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Introduction
The Internet revolution of the 21st century has redefined the way people meet, make friends, and sustain friendships. Social network sites (SNSs) have changed the conventional meet-and-talk scenarios where people would have face-to-face communication, know each other, and form meaningful friendships. SNSs encourage individuals to visit various social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, among others, create a personal profile, and request other people to become friends. This process seems straightforward, simple, and effective, as it saves people the hustle of meeting physically, which involves planning, traveling, and other logistical issues. SNSs have solved the underlying problems and barriers to communication and making friendships because all that is needed is a simple mobile device and access to Internet connectivity. Additionally, social media has become timeless, and people can connect with each other regardless of location and time. As such, a person in Mumbai, India, would have friends all over the world from Canada in North America to Argentina in South America, Botswana in Africa, Russia in Europe, to Australia. From the outside, this removal of barriers in the process of forming friendships should be celebrated.
However, taking a closer look at the speed at which friendships are developed and the surrounding context, social media has both negative and positive impacts in terms of initiating and nurturing meaningful relationships. To some extent, social media as a medium could be highly ineffective as a channel for maintaining genuine friendships. This paper examines how the introduction of social media has impacted the development of friendships. In particular, it will look at how social media has changed the way relationships are nurtured, the speed at which they are developed, and the context under which they are developed. Finally, the discussion on this topic will highlight both positive and negative impacts, also looking at how relationships might develop under false pretenses, or how social media as a medium may not be as genuine to maintaining friendships.
Problem Statement
Social media plays a central role in the way people interact, communicate, and make friends in modern times. SNSs create an enabling environment for people to connect and become friends within a short time, regardless of time and space. However, based on the guiding principles of friendship, the context under which individuals befriend each other through social media may not facilitate the nurturing of meaningful and lasting relationships. Therefore, it is important to understand these contexts, examine the way through which friendships are nurtured, and assess both negative and positive impacts of social medial on friendships. Ultimately, this paper seeks to discuss why social media, as a medium of communication, might not be the right channel for making and maintaining genuine friendships.
Literature Review
The impacts of social media on friendships have been studied and documented widely in the literature. A study by Linaa Jensen and Scott Serensen (2013) sought to discuss the norms of friendships formed through SNSs by focusing on the privacy of users. This article is about the way people make friends through social media, specifically focusing on the process that individuals follow when letting other people into their circle of online friends. This article sought to address the research question about how SNSs friendship norms are made more explicit, through strategies of friending, privacy settings, and identity performance, than in traditional social relationships, where they are often more implicit (Linaa Jensen & Scott Serensen, 2013, p. 50). The authors used a qualitative survey to study 1710 Internet users in Denmark, with 970 of them being Facebook users, and later recruited 20 of them in a focus group meeting where their profiles were monitored for 12 months. This article added important knowledge in the area of understanding how social media has affected friendships, especially by highlighting that SNSs allow explicit friendship formations. The results showed that social media allows users to have a mixture of strong, weak and even latent ties, representing close friends and family as well as mere acquaintances (Linaa Jensen & Scott Serensen, 2013, p. 60). While the authors did not make suggestions for future research, the results of this study contribute significantly to understanding how social media affects friendship. It is clear that the majority of friendships created over SNSs, especially by young people, are mere acquaintances without lasting utility, which supports the claim that such platforms are not suitable for the maintenance of genuine and long-term relationships.
In another study, Lebedko (2014) sought to examine how social networking, together with globalization, has affected intercultural communication. The article is about how SNSs create platforms that encourage communication through writing as opposed to speech, which affects intercultural communication and changes the conceptualization of friendship. The research question that the author sought to answer is how globalization, networking, and intercultural communication interact and the way students perceive them and regard the underlying changes to conventional communication. For this study, surveys were conducted using 59 students drawn from a university in Russia, and data was collected through questionnaires. The author added to the knowledge of the subject area by highlighting how people conceptualize friendship in modern times. The results indicated that the concept of friendship has significantly evolved with the use of SNSs. For instance, Lebedko (2014) found that regarding Internet friendship, identity can be disguised when friends are reluctant to know their friends and use nicknames (p. 34). This assertion points to the negative impacts of social media on friendship, which has become a superficial concept without meaningful connections. For example, as pointed in this study, people are willing to use an alias instead of their real names, which means that they are unwilling to reveal their identity, and thus not yearning for the creation of genuine friendships. The author did not suggest areas for future study.
Similarly, another study by Koban and Krüger (2017) wanted to understand how the strength of ties between individuals affects direct interaction and social surveillance among Facebook friends in both the same and different geographical areas. This article is about the role of social media in maintaining friendships. For example, the article investigated whether social media would play an important role in keeping friendships among people living in different geographical locations. The research questions used in this study include i) How does tie strength influence social surveillance? ii) Does tie strength moderate the link between physical distance and direct interaction as well as social surveillance? iii) Does tie strength moderate the link between temporal distance and direct interaction? (Koban & Krüger, 2017, p. 76). The authors surveyed 302 participants to collect data on the role of social media in maintaining long-distance friendships. The authors contributed to the subject area by highlighting that in terms of maintaining friendships, face-to-face interaction is a more effective way as compared to social media. The results showed that even after forming friendships off-line, when face-to-face interaction is minimized, such friendships tend to wane. These findings are important in understanding how social media affects friendship. The data suggest that meaningful and lasting relationships might not be sustained through social media interaction, especially when face-to-face communication is missing. While on the one hand social media allows people who became friends off-line to stay connected even after geographical separation, the strength of such online friendships is weak, which entrenches the concept of out of sight, out of mind .
When trying to understand to impact of social media on friendship, it is important to ask some critical questions. In his study, Hall (2016) raised an important research question, when is social media use social interaction? (p. 162). This article is about the context under which social media use could be termed as social interaction. For instance, people could be reading posts on Facebook, but such use of social media might not amount to social interaction. Therefore, Hall (2016) seeks to discuss the concept of mediated social interaction within the context of social media use. The quantitative study method was chosen for this research. The author adds to the knowledge of the subject area by indicating that the majority of time spent on social media does not go to social interaction. For instance, when a Facebook user spends time reading newsfeeds and posts by his or her friends, it does not translate into social interaction. On the surface, this engagement creates the illusion that people are communicating or interacting meaningfully; however, a closer look at the data reveals that social media is destroying the concept of friendship. This study found that over 50 percent of time spent on Twitter involves passive consumption of information posted by others and newsfeed, while activities that contribute to meaningful relations, such as chatting, occupied a paltry 4 percent. The implication of these findings is that social media gives users the false hope that they are communicating with their friends, while, in essence, they are not, which ultimately affects friendship negatively. The author gave directions for future studies by stating that research should be conducted to understand both the theoretical and operational differences of social media usage and social interaction.
In another study, Hogan (2018) sought to understand how the quest to ensure the privacy of users data on SNSs has affected the process of making friends. This article unpacks the complicated privacy rules that regulate the kind of information concerning users that could be gathered and accessed by third parties, including fellow users. For instance, a person seeking to make friends online is limited in terms of the data that can be accessed about these individuals. The articles research question is how privacy regulations by SNSs platforms affect generativity and access to users data. The author added significant knowledge to the area of the effects of social media on friendships. The results show that social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, have intensified their efforts to protect their users data from access by third parties. Hogan (2018) notes that this aspect could be explained using two legitimate considerations, The first is privacy, which is in the users interest, and the second control, which is in the platforms interest (p. 603). In the context of making and maintaining friendships, the problem with highly restrictive privacy policies is that they limit people in terms of the background information that could be gathered concerning the involved parties. For instance, if person A wants to become friends with person B, the information about person B that person A could gather is highly limited. Therefore, while on the one hand, social media creates an environment to make friends, it controls the strength of those relationships as people are compelled to connect with strangers with very little knowledge about each other.
As useful platforms of communication and making friendships, SNSs are subject to abuse by various users. In their study, Valencia Ortiz and Castaño Garrido (2019) sought to examine the extent of addiction of young Mexicans to online social media networks by adapting the Sahin scale (p. 7). The article is about the negative effects of social media, especially on young users. The research question for the study focused on the extent of addiction to online social media among young Mexicans. The quantitative study method was chosen for this study to understand the extent of addiction to social media. The authors contributed positively to the subject area by providing useful data concerning the state of social media misuse among young people, which ultimately leads to addiction. The results showed that while most respondents were addicted to social media, they were unaware of such addiction, which is dangerous because they cannot seek help. While this study focused on social media addiction, it relates strongly to the effects of SNSs on friendships. One of the issues that arise in this article is that young people are highly addicted to social media, which means that they spend a lot of time on these platforms. Consequently, they lack time for face-to-face communication and interaction with their peers, which ultimately affects the kind of relationships and friendships that they form offline. As such, while social media is a useful tool for connecting people, it is making its users anti-social at the same time, which negatively affects the concept of friendship forming and maintenance.
In yet another study, Dubois et al. (2016) wanted to understand what happens when people share information online with friends and strangers. The article is about word-of-mouth valence changes when subjected to both low and high levels of interpersonal closeness. For instance, when talking about the effects of social media on peoples lives, how does communication this information change based on the level of interpersonal closeness. The research question for this article was on the effect of interpersonal closeness on word-of-mouth valence and the underlying process and boundary conditions (Dubois et al., 2016). The authors used the quantitative study method to conduct four different experiments. This article contributes important knowledge to the subject area by highlighting how interpersonal closeness shapes the communicated information. The results show that people are likely to share the good side of a story with strangers in the quest to enhance their self-image and present themselves as credible. Concerning suggestions for future research, the authors highlighted the need to investigate how IC might affect the likelihood to share valenced information (Dubois et al., 2016, p. 724). While this paper is about marketing and how the contents of word-of-mouth are subject to interpersonal closeness, it highlights important aspects of the impacts of social media on friendship. For instance, the article showed that people are likely to focus on their positive sides when talking to strangers. This aspect implies that individuals are likely to misrepresent themselves and create an image of perfection, which is misleading for social media users seeking to make friendships. This assertion explains how innocent people become friends with criminals and serial killers without their knowledge because they are duped into believing that they are dealing with genuine people.
Conclusion
This literature review has explored the various impacts of social media on the concept of friendship. From the data gathered, it is clear that social medial has played a central role in connecting individuals around the world. The ease with which users could access SNSs allows people to make friends from all over the globe within a short period. However, this review has shown the many negative effects of social media on friendships. For instance, the excessive usage of these platforms has led to addiction, which means that people do not have time for face-to-face connections and interactions, and thus meaningful relationships and friendships are on declining among social media users. Additionally, the context under which online friendships are initiated, nurtured, and developed are full of ambiguity, which affects the quality and strength of the resulting relationships. For instance, social media platforms have imposed stringent privacy rules in the interest of protecting the personal and sensitive information of various users. While it is important to keep users privacy, this aspect works against the spirit of initiating meaningful friendships. When strangers meet online, the least they can do before starting any form of relationship is to conduct a background check of one another. However, the privacy rules in place do not allow people to access relevant information. Therefore, users are left on their own to figure out the authenticity of their online friends. This problem is compounded by the fact that users can decide to hide their real identities and instead use pseudo names. Consequently, online relationships via social media platforms could develop under pretenses leading to adverse consequences, such as rape and murder, among other social ills. For instance, a serial killer might take advantage of social media to initiate friendships with various victims before luring them to a trap and murdering them ultimately.
One of the interesting findings from this literature review is the idea that the use of social media does not amount to social interaction. People get the impression that they are engaging in social interaction when scrolling through newsfeeds and posts by friends and strangers alike. These arguments, as put forward by Hall (2016), are highly valuable, especially when examining the impact of social media on friendships. Users get the illusion that they are socializing when, in essence, they are consuming information that does not contribute to the basic definition of social interaction. Another interesting issue is the possibility that social media is essentially anti-social, as highlighted by Valencia Ortiz and Castaño Garrido (2019). The widespread of social media misuse leads to addiction means that users do not have the time to form meaningful face-to-face connections and relationships because they spend the majority of their time on social media. Ultimately, such individuals become anti-social because they cannot sustain useful face-to-face conversations. Therefore, it suffices to argue that social media, as a medium, may not be a reliable channel for forming and maintaining genuine friendships. In the future, research should explore ways through which social media could be designed for the creation of lasting friendships.
References
Dubois, D., Bonezzi, A., & De Angelis, M. (2016). Sharing with friends versus strangers: How interpersonal closeness influences word-of-mouth valence. Journal of Marketing Research, 53(5), 712-727.
Hall, J. A. (2018). When is social media use social interaction? Defining mediated social interaction. New Media & Society, 20(1), 162-179.
Hogan, B. (2018). Social media giveth, social media taketh away: Facebook, friendships, and APIs. International Journal of Communication, 12, 592-611.
Koban, K., & Krüger, S. (2018). Out of sight, (not yet) out of mind: The impact of tie strength on direct interaction and social surveillance among geographically close and long-distance Facebook friends. Communication Research Reports, 35(1), 74-84.
Lebedko, M. G. (2014). Globalization, networking, and intercultural communication. Intercultural Communication Studies, 23(1), 712-727.
Linaa Jensen, J., & Scott Serensen, A. (2013). Nobody has 257 friends strategies of friending, disclosure and privacy on Facebook. Nordicom Review, 34(1), 49-62.
Valencia Ortiz, R., & Castaño Garrido, C. (2019). Use and abuse of social media by adolescents: A study in Mexico. Píxel-BIT Revista de Medios y Educación, 54, 7-28.
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