Nowadays the way people interact with each other has changed because of technology.
In what ways has technology affected the types of relationships people make?
Has this become a positive or negative development?
Our society nowadays has new, different ways of interacting because of modern technology. These new means of communication have had a great impact on relationships we make with some negative aspects as well as positive.
In my opinion, communication has become more impersonal than ever – people can catch up with their friends without seeing them or even talking to them. For example, I can just send a SMS or a message on Facebook to catch up with my friend, it is not necessary to arrange a meeting and have a face to face conversation. Also, there is a new trend arising – having friends on the internet – people talk to others without even knowing who they are in real life and they become friends without any real life contact. For instance, my nephew plays his console on the internet with his buddies he has never seen and talks to them like they are good friends, I can't really comprehend that, I am not used to that kind of friendship.
Of course, there are some positive aspects to it as well, because technology has brought us all closer together with people that you would ordinarily know almost nothing about. A good term to describe this would be “Facebook friends”, not real friends – it means that we just barely know each other and are friends on Facebook, that does not mean we have a strong friendship in reality. Additionally, people tend to have more long-distance relationships because it is much easier to maintain contact with their special others through video chatting or instant messaging on the internet. Nowadays it is possible to quickly send videos, photos and audio to each other and that can create an illusion of us being the same place as the sender.
In conclusion, everyone has an opinion on weather technology has had more of a positive impact or not, it depends on the individual, it is definitely easier for shy people nowadays and it can help us in communication with people far away from us.