Does Technology Affect Social Relationships?

                                  Does technology affect social relationships?

Do you reach for your phone, tablet, laptop the second you wake up? Check your messages, browse the web, tweet, share, post? Technology is good to connect with friends, family from different places in the world, emails and other daily things. However, this can affect our social relationships with people. We can start to disconnect from others. There are many reasons for how technology can affect social relationships.

Continuing from that, the biggest issue with technology and relationships is that you can't detect their tone over social media so you don't know if they are being sarcastic, funny, serious and so on. You can't tell what someone means by their words through social media, text, etc. But if you see that person or hear their voice, you have no sense on what they feel or how the person wants you to read it, which causes misunderstandings and miscommunication.

There's a lack of empathy to interact with others like “ I'm so sorry your …. died “ or “ I heard you lost your job, I feel for you “ but the words don't show any sympathy. The person might really feel for that but once again you can't tell that over social media. It fails to show personal touch and interaction. You may need a hug or something to make you feel better, but people send you emoji's or stickers to comfort you? It doesn't make you feel a personal connection with that person. Think about a pet you've had, do you use technology to communicate with your pet? We're like animals, we need some sort of personal touch.

The internet is like a drug, as so many people are addicted to it and don't leave it. We may enjoy using social media to talk to other people.  The problem, however, comes when we make internet relationships for physical relationships. We can feel we're connecting with others via the Internet, but too much technology can cause isolation. There's so many dangers on the internet, people use social media to make communication easier than having a an human interaction communication. It's easier to ignore someone though social media than it is to do so in person, many people view that it's an easier way to send difficult messages, but also some say you should only say things on the internet that you will be able to say in person. The internet is an addiction to more teenagers than to adults. Teens are becoming more and more addicted to social media , that automatically when they wake up they suddenly go to their phone and throughout the day or even the whole day they will be on their phones.

The science of epigenetics has shown that social media can change our DNA. That means things we feel, like trauma and loss, change the way future generations will be, but can it really change us?

Technology mobilizes the LGBT community.  Near enough half of the LGBT community say they are truly close to a supportive person they have met online., compared to the 19% of the straight community. Also 60% use social media to create a community of similar people.

Technology also changes the way we mourn. Christina Zampitella, a clinical psychologist and thanatologist said “Some parents who lose a child keep their cell phones active in order to see how their child interacted with the world, and to hear their voice messages, because you forget people’s voices,” This basically connects to a person you cannott communicate with physically. She says “It cannot be bad or harmful, unless the person is in complicated grief and avoiding the reality of a loss,” she says. “Having a way of maintaining a bond to the person is very helpful. What better way of using technology?”