How Social Media has Redefined Friendships

Social media was created to bring people together all across the world. But how has it changed who we call a friend and would friendships be stronger without it? I sent out a survey to find out what others thought and how they were using media to make friends or keep in touch with others. 

Social media has helped with keeping in contact with friends who have moved away, with over 85% of people saying that they kept in contact in some sort of way. The majority of these people said they called/texted often and apps like Snapchat and Instagram made this super easy to do. 


These days friends aren’t only the ones you meet in person, around half said that they had friends online, met mainly through mutual friends.

But how do you know if that person is who they say they are?  

Even though many people said they have online friends that they met through one of their other friends, when asked how they know they aren’t being catfished many people said they didn’t know. One person even said ‘gut feeling I guess, like YOU JUST KNOW’. This is worrying because anything could happen. I don’t personally have any friends online but a tip I learned from comments on my survey is to Facetime them if you do. This is because unless they have the camera off it's very hard to fake a Facetime call. Another tip is if you don’t know them, don’t reveal anything. You have no idea where your information could be going so don’t give it to strangers. 

Would your friendships be better without social media? 

There is no way to know for sure and my results to this question were varied from yes, to no and maybe. Arguments about this could go either way, social media has made friends lazier in some ways and many people hardly hang out with their friends. When we were younger you didn’t have social media to message friends on so seeing them outside of school or hobbies was a great way of keeping in contact. Now all of that is done through social media. Two people summed it up better than I can saying, “ It would encourage people to talk face to face but it would be hard to make a catch up date if they lived far away” and “Possibly but some friendships wouldn’t have formed”.

So what is a friend? 

A friend is a person you trust and someone who puts equal effort into the conversation. You can have online friends but make sure you know who they are and don’t share any private information to people you don’t know. In my opinion it depends on how you use media as to what result you get. Social media can help you connect with old friends or people who have moved away and even people you see everyday but if you only have friends through social media it could feel lonely and like you don’t have friends. 

There is an importance to going out and doing something with the important people in your life.