Locate two articles – 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.
Article Suggestion for negative effects:
When flirting turns into infidelity: The Facebook dilemma. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 45(1), 1-14. Abbasi, I. S., & Alghamdi, N. G. (2017).
Couples Therapy
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course
Instructor’s Name
Date
Couples Therapy
Introduction
Human beings are social animals and over the years, people have been communicating, collaborating, and expressing their feelings. However, today their way of communication has changed with the internet and social medic occupying the imperious part of individuals’ lives. New communities depend on social media more than face-to-face communications. As a result, people are interested in the impact of social media on marriages and romantic relationships. Social media can have either positive or negative on couples or romantic relationships. In that regard, this paper discusses the influence of social media on couples.
Article Summary
The first article is “When Flirting Turns into Infidelity: The Facebook Dilemma” by Abbasi & Alghamdi (2017). This article discussed the negative impact of social media on the couple. The article state that Facebook has majorly contributed to marital conflicts and marital dissolution. The authors state further that the relationship between Facebook use and relationship problems can relate to the famous chicken and egg problems. An extreme attachment to Facebook can interfere with relationship functioning and other day-to-day activities leading to marriage problems. According to Abbasi & Alghamdi (2017), increased Facebook use is positively correlated with marital problems and rising divorce rates.
The second article is “Utilization of Social Media in Strengthening Communication in Long Distance Relationships” by Gutzmann (2018). The article discussed the use of social media to strengthen communication in long-distance relationships. Couples who work in different geographical places are always in distance relationships. Immigration into another country is also another cause of distance relationships among couples. Social media strengthens and maintains their connection regardless of geographical distances. Most couples use WhatsApp to communicate and get in touch. It gives people the opportunity to text, send audio messages, and view when a message was read. Therefore, social media has a positive impact on couples.
Critical Analysis of Each Side of the Social Media Debate
Based on the analysis of the two articles above, it is evident that social media has both positive and negative influences on couples. Beginning with the positive side, 3 states that some couples have reported they have felt closer to their partners due to online conversations. Some report that they often use social media to solve their arguments that could be difficult to solve in person. According to 2, couples may use social media to enhance their emotional affection and physical intimacy. Some couples discovered that their sexual interactions were strengthened when they mutually view sexual material together online. Social media enhances bonding and communication among couples who live in different geographical locations. Social media provides the mode of communication for these people making them connect with ease and remain in a stable relationship.
On the negative side, social media may increase the issues related to infidelity in a relationship. Any form of infidelity facilitated by the internet is called online or internet infidelity. Internet infidelity is linked with communication difficulties, projection, differentiation of self, intimacy issues, midlife crisis, and Internet addiction. All these are possible negative outcomes of social media. Problems often arise in marriages and relationships when couples compare their significant others and life in general to the digital lives of their virtual Facebook connections. Additionally, Facebook has been identified as one of the venues that are used by dissatisfied couples to seek satisfactory social interactions. One major problem with Facebook and other social media platforms is that extreme attachment to these platforms interferes with relationship functioning and other day-to-day activities. It is associated with harmful relationship outcomes, such as breakups, divorces, and cheating.
Personal Opinion
In my opinion, social media is good but excess of it or doing it without self-control can lead to negative impacts on couples. Social media, such as Facebook, leads to unfaithfulness in many marriages. Sometimes, couples may try to imitate some media connections, which may lead to relationship problems. 3 in their study shows that social media lead to a couple of problems. In this study, Twitter was linked and connected to negative outcomes in relationships. Additionally, it found that there are conflicts related to posting selfies on Instagram, which also lead to negative relationship outcomes. Excessive use of social media leads to reduced communication among couples. Facebook, in particular, provides services that could lead to infidelity behavior. For instance, accepting a friend request from a previous or ex-partner, receiving private messages, writing comments and liking attractive pictures, and similarly posting false relationship statuses 1. Based on the sources and the arguments above, I feel that social media has more damages than advantages to couples. Much caution should be observed by couples when using social media.
Conclusion
Social media is embraced by the bigger part of society. Couples experienced both positive and negative influence from the social media platforms. Couples who live apart in different geographical areas seem to benefit from social media more than their counterparts who live together. My personal opinion is that social media has a negative influence on most couples. Therefore, the use of social media should be carried out with caution to ensure it does not injure relationships.
Reference
Abbasi, I. S., & Alghamdi, N. G. (2017). When flirting turns into infidelity: The Facebook dilemma. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 45(1), 1-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01926187.2016.1277804
Gutzmann, L. (2018). Utilization of Social Media in Strengthening Communication in Long Distance Relationships. Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers. https://sophia.stkate.edu/msw_papers/860/
Gull, H., Iqbal, S. Z., Al_Qahtani, S. H., Alassaf, R. A., & Kamaleldin, M. M. (2019). Impact of social media usage on married couple behavior a pilot study in Middle East. International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, 14(6), 1368-1378. https://www.ripublication.com/ijaer19/ijaerv14n6_23.pdf