Once Neeraj Agnihotri said - “Social media not only snatches your time, but it also teaches you attention deficiency.”
It is okay to own a technology, what is not okay is to be owned by technology. Doomscrolling is nothing new, people used to do the same with tv remote, switching channel after channel, rarely settling on any one program. And heads buried in social media news feed is nothing new either - before smartphone and internet heads used to be buried in actual physical newspapers. Only the means have changed, not the habit. This is not advancement, it's recurring derangement. I'll call it progress when you put down your phone or remote and actually listen to another person. Sure, phones can be a supplement to organic conversation, but never a replacement.
There are three theories which must be mentioned in order to understand how social media brings about changes in interpersonal communication and relations of the users. The theories are Technology Determinism, Social Penetration theory and the theory of Uses and Gratification.
According to the theory of Technology Determinism, “technology is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action.” Opportunities for new experiences and the ability to be present anywhere all the time are invaluable gifts of the social media.
The Social Penetration theory describes the development of interpersonal relationships as a slow process. As noted in a research, “Social networking sites impacts on interpersonal communication skills and relationships” by Pritta Chasombat, “Computer-mediated communication has sped up the intimacy process… People are more likely to disclose more personal information on Social Networking Sites than they would in face to face communication because the level of control is higher (Ledbetter et al., 2011).”
The theory of Uses and Gratifications gives four basic requirements, viz., Information, Entertainment, Personal Identity, and Personal Relationship and Social Interaction. All the four requirements are met through social media as people can create social networks, socialize, connect with those who are at a distance. They can vent out their opinions and receive feedback from the public. They can utilize it as a means of information from their preferred sources. Social media has brought a twisted change to the concept of ‘friend’. It induces us to compare ourselves with others, which often makes one feel like a ‘failure’ leading to depression.
Social media not only impacts the interpersonal communication and relationships but also the character of the users. Social media is making us impatient and anxious. Many teenagers and adults wake up in the middle of the night just to check their phones because they fear missing out something that is happening on the social media platforms, as if the information will not be available the next day. People begin to have tantrums out of restlessness if they don’t find access to social media for a few hours. We are losing our ability to interact with intensive engagement in face-to-face interactions.
Social media and the internet are robbing off people the time that can be used in a more constructive and intimate face to face communication. This is because most of the friends in the social media use fake names, give wrong information about themselves, and even create the aspect of intolerance and impatient. This harms the real relations more and it is happening in the real world.
Social media and the internet often take away time that could be spent on more meaningful and personal face-to-face interactions. The use of fake names and misinformation by individuals on social media can create an atmosphere of intolerance and impatience, negatively impacting real-world relationships. This digital space has the potential to harm genuine connections, as comments made online can have lasting effects on closer relationships. Additionally, social media makes it challenging to escape or forget past relationships, as it has become a platform where everyone connects, including friends of friends. The negativity expressed online, such as moody responses, has the power to affect real-time relationships in a detrimental way.
Of course, the negativity surrounding social media is countered by positive influence, Increasing the ability to communicate with more people across greater distances and with increased speed. Messages can be shared and spread farther and faster than at any other time in human history and a lot of good can be done by spreading positive messages in this way. As communication and information travel faster and faster, the world seems to get smaller and smaller.
As a result. this changes how the world communicates, especially with today's obsession with social media networks. Before social media, we were extremely limited in our means to interact with others and we were limited largely to the people that we knew in-person. There were things we (those my age and older) had to deal with that millennials do not have to , your significant other's parent answering the phone when you called, waiting for a letter in the mail, waiting a week to get your pictures that you sent off to be developed, and so on. There is this lack of time for individuals as well as the families and people are very much focused on using the social media for the purpose of commination rather than building an actual relationship with people which would be based upon interpersonal communication. With the digitalization happening at a very fast pace, people have started to ignore the face to face meetings which helps in avoiding people and just communicating over their phones and other devices. The life itself has become very fast-paced and people don’t seem to have time to greet others out of their busy schedules.
Something in excessive amount can be bad, in this situation we are talking about the use of social media, which has created a rift between people. Ever since the man came to this world, he has the thirst to interact with the world. It started from simple languages to an advanced level where we use computers and mobile phones for that purpose. Without social media, that would be impossible. Social media networks allow us the opportunity to share opinions with a far wider audience.
Another big change that has occurred is that there is now no filter on the way we speak. In the past, unless you spoke to people directly, you had no way to get your message across regardless of your freedom of speech.
Now we can use social media to get our messages out to thousands or even millions of people uncensored.
We can conclude in the end that social media do tend to have a severe impact on the social interpersonal interactions of a person. The impact hinders the actual communication and social media platform is used only which creates the feeling of alienation among the users. There is huge importance of interpersonal communication which is important for human psychology and should be preferred. The use of social media should be limited by us, we should not become addicted to using such services and should just use them as tools.
By Vaibhav Nasa
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