Personal Relationships: Traditional vs Digital

BY: Neighbors’ Consejo|

Digital development and its rise in recent years, especially during the pandemic, have substantially changed the way we relate to each other. For this reason, society has evolved and developed more complex affective systems, in part due to the shortcomings to which we have been exposed or the implications required by new forms of communications. Therefore, time and space are no longer an inconvenience to meet someone or even find a partner.

It is worth mentioning that people make evaluative judgments towards others, allowing them to recognize the other person and identify real characteristics in them, which becomes difficult through a screen or photographs that often only seek to reveal what is most desirable or nice about someone [1] .

The portal Solutions for Living [2]  states: “The interactive nature of social networking also provides opportunities for girls to compare their appearance with their peers. For example, taking selfies may cause women to scrutinize their own image from an observer’s perspective, which is then further reinforced by instant feedback on their appearance through the form of comments and ‘likes.”

The figures show it [3] : 400 million heavily edited outfit, travel, and beauty posts on Instagram, 87.73% of women compare their bodies to images they see in the media, 50% of those women make unfavorable comparisons when they look at the images, 45% of U.S. teens say they are “almost constantly” online, 85% of all millennials use social media, 42% of people aged 18-29 reported their partner was distracted by cell phone use when together.

The interpersonal communications expert Leslie Shore who in an interview given to Brides, mentioned the main factors of how social networks affect our relationships reinforced this. For example, the time we spend within our social networks truncates us from sharing with people in the real world, we can reach the point of becoming obsessed with talking to someone since we get used to receiving a notification from that person on our phone, we must think about what we publish since from the comments we make we can generate conflict, etc [4] .

Thus, the use of these apps and social networks can be interesting and positive, as long as they do not replace interpersonal relationships [5] , to do this, you can put these 5 tips into practice: Be cognizant of yourself, be conscious, respectful and empathetic toward others, actively listen to others, avoid talking over others or speaking about them, and collaborate more. We must remember that excessive use of these platforms should generate an alert to take digital security measures and evaluate our emotional state; it is recommended to seek help from a mental health professional.

Refecences

 [1] https://family.jrank.org/pages/1602/Social-Networks-Social-Network-Structure-Relationship-Opportunities-Constraints.html

 [2] https://www.solutionsforliving.ca/2019/11/keeping-up-appearances-social-media-and-self-esteem/

 [3] https://online.king.edu/infographics/social-media-vs-reality/

 [4] https://www.brides.com/how-social-media-affects-relationships-5105350

 [5] https://bigthink.com/plus/improve-interpersonal-communication-skills-in-5-steps/

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