Use of Social Networking Sites and Instant Messaging Technology has revolutionized the way we interact and communicate with people. The Internet offers numerous platforms to communicate with friends as well as developing new relationships with strangers. However, the effect of social networking sites on social relationships is a topic of many debates. There are multiple ways online interaction affects people, especially the youth of the society, both positively and negatively. Therefore, the studies done to examine the impact of the Internet on social relationships is definitely necessary and important.
The article Use of Social Networking and Instant Messaging reports the study over the relationships between use of social media such as instant messaging and social networking sites, network size, and emotional closeness in a sample of 117 individuals between the ages of 18 and 63 years old. Participants were asked to list and categorize each member of their personal, offline network into a series of subgroupings, arranged in a hierarchically inclusive sequence. Each person was listed into one of the three layers of their network – the support group, the sympathy group, and the active network. Secondly, because quantity does not necessarily equal quality, the next step aimed at answering two questions: What effect does the use of social media have on the size of each offline network layer? And what effect does the use of social media have on the emotional closeness of relationships within each offline network layer? Therefore, in addition to some basic socio-demographic questions, participants were asked how emotionally close they felt to each person on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being “not close at all” and 10 being “very close”, and when they last had face-to-face contact with the person. Participants also reported how many minutes they used SNS and IM on a typical day. Firstly, the results showed though participants who spent more time using social networking sites had more online “friends” and spent more time online communicating, they did not have a larger offline network. There was no correlation between time spent using IM or SNS and the size of the three layers of offline network. Also, time spent on IM or SNS did not increase the emotional closeness of relationships in any of the layers. Finally, it depicted there was not difference in either offline network size or emotional closeness between social media users and non-users. Concluding that the use of social media or the intensity of their use does not correlates with a greater number of relationships or emotional closeness.
The pros of this study include that the experiment was thoroughly conducted, and the results contrast with previous studies and gives us an alternate viewpoint. In the discussion, the authors conclude that social media does not always have a positive impact on social relationship and they do not increase the emotional closeness between participants. Also it proved, “Time is inelastic and there is a limited amount of leisure time in any given day. Time is a crucial constraint shaping primate sociality.” Therefore, social media does not relax time and cognitive constraints on offline network size adequately to allow for networks to grow. There were not necessarily major cons, but if any because of the limitations, this study generalizes to the broader population. Therefore, if the longitudinal design had been used, it was clearly show how increased social media influences the size and compositions of social networks amongst participants. It would also address how effective these mediums are at building and maintaining social relationships.
After thoroughly reading this article, I learned how significantly social media affects online and offline relationships. Though the results did not show dramatic correlations between the amount of “friends”, the emotional closeness, and the expansiveness of the social network layers, it depicted how the amount of time spent online does not necessarily result in a better relationship with friends. It shows that you only have so much leisure time in the day, and spending it online rather than offline will not increase emotional closeness, and it also means spending less time face-to-face with individuals you are emotional close to. I also learned the steps of properly carrying out an experiment and how the results change based on what type of study you conduct, such as a cross-sectional design versus a longitudinal design.
This study significantly affects the community because social networks has revolutionized the way we interact and communicate with people. The use of social media is ever increasing, therefore; it is vital to examine and understand the affect it has on individuals and their social relationships. It is especially important because today’s youth has easier access to Internet, and they continuously spend more time utilizing its sites. And adolescents have shown that time spent using a computer does negatively affect time spent interacting with family members. The quality of communication over social media, compared to face-to-face or talking over the phone is potentially a factor in building strong emotionally close relationships