Social media gives us the freedom to communicate with our loved ones online, wherever and whenever we want. However, this freedom comes at a cost: blinded by our seemingly blissful digital lives, we often don't realize how much social media threatens and causes problems in our real-life relationships. 
New research from Kaspersky Lab shows that a third of people are communicating less face-to-face with their loved ones, while 21% of parents admit that their relationships with their children have been negatively affected by seeing them in a humiliating situation online on social media.
With people posting photos of themselves or others under the influence of alcohol, wearing revealing clothing or even being completely naked in order to get more “likes”, it’s clear that social media can damage our offline relationships. However, while we might expect parents to disapprove of their children’s online behaviour, the opposite is often the case. More than a fifth of parents admit that their relationship with their children has deteriorated after being exposed to humiliating situations on social media. In contrast, only 14% of parents said they were bothered by their children’s online behaviour. In addition, around one in five (16%) also said that their relationship with their spouse or partner has been negatively affected by seeing them in a humiliating situation on social media.
Relationships with family, friends and colleagues are changing as people communicate less face-to-face as a result of social media. A significant proportion of people (1 in 3) admitted that they now communicate less with their parents (31%), children (33%), partners (23%) and friends (35%) because they can see and communicate with them via social media.
Dr. Astrid Carolus, Media Psychologist at the University of Würzburg, comments: “Research shows that today online digital communication complements real-life communication. We live in a globalized and highly mobile world that creates distance between partners and family members. Digital communication is an opportunity to bridge the gaps of modern life, which exist because we live in different cities or countries. However, digital communication cannot replace face-to-face communication – at least not always and not completely. Digital communication is less rich in terms of the sensory channels it affects, causing a “reduced” organoleptic quality.”
Despite the fact that people communicate less face-to-face, about half of those surveyed believe that the quality of their relationships is not harmed at all and is even better as a result of connecting with loved ones online. Dr. Astrid Carolus warns that although the quality of our relationships seems to be improving, people cannot always evaluate their online communication objectively: “Under certain circumstances they perceive online communication as ‘hyper-personal communication’ and therefore may misinterpret and overinterpret messages on social media. We feel particularly close, we blind ourselves to the rather negative, focusing on the possibly positive intentions behind a message, and we overinterpret.”
With research finding that while social media can help facilitate communication channels and bridge time and geographical barriers, it doesn’t always make people happy. It can strengthen relationships, but it can also make people feel unhappy and frustrated as they constantly compare their lives to those of others. The pursuit of “likes” and social validation leads people to share more and more private information on social media platforms, putting not only themselves, but also their friends, family and colleagues at risk. The reality of losing a lifetime of digital memories, including photos and interactions, can make the decision to quit social media difficult.
To protect themselves and their relationships, people need to be more careful and technologically savvy about the information they share online on social media. This will not only help mitigate the risks of the online world, but also avoid causing damage to relationships in the real world. To help people keep their memories safe, no matter how long their social media journey, Kaspersky Lab is developing a new application. FFForget will allow people to back up all their memories from their social networks, keeping them in a secure and encrypted vault.
