The University of Notre Dame's football linebacker, Manti Te'o was a big buzz on the news a couple weeks ago when he found out that the girl he had been dating was actually a hoax.
TV shows like 'Catfish' also let us know that Manti isn't the only one living a lie. This makes one kind of wonder though. Where are we headed with the relationships they we try to make work? It's a little scary to know that when our children ask how their parents met, Twitter and Facebook will be the most common answers.
Is social media going a little too far? I believe that we definitely abuse it. Although there is nothing completely wrong with meeting someone on the internet, it is something that everyone should take precaution to.
Situations like Manti Te'o and other people on 'Catfish' will make it harder to trust any prospective partners in the future. I admit that I have found someone on a social network, and we dated for two years! However, I think I will use a little more precaution before I take that next step with online dating.
--*Jasmine Redus
I think social media has taken place of the face-to-face communication that is important in forming relationships. Social media prohibits you from reading nonverbal cues that are very important in communication. The internet allows people to say things they normally wouldn't and basically be someone they're not. Relationships should be founded on more than texting and Facebook chatting. While some internet relationships do work out wonderfully, I think old-fashioned is better in this case.
ReplyDeleteI did a speech on social media a few semesters ago, and I researched how much it has impacted our society. It’s HUGEEEE! And I’m a little guilty, because if I meet a guy somewhere, I’ll always end up asking ‘Sooo, do you have a Twitter?’. But the next time that I get to know someone, I will leave social media out of it. I don’t want to judge someone based off what they post or their pictures, I want to get to know them for them. However, I don’t agree with actually ‘meeting’ people online anyways, because people are crazy in 2013 so online accounts are not to be trusted if you’ve never met them or if you don’t know anyone who actually knows them. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc are all fun sites to join to communicate and connect with people, but you have to remember that people can be WHOEVER THEY WANT online!
ReplyDeleteI've seen online dating work wonderfully for some personal friends, but as always, stories in the media highlight just how terrible that situation can be. I think social media is a great tool for connecting or reconnecting with others. It's so easy to make contacts with potentially important people just by being "a friend of a friend." I think the success of online-based relationships rely entirely on the couple in question. If the two have issues getting close to people, social media can help break down barriers at a comfortable distance. For people like me, personal interaction is key in forming close bonds with others, and social media builds a barrier there rather than breaking it down. I agree that the amount of couples whose first encounter was online will continue to increase as our lives become more and more flooded with easy internet access. I just also believe that our already high divorce rates will mirror that trend.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Kaitlin, social media has replaced face-to-face communication. Around this time last year USA Today released an article explaining how social media positively and negatively affects relationships. Two of the main reasons why social media like Facebook affects relationships is due to "going too far" and nothing can be permanently deleted. Social media has become an online public diary for a lot people. In today's society most people post information on social media in the heat of the moment without taking the time to think about what they are saying and the effects that it may have on others. Also in the article, it explained how once something is posted to a social media site it cannot be deleted off a server. While social media is great for news articles and keep up with friends, I worry about the effect that it has on our generation and the generations to come.
ReplyDeleteLike the majority of our generation, I enjoy social media. There are many different ways we can benefit from it, especially in the aspect of communication. But when people start relying on social media to communicate we start to see problems. As much as we would like for dating to be as easy as opening a browser and having a date, relationships can't be truly built that way.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of the previous comments. While I personally would not want to meet someone online, I know a few people who are in great relationships that initially connected over the internet. One thing about their relationships though is that they eventually did meet in person and spent a good amount of time with each other face-to-face. I do know someone who was lied to on the internet, not just in tiny ways but by someone who was pretending to be an entirely different person with fake pictures for 2 years, and the situation ended up being extremely upsetting and really impacted their life. Even if you are careful and feel like you know someone, if you haven't met them in person you should still keep in mind that they may be easily lying. Even if it doesn't seem like they have a reason to.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really a tough thing to truly get right because there is that weird mantra of "oh, we met online." As someone who is pretty heavily involved in social media, it is only natural to read through someone's twitter feed or to Facebook chat with someone for three days straight and then to think, "hey, that person is pretty decent." I do think it is important to try and have a face-to-face date before engaging in anything worth changing a Facebook relationship status over, though. Manti at least had Skype, surely. There is enough technology nowadays to avoid getting "catfished."
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