I think it’s about time we start taking social media more seriously. As a Millennial who has built a career on writing about relationships, it’s frustrating to hear the phrase “it’s just social media. It doesn’t mean anything”
Social media is in our present, but I believe it’s significance in relationships will only get more prevalent in our future, and we will realize then how important our actions on social media actually affect them. I would like to see individuals take more responsibility on what they post, how they treat others, and their actuals in the virtual reality as well as real life experiences. Just because it’s online – it doesn’t mean your actions hurt less.
Let’s take cheating, for example. Cheating through text, snapchat, instagram, or Facebook is still cheating. Your actions aren’t justifiable just because it was online rather than real life.
I hope in the future, we can take the effects of social media more seriously and how it can affect the people who we are close to in our day to day relationships. This is especially important because everything is public – posts, likes, and relationships. Our friends, families, and even strangers are our audience. So if we hurt someone, or are hurt by someone by something posted online, it is something others can also see. It can be humiliating.
But if we are more conscious of our actions online, as we are in real life, we can make relationships so much easier.
My questions for you are:
- Has social media affected your personal relationships negatively or positively?
- Have you ever take any precautions on what you post because of a significant other?
1. In terms of affecting personal relationships, social media has affected my personal relationship in both positive and negative ways. Positive because it can connect two people no matter how far they are and negative because it sometimes can be a distraction from reality.
2. When it comes to posting online, I try to not let someone dictate how i choose to express my self but at times you have to be careful because there are “lurkers” out there. For example, Instagram allows users to see the photos their friends are liking or commenting on.
I wouldn’t say social media has affected my personal relationships but it has definitely affected my professional relationships. About a few weeks ago, I had my managers request me on Instagram–a social media platform I use to connect with my personal relationships. Because of the decision to allow them to follow my posts and follow their posts, puts my professional relationship with them at a risk. On my Instagram, I had posted a picture of myself at work with the location set to where I was with the captions “Someone rescue me from hell.” This is a comment I definitely don’t want my managers to see so I would say social media has negatively affected my professional relationships.
I think the cheating example was a perfect analogy for this idea of accountability on social media! Great, personal topic to tackle.
1. I think social media has had both positive and negative effects. Especially when you are in the beginning stages with a significant other, it can be useful to learn more about them. However, you also run the risk of being hurt by seeing them comment on someone else’s post.
2. I sometimes think if someone i’m talking to will see me posting a photo with another guy, but I usually do it anyways. I try not to overthink my posts or what people viewing them will think.