Social media changes the rules of relationships
February 19, 2016
Before the Internet and the emergence of social media, young lovers would communicate the old fashioned way — talking face-to-face and writing letters to one another.
My how times changed. Nowadays, dating is almost all about communicating with others through various social media such as texting, Tinder, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook. According to a study from Pew Research Center 92 percent of teens have admitted to going online several times a day.
“I would most likely use Twitter to communicate with someone I’m attracted to,” sophomore Brooke Wallace said.
Over the years, teens have become more dependent on social media. A report from the Pew Research Center’s Teens Relationships Survey claims that 71 percent of teens, who are 13-17 years old use Facebook, 52 percent use Instagram, 41 percent use Snapchat, 33 percent use Twitter and 11 percent use different social media sites to communicate with each other. Even having a simple conversation with one another has proven to be difficult for many couples. As a result teens are more likely to feel insecure about themselves, anxious or even nervous when interacting with one another under any circumstance.
“We feel more confident communicating through social media but once we are in a situation where we have to make eye contact and have an actual conversation in person we feel nervous and self conscious of what we say throughout the conversation,” junior Melissa Aguilar said.
There have been many situations where a simple text can be misinterpreted by the other person who is on the receiving end of the conversation. This often causes academic distractions, especially when messages are sent during the school day or in class. While students are physically present at school their minds are focused on something entirely different.
“I think that kids are so concerned on what’s going on in social media and who the text is from that when they feel their phone vibrate or hear their phone go off they are immediately drawn towards their phone and away from what’s going on in the classroom and I think a lot of it has to do with having everybody be so accessible to one another,” Criminal Justice teacher Robyn Katz said.
Studies from the Pew Research Center have shown that 91 percent of teenagers who are between the ages 13 and 17 post photos of themselves, 71 percent post the name of their school or the city of where they live, 92 percent post their real name and 62 percent of them post their relationship status on various social media.
“With social media teens think that their sending something only to their girlfriend or boyfriend or whoever they are dating at the moment but once they hit that send button or once they post something it’s out of their control as far as where it goes,” Katz said.
