ESSAY: Social Media and the Family

For this Assignment search for two articles peer reviewed – one supporting the positive affects social media has on couples and one suggesting the negative affects social media has on relationships.

Summarize each article in 100 words or less.
Provide a critical analysis of each side of the social media debate.
Explain which side you take and support your professional opinion on social media and couple’s relationships with scholarly references and additional resources.
Use evidence-based research to support your findings.

ANSWER

Social Media and the Family

As social beings, people in a relationship are always in need to engage in communication in order to share ideas, feelings, opinions, facts, values and thoughts. However, the way people communicate has drastically changed over time with the advent of the internet and social media platforms. The world has become a global village where most people depend on social media as a mode of communication as compared to the traditional methods such as face to face communication. The use of computer-mediated technologies, via virtual networks and communities, to convey or share feelings, interests, information, ideas, or any other form intimate expressions has both merits and demerits (Hoover, Clark & Alters, 2012). However, the effect differs from one person to the other. Therefore, it is important to ask ourselves, is the use of social media among the couples pose positive or negative effects? This paper seeks to analyze two peer-reviewed articles – one supporting the positive affects social media has on couples and one suggesting the negative affects social media has on relationships.

The first article is titled, “Impact of Social Media Usage on Married Couple Behavior a Pilot Study in the Middle East” writtenby Gull et al. (2019). This article focuses on some of the positive impacts that social media has on couples and ways to get the best out of the same. According to the authors, social media provides an opportunity for open communication. For instance, Gull et al. (2019) states that couples get support from family members via social media. It also benefits those who are in a long-distance relationship but still want to stay connected to each other.

One of the major positive outcomes of using social media among couples is that they are able to virtually communicate and share ideas. Couples who are always using social media do not have secrets as they share their views on issues and also provide comments on the same (Gull et al., 2019). It is also a fact that those who are in long-distance relationships have ended up in a strong marriage because of the constant connection that they have with each other. Sharing of feelings and emotions via social media has also made many relationships to prosper to a great extent.

The second article is titled, “A Study of the effects of social media use and addiction on relationship satisfaction” written byPorter et al. (2012). The authors in the article conducted research to find out if there was a positive relationship between social media use and relationship satisfaction. The results of the study found out that social media has detrimental and adverse outcomes when frequently used among couples or people in a relationship (Porter et al., 2012). Couples who are frequently connected via social media have ended up in conflicts, and others divorced.

This article holds that social media has led to many negative outcomes. For instance, social media has caused jealousy and constant partner surveillance. Indeed, it is true that marital relationships have had many cases of jealousy, especially when one partner is doing better than the other in terms of friends and followers. Most couples spend a lot of time on social media than they do with each other (Hoover et al., 2012). This leads to a loss in touch as well as the love that brought them together. In my opinion, the use of social media among couples has led to many negative impacts than positive. The time that couples spend on social media is exceedingly high to an extent where they forget each other’s needs and desires. The emotional wellbeing of the partners has deteriorated due to the use of social media and staying connected to virtual persons (Chambers, 2013). Frustration, depression, as well as social comparison, are the…