Social Media & Its Influence On Interpersonal Relationship (Essay Sample)

Social Media and Interpersonal Interaction
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Institution of Affiliation
Date
“How does social media facilitate interpersonal and/ or family interactions?”
Introduction
Communication technology is recognized to have taken a tremendous advances. Interaction has been improved to a higher level as compared to the mid and early 20th century. Late 20th-century significant advances were observed within the communication sector. The social media began to attain its ground, and the prominence in communication began to dominate the society. The advancement including the social media introduction has had key improvement in the way we interact and also the level of interaction within the society. Interaction has been made more effective and responsive. Despite that there are negative impacts associated with the social media and therefore brings insight on the idea of the social media effectively in the facilitation of the interaction.
Research question
How does social media facilitate interpersonal and/ or family interactions?
Literature review
Different scholars have given their insight pertain the social media and its impact on the level of interaction within the society. Many have given credit to the social media while other have devalued it within the society. The scholars have given different concepts pertaining the social media and how it can be used to benefit individuals and also the entire society. For social media to be effective and be useful, there are some concepts and principles that everyone needs to adhere to.
In his book, Rheingold "Net smart" talks about several concepts that one must have to excel in the use of social media. He talks of Mindfulness concept. For social media to be helpful to anyone Rheingold talks of being to determine the way the social media influence us either positively or negatively. Having such knowledge is therefore important as stipulated by the author in helping us developing the interpersonal interaction in a positive manner that benefits us. For the social media to be effective in the way, we interact as a family or with other individuals in the society (Rheingold, 2012). The author outlines that failure to be mindful is the reason why we are experiencing the negative impacts associated with the social media within the society. There should be a limit to everything we do, and therefore social media should be used to implicate the positive aspect in the interaction we have.
The social exchange theory is one of the theories which is used greatly in the social media in relevance to the society and interaction. The theory states that you chose the relationship that you have to maintain because they are beneficial to you. The level of interaction a relationship offers determines the beneficial within the society and the individuals and therefore uphold the decision to be maintained. Let’s take for instance WhatsApp group platform, not all the friends within the group do exactly what is meant for the group (Cook & Rice, 2012). But due to that, you are interested in communicating and interacting you consistent have to be within the group for the advantage of the interaction with the good friends. In most of the social media platform, the theory outlines that we seek to develop a relationship where we shall be able to interact with the different individuals and therefore promote our capability in interaction (Emerson, 2014). The theory recommends that to offer exclusive interactions, it is important to ensure that one gives complete freedom to the individuals they are interacting with especially if they are discussing positive matters of life-related to them.
Impacts of social media on the society
The social media has greatly impacted the type of interaction we are experiencing in our society currently. It is evident that the advancement which the society has acquired through the introduction of the social media is imminent. There has been improved within the interpersonal interaction. The positive aspect of the social media has been glorified within the society, but there have also been some cases of the rise in the negative impacts of the social media in the interpersonal interactions. The facilitation of the social media, therefore, has caused both positive and negative impacts in the interpersonal interaction within the society (Jimenez & Morreale, 2012).
Positive facilitation of the social media on interpersonal interaction
Social media has attributed to interpersonal interaction positively. It is clear that we don’t need to travel to our members of the family or our friends to meet with them to keep in touch. We can keep in good communication with our families and friends despite them being away from us. Through social media, we have been able to interact with members of the society freely despite the distance (Crowley, 2010). Even though the interaction is not physically, it is clear that the society has greatly improved on the way they interact and therefore it makes the assimilation of information easy.
Interaction has been made easy and effective through social media. We can interact effectively and learn from each other and thus wee perfect our skills within the society. You don’t need to go any situation to learn, social media offers great learning opportunities as we interact with different individuals (Burleson, 2003). Social media gave us to lean on how to interact with them, and effectively develop ways on how to interact. Social media improves our way of interaction within the society.
Negative facilitation of the social media on interpersonal interaction
Ethic on interpersonal interaction both in families and entire society has affected the society from a negative perspective. The aspect of the face to face communication has been viewed differently, and the ethics set for personal communication especially during face to face communication has been violated. The ability to communicate with people face to face has been negatively affected. Considering that it is easy individuals consider communicating through the social media more than personally (Orr, et al., 2007). It the capability to interact with individuals as we are not used to doing that. It has led to people becoming more antisocial affecting the way we live within the society.
Social media especially Facebook has led to the cultural changes which are not positive within the society. Individuals are getting to learn a different aspect of the cultures through the social media. After establishing such culture, we are unable to interact with the family or other individuals within the society effectively due to the impact of this new culture learned. The new culture learned creates barriers within the people especially within the same region due to that some have adopted new living mechanism learned from the social media. We need to realize that we relate to people based on the way we live with them and the way we practice our cultural practices together.
Another great negative implication of the social media is that privacy for the individuals has been destroyed. In social media one information is easily accessed and therefore it leads to the lack of privacy for individuals. One can be exposed through the social media, and this can lead to differences within the families or friends (Tong, et al., 2008). We have witnessed many cases where the family crisis has been generated by the social media through the expository of one privacy life. The interpersonal interaction has improved, and it is said, too much of everything is poisonous. Social media has gone to the level of hurting the society more than saving it and improving the way we live.
How Facebook and Twitter has influenced interpersonal interaction
Facebook and Twitter are recognized to be the greatest form of social media platform where individuals can interact and exchange their ideas. These social media platforms are based on different aspects and therefore they impact the society differently regarding interaction. They facilitate interaction on a different perspective and therefore individual who use it get affected differently. Society, therefore, perceive the interaction differently and therefore impacts the way we interact (Wagner, 2016).
Facebook and Twitter can be compared regarding the timelines of the content. The lifespan of the interaction therefore differ. In twitter, interaction is greatly done in the first one hour of the tweet whereby you get to interact with the associated individuals. When the content last longer, therefore, the level of interaction is higher. In Facebook interaction can go on for hours or days and therefore personal interaction interest are met. Twitter is meant for the trending information, and therefore you get to interact for a limited time (Molla, 2016). In the case of the Facebook, you get to enjoy the interaction with the family and other individuals for a longer period, therefore, impacting the way you interact with people and also you can establish interpersonal communication where you interact with specified individuals.
Twitters is considered to be less social as compared to Facebook. In Facebook people can make a relationship with families friends and therefore they can have unlimited interaction through Facebook. You can keep in touch with your relatives and friends through the Facebook platform. For the case of Twitter, individuals are allowed to follow individuals, topics and ideas they are interested in to keep updated about them, but there is limited interaction with individuals and the society. Interpersonal interaction is more prominent on Facebook as compared to Twitter (Wagner, 2016). Interpersonal interaction is limited in twitter, and thus it limits the level of interaction within the society. Twitter doesn’t offer a platform form family to interact, and therefore it is not c...