Knapp's Relational Model

Today I'll be discussing one of my personal relationships that started to come apart after a conflict arose. This Summer I spent a majority of my time working as a farmer, producing organic fruits and vegetables. I would often times share produce with friends and family. Whenever I gave produce away I'd find myself talking about the farm and how much I cared about local food. My one friend, whom I'll call J, began to make jokes about farming. At first, I found them to be mostly harmless, but as time went on I realize that they were hurtful, and that we were in the process of differentiating. Over time, I found myself limiting the amount of time I'd spend with J, and stopped giving him produce. I would also find that when we saw one another in public, conversations would end quickly. This stagnation eventually led to me wishing to avoid him and purposefully not going to parts of town that he would frequent. While the friendship has never been terminated, it is in the late stages of coming apart. I would encourage others to think critically about their friendships and also the value of being generous with what they have in order to have healthy relationships.

I believe that online communication at least supported this friendship. In the early stages of coming apart, J and I were able to communicate via text without the subtle annoyances of in person communication dividing us. While I don't believe online communication is ideal for a lot of interposnal communication, in this aspect I feel that it was beneficial.

Oversharing Online

Do different social networking sites offer other benefits and drawbacks?

I believe different social networking sites definitely each have their own sets of benefits and drawbacks. For example, image based social networking such as instagram may have benefits in that users can share visuals with their friends. However, problems with body shaming and insecurities may arise on the sites as well. This could be contrasted with a social media site such as Reddit, which is more text and link based.

What factors might influence whether Facebook has negative influences, like links with depression, versus positive results, such as boosts in self-esteem?

This may depend on the type of accounts a user is friends with. If you follow only your friends you are less likely to be exposed to the same type of heavily edited images that celebrities post. With that being said however, following your friends could also lead to negative emotions such as jealousy since you are easily able to compare your life with theirs. Understanding this, we can see that it may be more important to try to resolve insecurities in your personal life before immediately jumping to blame social media (even though it can exacerbate insecurities). There is evidence, which you can read about in this article, to support potentially negative health impacts of social media on young people.

Do social networking sites have any responsibility in promoting mental health in their users? If so, how might they go about doing so?

I believe social media networks have some, but not complete responsibility. These companies cannot control how users react to online content, so they shouldn't be liable for emotional responses of users. What they do control is what content is pushed or advertised to users. For this reason, I believe it is important for social networking sites to control and create appropriate content algorithms that are not negative or triggering for users.

I found this video to be helpful resource in this debate.

About Me

 Hello everyone. My name is Charlie Bruder and I'm originally from the midwestern US. I'm now living in Corvallis and pursuing a degree in microbiology. With my degree I would love to work in the field of agriculture and ecology to develop more sustainable and regenerative practices. I also enjoy farming on its own and growing food.

I hope everyone is enjoying the snow here in Corvallis. I've been stuck inside spending my time with some of the squash I grew this year, making sculptures like this one.