How Social Media Affects Relationships

Social media is a new way to express thoughts to one another and connect amongst many groups, it has positive and negative aspects to daily lives. One of the positives is being able to branch out ideas and discover many people who may have common interests around the world, however; social media takes a toll on how others connect on a personal level and face to face interaction. Social media could potentially lead to issues with people's relationships such as couples, parents, friends, and so many others. These issues affect the bonds we have with one another. Social media negatively affects relationships by decreased social skills, trust issues, and lack of privacy.

Most people's first instinct when they wake up in the morning is to check their phone and see who has liked a picture, posted on their story, or perhaps if someone had retweeted a tweet. Think about all the time spent on electronics and how much time is taken away from their friends and family. A major key in a relationship is to connect on a deeper level and have that personal time with one another and create a bond that they share with no one else. Instead of having a conversation while eating most people tend to watch a video on YouTube or scroll on their Instagram feed. The constant need for social media takes away from people's social skills and being able to show emotion to one another. Another example, when most people fight in a relationship they prefer to do it over text and to try and avoid the conflict. Ultimately social media has decreased many social skills.

Social media can be used to connect with people around the world, old friends, or keep an update on their previous ex, this can cause tension in a relationship which in turn can develop trust issues. Most people have things they are insecure about and social media may cause these insecurities to come up more. People get upset over who their partner snapchatted, whose pictures they've liked on Instagram, or who they might have messaged on Facebook. Even though these encounters may have been innocent, it may cause their partner to feel threatened and worried that they might find someone else. Insecurities caused by social media may cause arguments, dividing the couple and creating trust issues due to their self-doubt or a previous issue that may have happened in the past that they fixate over.

Recently Lil Xan and Noah Cyrus were officially dating, until Lil Xan announced over his Instagram story stating she cheated on him. The two continuously went back and forth exposing each other over social media, which is what a lot of people tend to do. When people expose each other over social media there is a lack of privacy that they have in a relationship. People may post statuses about their partner, make an indirect tweet, or post about their partner on their stories. Lack of privacy leads friends, family, or strangers into their personal lives and usually causes a lot of conflict. When there is no privacy, people will start to comment and have opinions on other's relationships and on their lives. An example is when someone makes a relationship public online and they tend to post pictures and change their statuses, many people may keep an update on their relationship and cause problems by always putting their opinions out there. Even though it is good for people to know that someone is in a relationship, it's best to give other's a small taste in a sense of their life instead of every detail.

Social Media correlates to a lot of positive and negative effects on everyday lives. Social media can be used to keep up with friends and family, but it also can take away from relationship's that people have with their family and friends. It takes away from those relationships by decreased social skills, loss of trust, and lack of privacy. Society changes often, and it is up to the people to adapt and learn of the new ways of life.

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