Social media has made it difficult to spend quality time with each other.  We are so distracted by social media that we don’t give each other attention.  Social media has turned hanging out, into sitting in a room fully engrossed in our phones.  We force ourselves to record and document everything instead of enjoying these memories with friends and family.  Society has become so consumed in technology that we forget to look up and remember who and what is in front of us.  Sherry Turkle, an MIT professor, argues, “that too much of (social media) can become a problem where we are no longer helping ourselves, but we are beginning to become handicapped by changing our relationships with society and perhaps even our evolutionary path (Serra, 2014).  People need to become more willing to participate in real life activities and events, without social media and devices, which bring them face to face with people to enhance relationships and create a better quality of life.

Human beings are social creatures that need and crave social interaction.  This contact is essential to our physical and mental health, and Sara Qualls writes, “…148 longitudinal studies found a 50 percent increase in survival of people with robust social relationships, regardless of age, gender, country of origin, or how such relationships were defined” (Qualls, 2014) and this magnifies the importance of it.  Seeking out this interaction, is the solution to the problem of social media weakening our relationships.  We can encourage people to not use technology or social media during dinners, movies, and gatherings.  This will begin to create opportunities for people to communicate with one another using words and emotions.  There are many advantages to utilizing opportunities like this and we can gain in ways such as, “Increases feelings of connectedness…Increases Activity Levels…Slows Aging…Make New Friends…Become Better Informed…” (Marinoff, 2016) and these are all aspects that create a better quality of life for ourselves and those dear to us.  Many of the great things that social media can do, can have negative outcomes as well, especially when used improperly.

Advertising is another strong way to create awareness about the different organizations that focus and thrive on its members socializing with one another.  Socializing and informational events like this, will give people the desire to focus on the people they are with who may even share the same interests as them.  This idea may be uncomfortable to some at first, but when thinking about our health and the benefits of interacting with others, people will begin to put forth the effort if they are aware.  People can join book clubs, learn a new sport, or take up karaoke.  This answer may start out small scale, but people themselves will have to be the change.  Our society must work together to achieve this goal of maximizing our time spent with each other.  The implementation of this solution can go further and be available in forms of interest meetings and speakers that people could attend or be incentivized to participate in.  Companies, organizations and even schools can promote and host events like this to better their employees, stakeholders, and students.  This would give people a better understanding of the pros and cons of centering our lives on social media, and let them know of how they can better their lives.  Knowing the information on about what it is we are doing with social media can make us more willing to be proactive and productive with it.  People themselves are giving into social media as an easy way out of communication with people and society.  Although this idea is somewhat simple, it can be feasible with participation and involvement.  A person cannot be forced to do something, but must be willing to adapt to change from within.

I have felt a personal impact from this idea that social media and text messaging hurts the quality time I spend with friends and loved ones.  There have been many times where friends and I will be together, but it does not feel as if we are always in the same place.  It is strange to think you could be thinking and focusing on things through a phone or computer when you have someone right in front of you.  I noticed this reality when my friends and I had arranged to meet and hangout, yet at one point all of us were unengaged and on our phones with other interests on our minds.  A solution I had suggested to address this issue was all of us playing pickup basketball or throwing a football outside.  This gave us the opportunity to be with each other in the moment and away from the distractions of social media.  There are also similarities with seeing people post on social media, and not feeling the need or desire to reach out to that person because I feel as if I know what’s going on based off pictures and words.  Even though it may seem as if I have a true understanding of someone else’s life, there is so much I can’t understand without that quality time and interaction.  Something I can do to make a scenario like this better, is to make that effort and have real conversation with people face to face, and even over the phone or on facetime.

Social media can truly diminish interpersonal relationships, yet there are some who believe in the exact opposite.  These people are the creators and leaders of these social media platforms, the frontrunners in the artificial intelligence world, and members of society who have benefitted from social media and their interactions.  When used effectively social media can be a valuable tool to connect and communicate with people.  Studies have shown teenagers believe, “…that (83%) of social media-using teens say social media makes them more connected to information about what is happening in their friends’ lives and 70% say these social platforms better connect them to their friends’ feelings.” (Lenhart, 2015) and this can be a great resource for social media to have a positive impact in our society today.  Although this is the belief of today’s users, there is an underlying issue with this idea.  Studies done by investigators at Chatham University, to determine if people could interpret emotions in emails sent by friends and strangers, found that “…although writers were confident their friends would interpret the emotions in their emails … this was incorrect.  Likewise, although readers believed they would be able to “read” the emotions better in letters from friends than strangers, this was found not to be the case.” (Nauert)  This goes to show that we may think social media makes our lives and relationships easier, however we are able to easily access so much information that we put ourselves at a disadvantage with our functioning.  In some ways, we feel we are bettering ourselves, but there are certain skills and values that social media cannot provide or enhance for us.  Social interactions were designed to be social, and communicating with individuals using emotion in body language is what makes our world strong and structured.

Social media does not add the value to our lives that we convince ourselves of and there are problems that go further with the advantage of faster communication.  Factors such as false connections, cyber-bullying, decreased productivity, and privacy evasion are the negative issues that harm our lifestyles and relationships with one another.  Social media has the ability to make users feel insecure, embarrassed, and left out.  These characteristics and emotions impact who we are and our personalities, especially when around other people.  A Kaspersky lab study found, “…42% of social media users admit to feeling jealous when a friend’s posts receive more attention than theirs.” (Rohampton, 2017) and this can be a critical factor into how we interact with others.  Social media presents images, and posts that we are left with to interpret, often without proper context.  We create premature scenarios and make decisions based on what others may think of us, and this alters how we communicate with people face to face.  If there are consistent insecure feelings, tensions within our relationships can increase.  Social media is not only an in person distraction with a device, but can carry over to when we are actually with people.

There are new and effective ways to communicate and interact with people that are being constantly developed.  These new ways can be great and help the way we speak and socialize with society.  Too much use of social media applications such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram can be detrimental if applied improperly.  We must not forget that no matter how easy or better this connecting with people through social media may seem, it is not the best option possible.  Much of people’s shared time together in today’s world, is not quality or real and that needs to change.  Social media is taking the human aspect out of communication.  Encouraging and providing events for people to attend to socialize, and try new things are a strong way to ensure people spend quality time with one another.  People need to face reality and be willing to make the effort to interact with society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Lenhart, Amanda. “Chapter 4: Social Media and Friendships.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, 6 Aug. 2015, www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/06/chapter-4-social-media-and-friendships/.

Marinoff, Nick. “5 Health Benefits of Social Events and Activities.” Basmati.com, 1 Sept. 2016, basmati.com/2016/09/01/5-health-benefits-social-events-and-activities.

Nauert, Rick. “Difficult to Communicate Emotions in Email/Text.” Psych Central News, 31 Aug. 2016, psychcentral.com/news/2016/08/31/difficult-to-communicate-emotions-in-emailtext/109296.html.

Qualls, Sara Honn. “What Social Relationships Can Do for Health.” American Society on Aging, Journal of the American Society on Aging, www.asaging.org/blog/what-social-relationships-can-do-health.

Rohampton, Jimmy. “Millennials, Here’s How Social Media Impacts Your Relationships.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 4 May 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/jimmyrohampton/2017/05/03/millennials-heres-how-social-media-impacts-your-relationships/#630b50c57922.

Serra, Jessica. “Social Media Is Destroying Quality Human Interaction.” Thought Catalog, Thought Catalog, 17 Sept. 2014, thoughtcatalog.com/jessica-serra/2014/09/social-media-is-destroying-quality-human-interaction/.