Can Social Media Still Help You Make Real Friends?
People use social media to share daily life, exchange ideas, and build and maintain relationships. However, while social media offers numerous conveniences, its impact on interpersonal relationships has also sparked widespread reflection and discussion, revealing a complex interplay of connection and disconnection.
Social media has a significant positive impact on fostering interpersonal relationships
It breaks the constraints of time and space, allowing people to easily stay in touch with friends and family far away. Regardless of distance, as long as there is an internet connection, people can communicate at any time through text, voice, video, and other means, sharing their joys and sorrows. For example, friends in different locations can share their lives and strengthen their relationships through social media.
Social media provides people with a broader social circle
Through various interest groups and communities, people can meet like-minded friends and expand their social networks. On social media, people can participate in discussions on various topics, express their opinions, and exchange ideas with people from different backgrounds, enriching their knowledge and perspectives. Social media also provides a relatively easy platform for those who struggle with social interaction, allowing them to communicate more confidently.
The research results show:
▨ When young people actively engage in social media use, interacting with established relationships, their well-being improves. They use social media to actively create or share content, maintain relationships, or simply for entertainment, while their needs for friendship and intimacy are met entirely outside of social media.
▨ When young people use social media to compensate for a lack of something, social media can lead to decreased well-being. Their use is more passive (i.e., browsing), and their interactions are primarily with those with whom they do not have strong relationships.
In other words, whether social media use helps people build and maintain strong and intimate relationships is closely related to the users and their motivations.
If social media can help you build relationships and strengthen existing ones, then it is a valuable aid.