NEW SOCIAL MEDIA

It is now an accepted fact that technology is pervasive throughout our lives. But how often do we assess its presence in our relationships, recognizing how, exactly, it has impacted the way we interact with those closest to us? A 2014 Nielsen survey found that the average American spends 11 hours on social media, and more than half of that time is spent looking at a smartphone or tablet. And some studies show that people mostly use social media sites like Facebook because they meet the basic need of connecting to others: Making friends, keeping tabs on their lives, and updating friends on the status of your life. While sites like Facebook were designed to connect people online who already knew each other offline, most people using them have formed connections with people whom they didn’t know outside of Facebook. That’s particularly the case with millennials.

But how does social media impact the quality of friendships among members of this generation? Social media is changing our relationship styles in several important ways. The need for attention via likes or comments can quickly become addictive and cause controversy between friends. First, it’s allowing us to connect with more people more rapidly. Second, it’s easy to overestimate the level of intimacy of our online relationships.

Third, it makes us more sensitive to a the contagion effect of the social media, which means you may possibly start adopting behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs from those within our social network. Fourth, social media facilitates comparing ourselves with others, which may have positive or negative effects. In fact, according to a Kaspersky Lab study, 42% of social media users admit to feeling jealous when a friend’s posts receive more attention than theirs. In spite of these negative effects, it’s important to keep in mind that most millennials are able to use social media in healthy ways without suffering any negative consequences in their relationships. The bottom line is that people should adopt a slow approach to friendships that are formed entirely online. The key is to set healthy boundaries, to be as honest as possible, and to pursue online relationships with caution.