Social Media and Intimacy

Social network sites are dominating and driving forces for the way people, Millennials and Generation Z individuals especially, interact. Social media is revolutionary. It can skyrocket a business to success overnight, it can make a story newsworthy and trending in a matter of seconds, and it can shoot an individual to fame just from retweets and likes. It has transformed our present society. It does a great deal of good for the world as a whole. But, when we take a look at the individual, is social media detrimental? Is it harmful to our relationships and our ability to connect with others? Those who rely too heavily on posting and publishing behind their cell phone screen are less likely to be effective communicators face-to-face, studies have shown. Social network sites have made us brave behind a screen, but less personal face-to-face. Let us take a look at the dating world, for example. It has become common place to text, instant message, or “like” photos as a way to flirt during the early stages of courtship. Thirty years ago, calling on the telephone, approaching the individual in person, and asking them out on a date were the only options. Social media has made us afraid to be intimate in our relationships with others. Not only romantic relationships, but friendly ones as well. When relationships are made/maintained behind a screen, we are afraid of real, intimate, deep in-person relationships. How do we, as a society, fix this before it spirals out of control? I am not sure we can. Is it already out of control?