BY Rimsha Arooj
Yes, social media is changing the nature of relationships in society. Social media is contagious in its use; it has been linked to many negative feelings, including possession, jealousy, depression, low self-esteem, and most of all the feeling/state of inferiority. It’s been affecting the lives of people in such a way that now living without internet or social media haunts its users. We have more or less become the victims of technology. Let’s have a deeper look that how is the use of social media is contaminating our relationships.
Social media are websites or applications that enable people, around the globe, to communicate and share their feelings. Social networking has been introduced since 1844 (19th century). It’s been in trend for the last 10 years almost, people use these sites to chat, share their ideas, to shop, to entertain and keep themselves up-to-dated; from kids to old everyone uses social apps. It’s affecting the life of each individual, for instance, face-book-one of the most popular apps has almost 1 Billion users, provide audience to attract the attention of people. According to a research
60% people reported negative effect of social media on self-esteem.
50% people reported negative effect on relationships because of social media.
80% people reported it is unexacting to betray people through social posting.
From the research it has become evident that how much the use of networking upshot relationships.
People mostly use social media as an escape from life because it contains the materials of their likings and gives the perception of perfection. Everyone, most of the time, shares his happy and blissful moments, fancy evenings, dazzling nights, scrumptious food, wonderful collection of books and the list goes on. So, when one looks at the highlighted reels of others, he thinks that he hasn’t yet have adequate joys or happy moments, which leads him to depressed or unhappy state of mind. And this is the point where race starts. Everyone is in the race of acquiring the best, but sadly everyone is manipulating. Mental health is decreasing and manipulation is increasing with each progression.
In this tech-driven world, everyone is inclined towards the social media. It would not be wrong to say that one spends most of his time on social media instead of people around him. Surprisingly, this the age where we are unaware about the person next to us, and aware about people living 1000 miles away from us. It has set such high standards that the world of illusion distract people in such a way that they expect everyone to fall under their fancy standards and then when one doesn’t match their high criteria, they start losing interest and the essence in relationship.
It has created a great competition, everyone is busy proving himself best and in this never-ending race, one often gets so involved that he forgets that he has actual, real people in his life who needs his attention and enthusiasm more. As one becomes increasingly networked and involved with others perceptions, it starts becoming more crucial to monitor one’s own influences and reactions. We might be more prone to social media moodiness, depending on whom we’re spending time and paying our attention to within our social networks. This paradox has made most of narcissist and self-centered, took away the real sight of living.