How Social Media Will Change Friendship in 2030

SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PLATFORM FOR SOCIALIZATION FOR SOCIAL INHIBITS AND THE FORMING OF FRIENDSHIPS IN 2030 Written by: Valéria Santos On our last posts, we’ve been discussing about some challenges of interpersonal communication in online contexts and relationship development. We’ve talked about how the lack of non-verbal cues prevent users from experiencing a sense of the other, which may impact the forming of strong bonds and relationships. We’ve also discussed that the lack of cues on social media leads to more frequent misunderstandings and conflicts and that the lack of empathy also affects adjusting behaviour and influences sustaining friendships in online contexts. However, while writing about these topics, I’ve also come across some articles addressing how social media can be a platform for socialization and how people who are more timid or who have a more introverted personality feel more comfortable and less intimidated while interacting in online settings. As ...

SOCIAL MEDIA AND ANXIOUS GENERATIONS IN 2030  Written by Fernanda Araya. Social media allow users to be connected with their friends and have a glimpse of their lives despite the physical distance, but being continuously connected may lead to a mental health problem. Sharing our experiences online generates pressure in the users due to the search of friend’s approval. According to Dr. Mayshak, the reason is that “these negative feelings are thought to come from a perceived lack of popularity when a post doesn’t receive “enough” likes” (Deakin University, 2020). It seems that younger generations are exposed to anxiety and other mental health problems due to the constant comparison with their online friends. The new normal of sharing every little thing about their lives to remain connected and accepted by their friends is causing emotional problems in younger users. According to the research “Global trends to 2030”, in the future the use of social media would have an impac...

IN 2030: HOW SOCIAL MEDIA MIGHT AFFECT FRIENDSHIP Written by Fernanda Araya. Internet and social media is the perfect combination to find friends that share our same interests, and they are a click away, allowing us immediate connection. Still, social media friendship has disadvantages, and one of them would be that you can’t entirely trust that person. It seems that in the future, this trend will prevail since one of the concerns in the article “Life in 2030 […]” is related to trust, and the author addresses this problem by saying, “trust is the lifeblood of friendship and care-giving. When trust is absent, all kinds of societal woes unfold […]” (Rainie, 2017). Social media promotes mistrust since users tend to compare themselves with their friends, creating rivalry among their friends related to who has the best or most impressive life to share.  In 2030, it might be that these types of relationships will continue to focus on competitions. Mehta (2017) addresses ...

CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN ONLINE CONTEXTS AND ITS IMPACT ON FRIENDSHIP IN 2030 Written by: Valéria Santos Conflict is something inevitable in friendship. Sooner or later, there will be misunderstandings or miscommunication, especially because friends usually interact with each other very often. When we examine conflict resolution happening in social media at present   and making projections about what conflict resolution is going to be like in ten years from now, we believe that the challenges we face are going to be similar to what we experience currently. In online settings, we identify that most conflicts between friends happen because of lack of cues . Miscommunication is a common trigger for conflicts and that “misinterpretation may lead to increased conflict in online friendships” ( Amichai-Hamburger, Kingsbury & Schneider, 2013, p.37). Some discussion around conflict between friends in online settings have pointed out that the digital environment poses so...

LACK OF NON-VERBAL CUES ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS IMPACT ON RELATIONSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN 2030 Written by: Valéria Santos Social media has revolutionized communication and the way we interact with people. While on one hand, social media has afforded more possibilities for interaction and reconnecting with people you no longer have face-to-face contact with, social media hasn’t been able to allow users to use important components of in-person communication which favor interpersonal connections and relationships development (Venter, 2019). While we explore some of the ideas regarding interpersonal communication on social media and its relation to  the establishment of friendships, we examine current social media contexts and technology available nowadays and make correlations with what we anticipate in the coming years, especially in 2030. If we think of communication technology available now in 2020, we see that written text posting on social media is still very ...

CHALLENGES OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND RELATIONSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN 2030 Written by: Valéria Santos Digital tools and social media network have changed the way we interact with other people and have become one of the dominant ways we communicate.  Whereas some people emphasize that communication via social media has become a platform for socialization, allowing us to interact with a large number of people and not be restricted only to those we meet in person, it’s also true  that communication through social media has imposed some challenges on creating interpersonal connections and relationships online (Venter, 2019) and in face-to-face interactions (Ingram, 2017). According to Venter (2019) communication indicates “sharing of words, emotions, ideas, intent and messages” (p.1) which are essential for mutual understanding and building of relationships. However, when verbal or non-verbal cues are lacking on communication, there ...

OUR ONLINE IDENTITIES IN SOCIAL MEDIA AND FRIENDSHIP IN 2030 Written by Fernanda Araya Our online identities have a massive impact on our everyday lives nowadays since being connected during a big part of our day is the new normal. Creating an online version of ourselves that, most of the time, is an improved version of the real us, doesn’t seem to generate any questions as it seems that everyone does it. The change has been progressive, and it seems that younger generations are the ones that enjoy this type of exposure on social media. According to ESPAS, “the intense frequency with which people actively engage with their smartphones […] creates constant exposure to wide public approval or judgment and instantaneous feedback loop that affects how individuals present and define themselves to others” (ESPAS, 2018). Looking for constant approval creates anxiety, stress and low self-esteem in people since they are continuously trying to please others. Their virtual ident...

How Jealousy Will Affect Friendships in The Year 2030. Written By: Alexia Taylor Jealously has become extremely dangerous when it comes to our daily lives, especially social media. Jealously continues to ruin our friendships, relationships and especially our mental health. Jealousy is a complex emotion that encompasses feelings ranging from  fear of abandonment to  rage and  humiliation . It strikes people of all ages, genders, and sexual orientations, and is most typically aroused when a person perceives a threat to a valued relationship from a third party. (Ben-Zeev. A, Alkon. A, Hanscom. D, Morin, A. N.d). Social media truly affects mental health through jealousy due to the fact that we continue to follow pages that we envy. Not only do we follow pages which “have it all”, but our friends continue to portray themselves as people who have it all as well. We seem to become jealous of our friends because we believe that we are not as “lucky” as they are. Jealou...