sociology essay question

sociology essay question

Analyzing the Impact of Social Media on Interpersonal Relationships: A Sociological Perspective

1. Introduction to Social Media and Interpersonal Relationships

It has been stated that social media platforms such as Twitter, communities that share information, Flickr which shares photos, YouTube which primarily shares videos, and social networks such as Facebook have a significant effect on the import, marketing, operations, and sales of the tourism business. emphasized that the specializations of all these media need to be acknowledged and utilized by businesses in the field. Additionally, found that users who gather information from blogs before making their travel plans are more influenced by these programs. The results of recent research conducted by suggest that tourists who use Web 2.0 more frequently are less affected by travel agents’ advertisements and are more reliant on tour operators or interactive experts. This means that travelers who engage in different interactive opportunities through Web 2.0 develop more realistic expectations and are less influenced by travel agents’ branding. The more information gathered from Web 2.0, the higher the reliability will be.

In the recent years, internet communication platforms such as social network sites have gained attention from academics, customers, and media advertising due to their promising applications to business and customers. Several studies have been conducted on the impact of social relations on satisfaction among tourism customers in the last five years. The rise of social media has created a need for valuing the impact on service quality in the tourism sector, which is defined as an experience-based industry. In these studies, it is emphasized that customers who share their satisfaction with their friends through websites consider these platforms important for social sharing. Therefore, it is underlined that having negative, neutral, or positive comments about a tourist destination has an effect on the decisions made by potential customers.

2. Theoretical Frameworks in Sociology for Analyzing Social Media Impact

Of course, communication is necessary for human and society survival, and so communications media do allow for more life-serving activities. The commonplace Marxist/sociological perspective on media has long been that it is used by an elite (now owners) to deceive the public and obscure class inequities in order to maintain ruling power. Yet the material of these discussions of communication innovations with critical, inquiring qualitative sociology, its content, starts and finishes with the content of the communication and offers no exploration of the constant advancement of its foundational technological components, most recently as platforms, derived from countless advances and achievements in computer science.

In much of sociology, including by functionalist writer Parsons (1951) and many others in society’s communication fields (Mass Communications and Media Studies), the major concern in understanding the roles of the advancements offered by new communication technologies, through many generations of technological and innovative change, has generally been with how such technologies facilitate communication. While communication may be both initial and/or fateful, the ultimate usefulness of the communication, as it may (or may not) affirm or enhance personal relationships, may be the real value in such innovations. Without finding value in the strengthening of sociability, communication innovations generally offer little real improvement to social organization or individual life.

3. Empirical Studies on Social Media’s Influence on Interpersonal Relationships

They also tended to frequently update and utilize significant reply networks, yet conversations focus between individuals. Social bridges participated in social interactions beyond known social spaces, contributed primarily through broadcasting or one-way information distribution and pass-along information and coursed mainly in network neighborhoods. The conversation did not tend to focus on individuals. The third group had few characteristic traits different from the general Twitter population. These categories of social insiders and social bridges partially signify personal relationship closeness and social identity construction with an in-group, possibly constructing the in-group. This study is strengthened by the use of network-level data and provides connections to the social capital.

The most comprehensive large representative study to date was undertaken in 2008 with a sample large enough to allow for generalizability from random samples of Twitter followers in metropolitan areas in the United States, and further supported by findings on social isolation of interviewed U.S. survey participants. An assistant to the authors followed 36,608 Twitter accounts for a two-week period gathering comprehensive network data on all interactions for those accounts. found three different types of Twitter users whose relationship networks could be explained by different types of Twitter use: social insiders who typically communicate across spaces and networks known only to them and overlap with a core of significant social relationships communicate in ways that include anecdotally framing the close world of their Twitter friends into discourse, discussion of commonalities, recurrently mentioning Twitter friends, and joint experiences.

4. Challenges and Opportunities for Maintaining Healthy Relationships in the Digital Age

The overuse of social media may lead to an addiction with potentially devastating effects, and while many users of computer-mediated communication argue that this is a new technology, the power exerted in social or emotional media addiction has its roots in powerful forces of old and hooks into those areas of the brain that drive sex addictions and drug-related addictions. The recurring discussion of occupational, friendship, and family conflicts, as well as financial and problematic behavioral issues, relate to negative consequences experienced by a significant number of social media users. Nonetheless, for some, the perceived benefits of using these platforms to stay connected, build relationships, be part of a narrative and connected world, and establish, cultivate, and renegotiate the self may indeed outweigh the losses, and as connections become increasingly virtual, the transition that technology brings will be beneficial, enabling friends to grow and empowering individuals to engage and sustain healthy relationships, delivering democratic and inclusive opportunities for connectivity, collaboration, and friendship support.

In spite of the apparent benefits of social media in interpersonal relationships, there have been increasing concerns about the negative consequences and harm that it brings to its users. These include an increase in aggressive, irritated, tense, and frustrated responses from social media users when the self-initiated process of communicating online becomes more frequent and is integrated into their daily lives. Social media has the potential to disrupt the sense of personal identity and self-fulfillment, leading to a shrinkage of close relationships, erosion of self-disclosure, maintenance of existing and new friendships, and overall social cohesion. Users may hardly find satisfaction, practice genuine understanding, share information, entertain, or find amusement. As a result, and unless they are careful and adhere to safe browsing guidelines, they may lose their autonomy, authenticity, freedom, and have privacy issues, ultimately leading to stress and mental health problems and potentially contributing towards a deterioration in emotional health and wellbeing.

5. Conclusion: Implications and Future Directions for Research

Thus, questioning the importance and strength of social ties through social media use could help future researchers distinguish differences in the results of social media use on relationship maintenance. For example, once these differences are considered, researchers could develop models that explain the association between social media use and social capital in terms of bonding (between close family and friends), bridging (the ultimate realization of acquaintances), and linking ties. Given that bonding and bridging are closely associated with social media use compared to linking ties (e.g., from a user interacting with a larger, more diverse audience online to seeking collective action specifically from government officials, businesses, and other organizations), it would be much more worthwhile for researchers to distinguish between the different types of social ties.

A case for the influence of social media use on social relationships has been advocated in this chapter. Building on previous sociological research, we suggest that structural dimensions of the sociological perspective have been undertheorized in explaining how social media may impact social relationships. We provide some possible directions for how the concept of social structure and social capital can be considered in future research endeavors. To begin, the most important relationships (e.g., strong ties versus weak ties) that are maintained through social media use should be explored. In this regard, the concept of social capital can be utilized to help disentangle the process of social media use and its impact on social relationships. Who you know is often described as the heart of social capital. Research participants have described many of their social relationships in terms of acquaintances and stronger ties, such as close family and friends.