Boy Meets Girl: How Facebook Functions in Modern Romance - ICT CA Article Summary No. 1

Everyone knows that Facebook and other forms of social networking have had a huge impact within our society, especially with teenagers. It has changed the way we meet, talk and build relationships with each other immensely. In particular it has had a huge impact on the way teens and young adults meet, flirt, fall in love and break up. In a fascinating study conducted by Seventeen magazine, we get a shocking overview of the repercussions our social networking has on our relationships. The study was conducted on 10,000 boys and girls between the ages of 16 - 21, and shows how much of an impact Facebook has on our relationships.

-Within one week of meeting a new person, 79% of people will add the person on Facebook. This is changing how we perceive ‘friends’ Most people would consider a friend someone they have known for a long time, who they communicate with often and who they know personally. Now it seems a friend is anyone you bump into on the street and talk to for 5 minutes.

-If they are interested in them romantically, 60% of people will click on this new friend’s profile once a day (40% check in on their new ‘obsession’ several times a day).

-21% of people said they would break up with someone by changing their relationship status, and 10% reported that they were dumped over Facebook. This is a horrifying depersonalisation of any relationship, being dumped over a social networking site, for all the world to see. Your friends could quite easily see it even before you do.

These incredible statistics show how much we depend on Facebook, and what an important part it plays in our lives. We also see that not only does Facebook play a huge role in developing relationships, but also in ending them. These statistics would bring anyone to believe that social networking is eroding interpersonal communication and relationships based on real-life events, however this is not the belief of the youngsters studied in the survey. A staggering 72% of them said that they believe talking to someone online actually brings you closer to them in real life. At the rate we‘re going, it seems, in 10 years time we won’t be able to converse in person anymore, rather through some sort of computer mediated communication!
Some more interesting information came from the study, backing up the fact that we are turning into a technology-obsessed society.

-43% of girls would decide to date someone or not based on their Facebook profile, compared with 33% of guys.
-17% of guys wouldn’t share their relationship status on Facebook, compared with 12% of girls.
-50% of girls actually enjoy changing their relationship status, compared with 33% of guys, while 24% of guys find it unnecessary, compared with 17% of girls.

These statistics show that the girls are leading the battle against relationships that aren’t based on Facebook. However, the boys aren’t far behind, which shows that this worrying trend is only set to get worse in the future!


Article taken from http://www.mashable.com/
Link: http://mashable.com/2010/11/19/seventeen-facebook-study/