Statement: Relationship creation and building will be
dominated by social media.
I believe the above statement about social media is
true. With the creation of the
internet and the birth of social media, the way relationships are formed and
maintained has shifted drastically.
According to the video,
“Social Media Revolution 2012,” one out of five couples met online.”
Ten or twenty years ago this form of relationship creation was unheard
of.
Social media not only offers tools to create new
relationships, it also makes it easy to maintain existing relationships. In a recent blog on Mashable.com, the author writes about how social media allows a particular married couple
to stay connected during a busy work day when they are apart. The entry says “The couple uses Twiter
to keep in touch, cheer each other on and ‘share the love.” With today’s
technology there is not always enough time for a phone conversation, but social
media allows you to communicate quickly and effectively with a loved one.
Social media makes it possible to connect with those from
the past. Relationships that would have disappeared 20 years ago, now have the
ability to resurface. One blogger
tells the story of how two teenagers went to camp and reconnected via Facebook
20 years later. This blog entry highlights
their dating and eventual marriage.
A recent news story reposted on YouTube, discussed that most people nowadays do not consider a relationship "official" until their relationship status is changed on Facebook. This statement alone depicts how instrumental social media is in relationships today.
As social media continues to grow and expand, more people are starting to prefer it as a primary way of communicating and maintaining relationships. In an article on Yahoo, it states that "39 percent of people surveyed spend more time socializing online." This means instead of face-to-face communication or even verbal conversation, over one third of those surveyed prefer to communicate online.
Based on the above information, I do not believe the power of social media with relationship creation or building is likely to change anytime soon. The only way for it to change would be for the Internet to crash or become an obsolete technology and new forms of communication to be established. I do not believe this is likely and instead I believe the world of social media will continue to grow.
