Similar to other forms of technology, social media have had both a positive and negative impact on my relationships. Social media have made it easier to build relationships and simultaneously erode them.

One positive impact of social media on my relationships is the ability to communicate and connect with friends from my past. As a child, I moved a few times and, as a result, lost connections with good friends. Facebook allowed me to find them and reconnect with them.

Connecting with old friends… The power of social media! It really is a small world now…

— Amanda Webber (@AmandaWebber79) January 5, 2016

Another positive impact on my relationships is a specific social media platform: Snapchat. Snapchat makes me so happy and I love sending and receiving snaps to and from my friends. I find Snapchat to be the best social media platform at building positive feelings among people. There are low expectations on Snapchat. No one has to impress anybody. They can just have fun.

As positive as social media have been, there is one aspect that negatively impacts my relationships: social media addiction. Social media can be a little addicting at times and therefore I neglect my real, personal relationships. Or I spend much of my time focusing on my interests that I miss out on something unknown that may really inspire me.

.@EthanZ in #Rewire: We search for the information we want, not need; therefore, we have to work hard for those Picasso moments. #NHsmc

— Morgan Cavalcanto (@MCavalcanto) January 30, 2016

And one can easily fall into the Instagram hole. There are just so many interesting hashtags to search, and there have been times where I was oblivious to the world around me for a good hour.