I sometimes wonder, if modern technology such as social media, has triggered us to all develop multiple personality disorders. Because we can sometimes have a completely different persona online. According to Psychology Today, dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder), “is a condition wherein a person’s identity is fragmented into two or more distinct personality states. ” Of course, this idea is quite extreme and severe mental illnesses like multiple personality disorder is no joking matter. But I wonder, if it is a good thing that we get to explore and express different sides of ourselves through social media platforms, or the fact that people who are close to us have to deal with different personas of ours, have made our relationships with each other less sincere, and more difficult to maintain.
Countless studies have been done to investigate the effects of social media on our relationships. Some argue that social media helps us better connect with the world around us, hence we can develop relationships more easily. An Atlantic article (Tufekci, 2012) argues that social media is especially helpful for people whose voice is not heard and who are living on the fringe of the society to find their communities online. While the Huffington Post article, titled, How Social Media Can Destroy Your Relationship, is basically screaming “Delete your facebook account before your spouse divorce you!”. It mentioned that “one in seven divorces result from spouses becoming occupied in ‘sketchy’ social media behavior”
So what’s the verdict? Personally, I don’t think social media is evil and that it can destroy our relationships. But as cliche as it might sound, moderation is key for everything, the usage of social media is no exception. One of my friends posts instagram story all day every day. There was this one week that she stopped posting it. We got really concerned, we feared something bad happened to her. But it turned out she was just having a digital detox during that weak. What can I say, I think we all need a digital detox every once in a while before the virtual world takes over our real life and becomes too overwhelming for us.
I think social media provides us a window into the lives of people we would probably never meet in real life. For example, I follow Bill Gate’s daughter on instagram because I read this article about her, and out of curiosity, I want to find out what kind of life someone like her leads. She is quite active on instagram, just like any girl her age. But I bet it is quite difficult for someone like her to establish genuine relationships in real life. Because of social media, the 99 percent get to see how the 1 percent live, or at least what they want us to see. Twenty years ago, that was something hard to imagine. So social media can derail our relationships, but it can also open our minds and maybe be help us be more open to make new connections and build new bridges.
References:
Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder). (n.d.). Retrieved April 09, 2018, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/dissociative-identity-disorder-multiple-personality-disorder
Tufekci, Z. (2012, April 25). Social Media’s Small, Positive Role in Human Relationships. Retrieved April 09, 2018, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/social-medias-small-positive-role-in-human-relationships/256346/
Charleston, L. C. (2017, August 13). How Social Media Can Destroy Your Relationship. Retrieved April 09, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/08/10/how-social-media-can-destroy-your-relationship_a_23074105/
Interesting article! I am personally an avid supporter of responsible social media consumption. I would argue that we haven’t all simultaneously developed multiple personalities, just that we finally have the space to express ourselves. Humans are very nuanced creatures, and our personalities are subject to fluctuation. Certainly we can’t all maintain the same personality we had in middle school. I do agree with what you said though; moderation is key in any aspect of our lives. There are positives and negatives to every aspect of life, and we need to make conscious decisions when we are consuming content online.