, the issues with social media arise when the various tools at the disposal of users are utilized more as a means of replacing contact within a relationship. As a result, it is actually likely that social media will have a negative effect when it comes to some relationships, primarily because some people are more susceptible to becoming addicted, in a sense, to social media than others.

The issue of social media, though, is one that cannot be simplified in this manner and understood completely. Rather, there are countless individual facets at work here, and understanding some of the more intricate ways that they can interact with one another is important for truly understanding the ways that social media can function, especially negatively. However, as has been made clear here, there are simply too many ways for social media to actually have a negative effect on a relationship. Although social media is, indeed, a tool, it is also a tool that can become addictive, if the user is not careful, and the effects of this, in terms of any given relationship, are obvious. As a result, it becomes necessary to temper the use of social media with more in-person encounters.

References

Billedo, C. J., Kerkhof, P., & Finkenauer, C. (2015). The use of social networking sites for relationship maintenance in long-distance and geographically close romantic relationships. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(3), 152-157.

Manovich, L. (2009). The practice of everyday (media) life: From mass consumption to mass cultural production?. Critical Inquiry, 35(2), 319-331.