Social Networking and Personal Relationships in College Students

Introduction: Social Networking and College Students

The internet has brought communication via social networking sites to the forefront of daily life. College students in particular enjoy communicating with friends and relatives via websites like Facebook and Twitter. Current literature suggests that several factors influence the decision to socialize online. For example, younger college students tend to use Facebook more frequently than older college students. Females outnumber males in holding Facebook accounts and communicating on the platform at roughly a 4:1 ratio (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith & Zickuhr, 2010). Furthermore, individuals who exhibit shyness are more likely to use online social networks to interact with others, whether those connections are local or long-distance.

Online social networking sites have thus provided people of certain ages, genders, and social tendencies with the ability to engage with others over an easily accessible platform. However, can personal relationships genuinely grow online? Some literature suggests they can, due to the high quality of interaction between people who communicate online. Yet many recent studies show that a significant number of college students are depressed, and that because of their depression they seek relationships online rather than through traditional face-to-face interactions. As Moreno et al. (2011) note, "Depression is common and frequently undiagnosed among college students. Social networking sites are popular among college students and can include displayed depression references" (p. 447).

Depression, Online Disclosure, and the Dark Side of Social Media

In the Moreno et al. (2011) study, two hundred profiles were observed and evaluated. The average user age was 20 years, with 43.5% of the sample being female. A significant portion — 25% — of the profiles showed depressive symptoms, and 2.5% even met criteria for a Major Depressive Episode (MDE). Researchers were able to identify these indicators through the way users communicated with their friends; posts provided clues pointing to the possibility of depression. Another key indicator was the frequency of Facebook use: the more a person used the site, the more likely they were to be depressed.

Also notable was the finding that Facebook users who interacted with friends and received positive reinforcement were more willing to discuss their depression publicly. "College students commonly display symptoms consistent with depression on Facebook. Our findings suggest that those who receive online reinforcement from their friends are more likely to discuss their depressive symptoms publicly on Facebook" (Moreno et al., 2011, p. 447). This observation carries a dual implication. On one hand, the internet may provide a refuge for depressed individuals to openly express themselves, raising awareness and helping to combat mental illness. On the other hand, it may enable behaviors that deepen depressive symptoms — such as spending excessive time online and limiting self-expression exclusively to digital platforms.

People have gone online to express themselves when they cannot find another outlet. This can lead to further self-exploration in ways that may cause long-term harm. Online relationships can be positive, but they can also be damaging. The "drama" that emerges from online relationships — particularly romantic ones — can be aired publicly and preserved permanently on the internet. As Davies (2015) observes, "Once ephemeral and disembodied 'social dramas' now can become permanent digital records for all to revisit" (p. 279).

Risks of Online Relationships: Drama, Catfishing, and Co-Dependency

Teenagers — even children as young as 12 — post pictures on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook documenting their personal lives, including their romantic relationships. In previous eras, when technology was less pervasive, privacy concerns were largely confined to public figures. Today, any individual can become the subject of unwanted attention simply by posting photos of themselves, their friends, family, or significant other. While some people are comfortable with this level of exposure, it also creates a platform on which others can impersonate individuals and deceive their victims into believing they are someone else entirely.

This raises an important question: what problems arise when technology becomes deeply embedded in personal relationships? While most people use the internet to communicate with those they have already met in person (Stafford & Hillyer, 2015), some form connections with people they have never met face-to-face. The term catfishing refers to the practice of impersonating another person online in order to deceive someone into believing they are interacting with that individual. The MTV program Catfish features people who attempt to meet individuals they have communicated with online for months or years, often discovering the other person has been dishonest about their identity. Many of those revealed as catfishers are struggling with depression, unemployment, or social isolation — though this does not represent the majority of online users. Nevertheless, when examining the negative dimensions of technology in personal relationships, it is not difficult to connect phenomena like catfishing with underlying mental health challenges.

Broadly speaking, individuals who exhibit symptoms of mental illness may find online social networking especially appealing because it offers a space relatively free from social restriction. There they can feel connected and supported, which may encourage them to explore unhealthy patterns more deeply. While this sense of connection can feel positive, it can also produce situations involving mistaken identity, enabling behavior, and co-dependency. Relatively few research articles have examined these effects in depth.

Positive Effects: Support, Intimacy, and Life Satisfaction

Despite the risks outlined above, there are genuine benefits to using technology to cultivate personal relationships. As noted earlier, college students use sites like Facebook more frequently than most other demographic groups. They do so, in part, because they perceive it as a useful tool for gathering social support. Facebook allows them to easily locate and contact former friends and acquaintances, and to share their emotional experiences in a relatively intimate setting.

Young people who are moving away from home for the first time, and who have not yet established a new social circle, have a particular need for the sense of support and intimacy that takes time to build in the physical world. This need fuels their online activity. Research on intimacy and Facebook use among college students found that students report greater life satisfaction when they have larger audiences for their thoughts and emotions. "This finding indicates the transformation of the nature of intimacy in the environment of a social network site. In addition, larger networks and larger estimated audiences predicted higher levels of life satisfaction and perceived social support on Facebook" (Manago, Taylor & Greenfield, 2012, p. 369). These results underscore the psychological significance of audience within the Facebook environment.

It makes sense that college students would use Facebook more than most other populations. The platform allows them to build connections without the pressure of direct face-to-face interaction, and to develop a potential support system over time. Many individuals have amassed thousands of followers on Facebook and Twitter, enabling them to build careers that depend on an established audience. Social networking thus serves as an accessible entry point into certain career paths and a mechanism for expanding one's professional network.

Conclusion

Online social networks serve as a platform for those who feel depressed or isolated to seek support. They also function as a career development tool and a means of expanding one's professional network, allowing users to showcase their activities and interests to potential employers. The evidence reviewed here suggests that social networking is neither straightforwardly beneficial nor straightforwardly harmful — its effects depend significantly on the psychological state, social needs, and online habits of the individual user. A more nuanced understanding of these dynamics is essential for researchers, educators, and students alike as digital communication continues to evolve.

References

Davies, H. (2015). Social media and personal relationships: online intimacies and networked friendship. Information, Communication & Society, 17(2), 279.

Lenhart, A., Purcell, K., Smith, A., & Zickuhr, K. (2010). Social media and young adults. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech.

Manago, A., Taylor, T., & Greenfield, P. (2012). Me and my 400 friends: The anatomy of college students' Facebook networks, their communication patterns, and well-being. Developmental Psychology, 48(2), 369–380. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0026338

Moreno, M., Jelenchick, L., Egan, K., Cox, E., Young, H., Gannon, K., & Becker, T. (2011). Feeling bad on Facebook: Depression disclosures by college students on a social networking site. Depression and Anxiety, 28(6), 447–455. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/da.20805

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Quan-Haase, A., & Young, A. (2010). Uses and gratifications of social media: A comparison of Facebook and instant messaging. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 30(5), 350–361. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0270467610380009

Stafford, L., & Hillyer, J. (2015). Information and communication technologies in personal relationships. Review of Communication, 290.