The Impact of Social Media on Personal Relationships

Logos of different social media apps

By Marcelino Acosta, January 20th 2025

Social media has changed the way people can communicate with each other and helps maintain relationships with others. Social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Facebook have made it easier to keep in touch with friends and family. Social media has benefits but has drawbacks with keeping a good relationship with others. 

One of the many advantages of social media is how it makes it easier to keep in touch with others from anywhere in the world. If someone is in a different country social media can help you reach that person. Another advantage is social media lets you find people who have the same interests as you do. 

Some of the disadvantages of social media could be negative on personal relationships. This could be because when messaging somebody else on social media you are missing out on how the person reacts to what you say or what they say or how they say it, these can become misunderstanding on what someone is saying.  

Another issue with social media is that it can lead to effects on some people's mental health. These health problems could be people becoming insecure because of what other people do or how other people have more accomplishments or achievements than them. This could lead to jealousy and making them compare themselves to others. or them not feeling like they are as good as other people. This could make people's personal relationships harder because someone wants to compare themself to a different person who they saw on social media, leading to feeling disconnected with people that they know and talk to all the time.  

Social media also leads to misinformation while also having reliable information some of the things said on social media should not be taken serious because it is easier to push misinformation now than ever before. 

Another issue is that social media can become addictive some of these social media apps are Instagram and Tiktok the cause people to be on their phones for long periods of time without noticing. 

Social media has changed the way people interact with each other; it makes it easier to connect or stay connected with others but could lead to bad relationships sometimes.  Even though social media can be the new tool to keep in touch with others like friends and family, it should not replace how people interact with each other outside of social media. Social media should be used to build stronger relationships with others.