How would our lives be different without social media? When our phones are often the first thing that we see everyday, it’s common to wonder how social media affects relationships and every part of our lives. To fulfil the need for intimacy and presence, people are looking for a suitable romantic relationship. Intimate partners most often meet in places where people of the same age move amongst each other. As well, someone will likely choose a partner who is similar to them in some characteristics, such as ethnicity and social status.
However, with the development of technology and with the advent of social media users, people are increasingly turning to communication via the Internet as an opportunity to meet potential partners, as well as maintaining communication in a social media based romantic relationship.
How Social Media Ruins Relationships?
Does social media ruin relationships? Before the advent of social media in real time , flirting gestures were completely under the control of the individual. Partners in romantic relationships were not often exposed to daily questioning about interactions with members of one’s social circle by one’s partner. The development of social media can be bad for a relationship.
For example, the social media platform Facebook Affects Relationships provides easy access to information about the partner including an overview of their list of friends, and provides insight into activities such as adding new contacts, online dating exchanging text messaging posted on their virtual wall with other people, photos they marks with “I like” and also a list of people who react to it in the same fashion. Instagram also provides easy insight into the list of people our partner “follows” and photos that they also mark with “I like”. All these listed, informal sources of information lead to potentially negative implications for an individual’s current romantic and sexual relations. The following sections will explain which of these behaviors can be caused by the use of social networks. Especially a look into the long distance relationship statistics that explain why social media ruins some relationships.
Signs Of Relationship Trouble On Social Media
We’ve all seen couples seem perfect, both in real life face to face and on social media. They hold hands, steal kisses and look lovingly in the direction of their partner amount of time. On social networks, they pay tribute to their love for each other – with words, photos, video calling and phone calls. Of course, sometimes it can be a sign of legitimate happiness.
Other times, open public displays of affection on social media can mask an unraveling relationship. As a relationship falls apart, posts can become even more beautiful because their self-esteem is starting to take a hit. Here are signs of relationship trouble on social media to watch out for, suggesting that social media can be bad for relationships.
Jealousy And Relationship Quality in romantic Social Media relationships
Jealousy is an uncomfortable feeling of anxiety and anger caused by suspicion of the existence of a third person who takes away the affection of a loved one. In the context of social networks, exposure to information about interactions concerning a romantic partner can encourage and increase jealousy and can easily lead to a relationship dissolution.
Ease of connecting with other people on Facebook can increase the likelihood of contact with former romantic and sexual partners which creates the potential for jealousy within established relationships status. Facebook also helps maintain contacts with people who would otherwise be short-lived in nature and can connect people who would not otherwise communicate in life outside of social media.
Furthermore, a person can feel jealous if their partner gets a large amount of positive feedback (in the form of some comments and likes) to a posted picture on Instagram by of the opposite sex.
Controlling Partner Behavior
Having a partner that is interacting with other people can cause feelings of jealousy and mistrust. These feelings can lead to unhealthy behaviors such as spying and monitoring one’s activities on their social networking sites.
Social media platforms like Facebook make it easy to access a lot of information. This allows people to have secret control over other people’s activities, including surveillance of behavior and actions. Such behaviors are so common that some popular names for this activity have been termed “creeping” and “facestalking” in a dating apps.
Research dealing with the impact of social media on romantic relationships emphasizes surveillance practicing partners as one of the main problems arising from the modern way of using technology and social media.
Infidelity And Social Media
Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are believed to have an impact on romantic relationships that have ended in divorce. Not surprisingly, if the partner feels jealous, controls the other partner’s behavior, enters into verbal quarrels around the content that the other partner publishes, or the acquaintances he makes increases the likelihood that this partner will commit adultery or end an existing relationship.
Social media can be a great way to communicate and feel more connected , but as you can see, they also have their pitfalls. This could lead to distance in a relationship, infidelity, or even dependence on social media. If used too much, social media can also lead to depression and anxiety, which will affect a person’s relationships with those around them.
Although social media and relationships is easily accessible, it can have a negatively affect not only on personal and romantic relationships but also on mental health and overall well-being. I challenge you to keep track of how much time you spend on social media during the day. When you get your daily average at the end of the week, work on spending less time on social media the following week and be conscious of putting your phone away when spending time with friends and family.
Not only will you improve your relationships, but you will find that you are happier when you spend less time worrying about what other people are doing with their lives and focus on your own, and trying to worry less about how social media affects relationships, especially your relationship.