SOCIAL MEDIA: TOOL FOR RELATIONSHIP ENHANCEMENT

October 26, 2020

Social networking has played a major role in lives of people in general and during lockdown in particular. It has played immense role in interconnecting people leading to their personal development. It has played important role in transforming relationships between people and society at large. During the pandemic, social media was one of the platform where people maintained their bonds, stayed in touch with each other and communicated information with friends, relatives and people. Seeing the usage of social media and its positive impact, we thought of finding out the opinion of people regarding Social media. It generated a curiosity within us to know more about its impact in people’s lives and on their interpersonal relationships. To find out opinion and facts, we prepared a questionnaire covering various aspects of social media and how it is impacting lives. We have used both primary data and secondary data for analysis. The data has been collected through internet and by interacting with people.

Survey was conducted on 148 people which were segmented into different groups on the basis of age.

From the analysis of survey data, it was found that WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram were the top three platforms which were maximum used by people. Data usage rate has drastically increased during lockdown due to restriction on physical movement. Data of respondent reveals that 34.5% people use social media 2 – 5 times a day while 26.4% uses it 5-10 times a day. Before Covid-19 lockdown period majority of the people were not active on social media but during lockdown social media was the main source of connectivity and as a result data usage increased manifolds. As per survey response, about 52.7% people who used to spend around 30 – 60 minutes on an average per day before lockdown their usage has increased upto 3 to 4 hours during lockdown. Similarly, people using social networking sites for less than 30 minutes have started devoting to about 2 hours and more. During survey, majority people admitted that their usage time has increased manifolds during the lockdown. The enhancement of usage during pandemic were mainly in the areas of entertainment, academic, and knowledge oriented.

v By this survey, it is observed that Social media has helped people become more independent and interactive, and enhanced knowledge with latest updates. It has helped us in transforming our attitude and opinions about people and brought us closer to friends and relatives, helping us to become more sociable.

v Most crucial role that social network has played is strengthening interpersonal relationships and keeping us in touch with our friends, family, relatives and society, sharing emotions, pictures and a lot more.

v Survey indicates that Social media has also helped us in relieving our stress by interaction and sharing our thoughts and feelings

v It helped us in keeping ourselves updated with latest news and with current affairs and thus kept us in constant touch with external affairs.

v People and specially students used these site to gain knowledge, sharing study material and for online classes thus enhancing their skills and developing career.

v Social media platforms has also entertained us through launching and relaunching movies, web-series at the time when different channels had nothing new to cast.

In nut-shell, Social media has proved to be boon in enhancing ourselves, developing our personality and building relationships.

Social media platforms have brought world closer as one global village, without any boundaries.

Social media platforms are the mode which brings people living in distant areas close to each other and the survey reveals that social media has strengthen relationships. Social media’s biggest platforms are WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. Social media have their own benefits showcasing various aspects and users choose them as per their needs. Users have shifted their primary habits of communication to mirror online communication. Within the realm of online interactivity, social media users can actively communicate and form relationships with other users without ever having to meet others face-to-face, disregarding basic social and emotional skills otherwise needed to form those friendships/relationships. As statistics, activities, frequencies, and volumes of social media users continue to rise, along with the amount of time users spend consuming social media platforms per day, interpersonal communication relationships and social skills continue to rise.

With current studies and tests relating to social media affecting interpersonal relationships, research finds that there is a positive correlation between using social media and interpersonal relationships—the more time social media users spend connected on online platforms to communicate, the more they can establish interpersonal relationships. Social media users spend majority of their time online communicating because social media is associated with positive energy and positive rewards, social media users will spend even more time indulging in the online world as they experience increased levels of self-esteem and more confidence. Social media and online interactivity and communication continue to rapidly grow and increase in the future.