In the last decade or so, the means of social media has been growing rapidly, from Myspace and Facebook to Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, etc.. Along with social media, the ideals of our interpersonal and extrapersonal relationships have changed from face-to-face interaction socially to face-to-face interaction through video/picture messaging and texting, acting as a "middleman". In the reading, "Making New Media Make Sense," written by Nancy Baym, Baym describes how the mobility of new media, like the telephone, television and now social media has changed and possibly improved how we communicate and interact with one another, in what we keep private and what we show the public. She also discusses how we should pay more attention and analyze the way we talk about new communication/media technologies in our popular culture. Baym says that “the mobility of some new media means that we can now have conversations that would have once been held in our homes when we are in public and that we can be with others wherever we are, feeding into a related set of concerns about privacy and companionship.” (p. 22) Initially, social media was used to socialize and reconnect with colleagues and old friends across transnational/international borders through the means of the Internet, and because technology continues to evolve every day, it can have its consequences.
A Bustle writer, Sara Altschule gives 6 red flags for suspicious/weird behavior on certain social media sites/apps that can be alarming in relationships. Altschule talks about feeling uncomfortable with our significant others liking other people’s pictures too much or flirting in the comments (something that some of us may think is a problem), and maybe refusing to change their relationship status on Facebook. She also talks about how if your significant other is taking too many selfies, that both of you should reflect on the relationship as a whole and if the conversations you have with one another always seem one-sided because their phone becomes a problem then that’s probably a concern to have a discussion about. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. have been embedded into our lives on a daily basis where we partially define our intimate relationships, and this can be very troubling when it comes to significant others’ boundaries. Baym implies that sometimes “communication technologies have long been represented as a source of stress for families, making it too easy for people to engage in “irregular courtship” with people outside the community.” (p. 34-35) Nowadays, social media has become "stressful" to use in terms of intimate relationships. With Altschule, she gives an implication of how social media sites redefine our relationships because they've become a prevalent item in our lives. She doesn't necessarily go into other consequences of significant others' behaviors (like being distant and having no communication overall), but basing some of the simpler social media methods (liking someone's pictures on Instagram or Facebook) as a warning that our relationships might be "falling apart". Baym says that “as we represent these unfamiliar interpersonal tools through our words, conversations, stories, metaphors, images, and so on, we collectively negotiate what interpersonal relationships are and what we want them to be.” (p. 25) She hints that we talk about social media sites as separate entities that can make decisions on their own when in all honesty we're the ones creating this notion. We’ve ingrained social media as a new routine on how we communicate. When we rarely call each other, send a simple text, or make indirect statuses of people (or anything else) we dislike just to have our opinions seen and heard, our news media along with pop culture (including us) blame social media for the consequences of destroying relationships, when we are the culprits ourselves.
Works Cited
Baym, Nancy K. "Making New Media Make Sense." Personal Connections in the Digital Age.
Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2010. 22-49. Print.
Altschule, Sara. "How Social Media Can Affect Relationships, Plus 6 Red Flags To Look Out
For." Bustle. Bustle, 20 Aug. 2015. Web.
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