Social Media and Friendship

In the past 10-15 years, social media has been connecting people from all around the world. This post will look at some of the pros and cons of social media like Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram, Twitter, etc. and how they affect friendship.

Pros:

• True Internet friends- Meeting people over the internet can be a very wonderful thing. If you don’t share your personal identity, people that you meet over the internet don’t know what you look like, how popular you are, etc., so they are friends with you because of your personality that you portray on the internet.
• Connection with Current Friends- Personally, I talk to my “real life” friends via social media. It’s easy to schedule plans, to share funny things, and to stay connected with what’s going on.

Cons:

• Fake Internet Friends- Meeting people over the internet can be a wonderful thing, but other times it is not. One of the beauties of the internet is anonymity. If you don’t want anyone to know who you are, they don’t have to. You’ve heard people say: “don’t share personal info on social media, don’t say you age, don’t share where you live, etc.” But people rarely heed that advice,  and that can be used as a weapon against them.
• Over-connection- We all know someone who has it: the dreaded phone-glued-to-hand-syndrome. They are constantly on their cell phone, checking their social media, texting, etc. In this generation we are so closely connected to everything that is going on because of the constant access we are given via the internet.This can be a problem, especially if someone is in a social setting, and is not interacting with those around them.

We can pretty much all agree that cell phones and social media are amazing things. Just remember to put your phone down every once and a while and interact with those around you!