Conclusion

The increasing use of social networks is increasingly changing the nature of personal relationships. The penetration of social networking into the societal fabric has revolutionized the way people contact, befriend and relate to each other. A social network is a technology platform that is developed to create social relations between people. Chambers (2013) noted that using social networks, individuals on the platform can share many interests, tasks, backgrounds and activities on the platform. Sharing such aspects of life creates social relations between people who bind them together as a society (Dulworth & Dulworth 2008).

The use of social networks for social relations certainly has its effects. Baym (2010) noted that this phenomenon has many negative effects since it changes the nature of our interaction and how people socialize. With the new keywords for activities on social media i.e. post, wall, friend, like, find, follow and chat, the nature of personal relationships has greatly changed (Stenzel & Nesdahl 2012). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effects of using a social network on personal relationships. We shall discuss the challenges & issues of using social media on personal relationship and focus on two of these challenges. After a discussion of these challenges, relevant conclusions will be provided.

Body

There are several effects that can result from the extensive use of social media by individuals. This can include poor interpersonal skills, lack of communication skills, internet addition, infidelity and presentation skills (Mesch & Talmud 2010). This is because the extensive use of social networking platforms such as Facebook & Twitter reduces the need for physical interaction and contact. However, the ...

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...t people who spend much time on social media end up losing their connection with people such that their social media friendships do not develop to stronger relationships due to lack of physical interaction.

Conclusion

The extensive use of social media has greatly changed today’s personal relationships due to the amount of time taken on social media as opposed to physical interactions. The main problems with the extensive use of social media are isolation and poor communication & presentation. The overreliance on social media can lead to isolation since one may not require physical contact. The isolation can lead to further psychological issues depending on the level of social media use. Since people who rely on social media have reduced chances of physical interaction, they may not fully develop their communication skills which can also lead to poor presentation.