The effects facebook has on communication and relationships.

This is some information I found that was interesting. It's basically what the essay needs to about. We already know that Facebook can be an incredible tool for building and strengthening friendships and relationships. We also know that it can be a relationship buster. And now, a recent study makes the claim that “increased Facebook use significantly predicts Facebook-related jealousy” in romantic relationships. The study, published in the CyberPsychology & Behavior Journal, analyzed the effect of Facebook use on the romantic relationships of college students. The report concludes that there is a “significant association between time spent on Facebook and jealousy-related feelings and behaviors experienced on Facebook.” Is Facebook destroying our relationships? An Overview of the Study The research, conducted as part of a larger study on Facebook use by college students, identified items that could contribute to romantic jealousy. 308 respondents (skewed female, 231 to be exact) were then surveyed on if any of those factors were present. These include gems like “How likely are you to monitor your partner's activities on Facebook? and “How likely are you to become jealous after your partner has added an unknown member of the opposite sex?” The result? Specific factors make Facebook a breeding ground for relationship jealousy. The researchers identified four themes that contributed to jealousy on Facebook. They are as follows: - Accessibility of information: Increased info about the interactions of significant others lead to increased monitoring and jealousy for 19.1% of participants - Relationship jealousy: 16.2% of respondents were explicitly linked to Facebook use contributing to jealousy - Facebook as an addiction: 10.3% of participants had major difficulty limiting the amount of time he or she looked at his or her partner's Facebook profile. - Lack of context: 7.4% of respondents referenced how Facebook can be ambiguous and that, without context, jealousy can be spurred over misunderstandings. If you're interested to learn more about the study, we've included the entire CyberPsychology & Behavior article below: There certainly has to be a predisposition to being insecure and jealous prior to signing on to any site. However, Facebook and other social media simply facilitates or exacerbates it. If there is lack of confidence within the relationship, Facebook monitoring can lead the insecure partner or partners to information they may not have had before because of this increased accessibility. Couples probably didn't know ALL of each partner's friends, co-workers or past classmates. The room for assumption and conjecture is infinite online, while it may have not been in person Of course it is important to study the impact of new forms of human interaction on our relationships but it is equally true that our problems arise because of inherent issues within ourselves and not because of the medium used. Because information flow on facebook is quicker and faster, realities that would take time to unfold end up opening up too quickly. The problems are always within us and between us not in the medium. What would be interesting to study is how it is impacting general friendships and also the immense advantages and benefits it is bringing to our social and professional relationships. Although FaceBook was created to have a positive impact in person to person communication, studies show that it could have a detrimental effect. Facebook started out as a way for like minded students to share their life experiences and stay in touch. But are social networking sites enabling interaction or reducing it to a escapist experience, displacing real interaction in favour of an alternative reality? To try and answer what is an existential question, at best, it is necessary to look at the positive and negative impacts of FaceBook on it's user community, gleaned from various sources interviewed by the BBC in "Online networking 'harms health'". Positive Impact of FaceBook Social networking can enrich social lives for those separated from family and friends by long distances, bringing them together despite the physical separation. This has recently come to light in the number of people in the armed forces using YouTube, FaceBook and Twitter to stay in touch. Online communication can help those with dysfunctional syndromes achieve a level of social interaction previously difficult or impossible. For some people, interaction with crowds is made easier if they do not actually feel the physical immersion. Such sites also provide those isolated by disability or environment with a rich and fulfilling social life. For anyone who is unable to leave their own house, social networking has provided a great way to get in touch with people who have similar issues, as well as allowing them to stay in touch with existing networks of friends. Finally, social networking sites can bring people together with varying backgrounds who might otherwise never have met, and then encourage them to extend that experience into real world social functions. Negative Impact of FaceBook Electronic interaction displaces the social interaction, keeping people apart – it is so convenient that people lack the drive to actually interact face to face. People are social animals, in the main, and removing that pillar can actually affect their social development, especially if started at a young age. READ THIS NEXT Are Social Networking Sites Unhealthy for Teens? Facebook and Twitter Could Affect ADHD and ADD Health Risk of Social Networking It also changes the way people interact, possibly producing changes that will eventually affect the evolution of social interaction. The lack of face to face communication undermines skills such as reading body language and other indirect communication facilities. Mass electronic communication may lead to a lower quality of social interaction due to the sheer number of participants; the background level of gossip is likely to be higher than in face to face interactions. There's also the inference that online information has less value somehow than real world information, although the same could be said of water cooler office gossip. On Balance : How Should FaceBook Be Used? As with other enabling technologies, such as email, web search engines, and online publishing outlets like Wikipedia, the overall message is that, in moderation, Facebook and other networking sites are a good thing. They let people connect, whether they knew each other in the first place or not – staying in touch or making new friends. Yes, there are potential drawbacks in the form of very public cases where such friendships have degenerated into something more sinister, but the positives far outweigh them. Success stories include various marriages, business deals, partnerships, and other very encouraging endorsements of virtual communication as a form of social interaction. However, relying exclusively on electronic communication for social interaction is likely to damage rather than enrich lives. Everyone, at some point, with very few exceptions, needs the face to face contact in order to maintain their social skills. Read more at Suite101: FaceBook : Good or Bad for Communication: Looking at Effect of FaceBook on Face to Face Communication Skills | Suite101.com http://www(dot)suite101(dot)com/content/facebook-good-or-bad-for-communication-a121387#ixzz1VDP4PP84