The Benefits of Social Media and Friendships

By: Sarah Rafiq

There are a lot of negative things said about social media but there are a lot of positive things as well. Social media has opened a new door to people who are too shy to make friends face to face. It allows people to put away the awkwardness of going up to someone and introducing yourself and putting yourself out there. Websites like Make Friends Online help people break out of there shell and create relationships online.

Adapted from http://4.bp.blogspot.com

There is always that awkward kid in school who has little friends and doesn’t really talk too many people. I think the internet has helped those people strive socially; kids like that can go online and not find it hard to make friends. I think it’s especially easy to make friends threw online games as well games like World of Warcraft https://us.battle.net/account/creation/wow/signup/ make playing games interactive and it makes it easy to bond over similarities.

In the future I think it will relatively stay the same where people build relationships online as well as in the real world. I think with new social media sites popping up every day, everyone can find someone to be friends with. They can join clubs on line and forums that allow people to talk and discuss things they love.

Reference:

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How Do Relationships Benefit from Social Media?

By: Jade Brocklehurst

We have talked about all the downs falls of social media and how they can ruin a marriage and a relationship, yet there are pros to it also? You may ask what? It so far has caused so much trouble and divorces, is there really light at the end of the tunnel?

Adapted from http://blog.wiredadvisor.com

We all know that social media is the best way to promote a business and advertise it also. In the article 'Can Social Media Actually Benefit Relationships', it gives us pointers on a few social media sites and explains why they can benefit us all. First off, Linkedin is a professional social media website that allows you to stay connected with others that share your interests, expertise, and also links you to job opportunities. Then we have Twitter that allows you to talk to individuals that you may be too shy to talk to in person. Follow people that are famous and get them to acknowledge your tweet towards them. Meet new people and interact with them. Tinder allows individuals to introduce themselves to new matches and get to know new people and see if there is a possible future. Just like Twitter and Facebook widens your business, Tinder will help one with their potential love life. Meeting new ones that you would not have encountered on your day to day routine. We now move on to texting where it is much more efficient to get a hold of an individual. Perhaps, one is unable to meet up therefore texting is the next best thing to do to communicate. These are just a few of social media websites that allow us all to communicate to each other. Every social media website has it's negative part and views, but if used wisely it can definitely benefit us all.

What about the future? Are relationships still able to benefit in the future? If social media today has many benefits, it will continue to have many more as time goes by. Many more will use social media for different reasons and even the older ones will use it more often than they are now. Social media, and the internet will be much more used in the future to come because as of today many use it fair amount and it will only increase. Therefore, although we have seen some sad outcomes due to social media it does have potential when used in a mature and responsible way.

References: 
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/natasha-koifman/social-media-and-relationships_b_4115588.html

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Social Media Causing you to Lose Friends!

By: Sarah Rafiq

Adapted from http://www.lovetwenty.com

Making friends has been easier than ever with all the new social media sites popping up. You can even be friends with people on the other side of the world from you. But is losing friends, just as easy as making them? It seems to be that way, with all the hiding behind computer screens people seem to have found a new sense of courage. Telling people what they actually think about them without the thought of real life repercussions.

In the article 'Social Media Savvy: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People', Melissa Galt talks about how people can easily lose their friends through social media. Websites like twitter and Facebook allow people to make friends more easily. But it also allows you to lose friends more easily as well. With your public display of everything you post online friends have more access to what you think and say every day. If they see you talking to someone they don’t like or they see you post something there against then this could cause you to lose your friends in real life.

I believe in the future this will continue to be the same. I think that there will be more technology to help keep your “posts” and “tweets” more private but in the social media world there really is no such thing as privacy. I don’t really think people’s perception of privacy will change and everyone will continue to post things that may not be liked by everyone, causing the person to lose more friends in the real world.

References:
http://melissagalt.com/social-media-savvy-how-to-lose-friends-and-alienate-people/

http://www.lovetwenty.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/tumblr_kx3rbdPFGB1qzjpruo1_400_large.jpg

How Social Media Changed Family Dynamics

By: Marcin Sajda

Adapted from http://www.socialsonar.com

Family dinners and holidays in 2014 often come with teens heads buried in their smart phones, laptops and tablets, checking social media. Today’s youth are often more focused on documenting what’s going on and checking out what’s happening with their friends, then actually living in the moment. As we know social media can be a great way for teens to connect with their friends and community’s that help identify their likes and interests. Although often a teen or youth’s over usage of social media can cut into family creating a rift. In the article, 'Families Back Together', the author describes how families have implemented a ‘no mobile devices at the dinner table’ and a ‘lights out’ rule, that cuts out the internet during certain hours. These rules allow the family a break from social media and the internet, limiting both usage and allowing the family to get back to the tradition roots of family bonding.

As social media continues to grow and become an even more powerful force in our social communications, it will become even more important for families to balance technology with the core traditional family values in a world powered by technology.

References:
http://parentsware.com/bringing-families-back-together/

http://www.socialsonar.com/SmartphoneAddiction.jpg 

Friends Together Forever!

By: Sarah Rafiq

The decisions we make in life affect the friends we keep and the friends we lose along the way. But what if your intention wasn’t to get rid of that friend at all? What if some where some how you just lost contact with them and your lives took you in separate directions. That’s where social media plays a big part in reuniting lost friends.

Adapted from www.birmingham.ac.uk

There’s no better feeling then when your sifting through your friends contact lists on Facebook and you come across someone you used to be close with years ago. The first thing you do is friend them and send them a message somewhere along the lines of “OMG Is that you! I haven’t seen you in forever! How have you been?” and so it starts.

http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/ is a website dedicated to bring old friends together and helping reconnect that old friendship. I think in the future they will come up with better technology to track down long lost friends and reunite people. I think it will actually go farther than friends and help out families with lost family members and things like that. I think websites will be developed where you can enter your information and the information of the person you’re looking for and this website will look far and wide on the internet and find people who match that exact description.

I think that would be a great invention for someone to come up with I guess where just going to have to wait and see what people come up with.

Reference:

http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Images/Alumni/Events/ReportsGalleries/Reunions-2012/CopiesforWeb/FriendsReunited.jpg 

Divorces Increasing due to Social Media

By: Jade Brocklehurst

Adapted from www.theguardian.com

Many of us today all have some sort of social media. The most popular seems to be Facebook. There are many things that can be done on Facebook, whether it be talking to friends from different countries, looking at pictures and much more. Yet, many seem to cross the line. Why do so many not know when to stop? Why do they take that risk to ruin their marriage?

In the article 'Divorces From Social Media Sites Like Facebook on the Rise', statistics show us that divorces and Facebook are connected because of the amount of flirting happening and the affairs. There was a study made by a law firm showing that 1087 out of 5436 of divorces are happening all because of affairs. Although Facebook offers great communication to people and advertising etc. it seems to be ruining many marriages and relationships as well. While chatting with a friend it can turn into flirting which than turns into meeting up. Individuals are able to re-connect with their ex’s and rekindle that love they once had for each other. A recent study has proven that 60% of people find Facebook pictures a good evidence of divorce. Cheating can arise by pushing that poke button on Facebook to get ones attention, a wall message, liking a post commenting on a post and even sending a friend request. All of these problems arise because of the temptation of being with someone new, not having self-control, and marrying someone when you never wanted to. Many today have taken marriage so lightly as well as divorce to the point where they lose their self-respect.

So what does the future hold? It seems to look like that it won’t get any better. By having so many marriages breaking apart and being so carefree it looks as the future may get worse. Looking at statistics and surveys being made, the percentages are so high that today’s day is so much more different than the past. Before, divorce was something that barely happened and now it happens every day, which is very sad to say. Many need to be aware of what their spouse if doing and need to have that communication with each other because without it, many more marriages will be going down the gutter.

References:
http://facebookcheating.com/archives/facebook-divorce-2/

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/jan/28/divorce-rates-marriage-ons

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Money/Pix/pictures/2008/07/10/divorce460.jpg

Evolution of Relationships in the Future

By: Jade Brocklehurst

Nowadays relationships are very complicated, dramatic, social media based. Due to this it has made it very difficult to be married and to be in a relationship. Therefore if relationships today are not that easy, what will it be like in the future? Will it be harder?

Many people have different views on relationship and also have their own opinion. In the blog post 'Relationships in the Future', it was stated in 1950, 22% American adults were single, 50% today are nearly single. In San Francisco 40% of households are single. This alone goes to show many that relationships are not like they used to be. In 2010 Time Magazine there was articles entitled “Who Needs Marriage? A changing Institution” It tells us how marriage is not what it used to be and is just practical. However, having said that the states still have highest marriage rates. Jennifer Gauvin and Anne Milford wrote the book How Not to Marry the Wrong Guy. In their book it shows that 30% of divorced women knew they were marrying the wrong guy on their wedding day.

Adapted from http://2.bp.blogspot.com

The future for relationships and marriages seem to be going in the direction of personal and private. Of course, it does take a happy marriage to have a healthy relationship and also in raising a family together. Marriages down the road may involve more of a range. Many psychologists have different views of relationships. One says that acting attached and feeling attached in a relationship keeps partners too emotionally dependent. A different psychologists tells us that the best marital brew is not being too dependent or independent and to have a balance.

All of this information shows us that the future of relationships will change. As we can see today, relationships change all the time. Divorce rates are much higher now than they were back then. Men and women treat each other much differently and they are not true to themselves with their emotions. If relationships now are like this, what will it be like in 2020?

References:
http://foresightimprovement.com/relationships-in-the-future/  

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