Social media provides an excellent medium for communication, especially with people you don't get to see often. My friends from high school stay connected through Facebook and texting; and therefore, the only parts of my life that they see are what I make publicly accessible.
For example...
I've had two boyfriends in college who each use social media very differently. My high school friends only saw these relationships through the filter of Facebook.
First boyfriend - When I first met him, he did not have texting. Who doesn't have texting! He does now though. I converted him!
Anyways, for some reason my high school friends didn't like him. They kept asking me how close we actually were. I wasn't sure where this was all coming from until I realized they were judging us (in the way only friends can and should) based on our Facebooking. Since we never publicly communicated, they thought we weren't right for each other.
Regardless, we broke up. Still Facebook friends!
Second boyfriend - He communicated almost solely though text messaging, instant messaging, emailing, and Facebooking. We rarely actually saw each other in real life, and when we did, he had different priorities than I.
"Don't you want to talk to me first?"
"But we've been talking all day!"
I could never decide how much texting actually counted. I wanted to more face-to-face time, but he was perfectly satisfied with digital communication.
My friends viewing our relationship kept saying how in love we must be because of all the wall posting we did.
However, we broke up. Still Facebook friends!
Personally, I need a balance between real life and Internet relationship. Facebook makes a good compliment to real communication, and texting is perfect for setting up face-to-face time. These mediums are going to be parts of our relationships throughout our lives, so we should learn how to utilize them best.
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