Guest Post by Rob W. – a 23 year old young professional with a passion for life.
If it is used correctly, social media and online relationships can actually work to strengthen your real life relationships and your social life. This has been seen often in recent times in a number of different ways, and I have experienced it personally to a large degree. There is the danger, of course, that you could become dependent on social media, or addicted to it, and would then stop having an actual social life in favor of a virtual one. If you are wise about the way that you use the online tools at your disposal, however, you will find that social media sites can strengthen friendships and even help them move into something deeper, something romantic.
Back when I was in college studying trademark infringement, I saw a girl on the bus and thought that she was rather attractive. I was not in any position to talk to her because the bus was packed and I was at the very back of it while she was stuck at the very front. In the days before the internet, this would have been the end of our relationship. I would have just watched her stand in the center aisle until we got to her stop and then she would have walked out of my life. Thanks to the internet, however, this is not what happened.
Instead of giving up, I went online to look for her. I had seen where she got off the bus on campus, so I knew what kind of classes she was taking. I went onto a social media site and looked for people who attended my school who had interests in the kinds of things that would be taught in those classes. She had been carrying a lot of books, so I knew she was serious about school. It didn’t take me long to find her. I added her to my group of friends and found out that we actually had a class together. This was a huge relief, because it didn’t seem like I was adding her as a friend out of nowhere.
I asked her a question about the homework we had, and she assumed I had randomly found her through the class. She answered my question and I thanked her. Then I let it drop.
This was not the end, though; it was the point when social media began impacting my real life. She sat next to me in class the next day and we talked about the assignment before we had to turn it in. Then she began sitting next to me in every class. I talked to her online when we were not at school, and eventually asked her if she wanted to go get some coffee and study for an exam. She said that she did, and we have now been dating for three years. If I had not used social media in this way, I never would have met her in real life. Thank god for social media!
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