Senior Seminar Proposal- Social Media in Relationships

I wrote this vision for my senior seminar class and already turned it in. My professor, Dr. Cheesewright, really liked it. But I want to know what part of this interests the outside world, and what angle would make this the MOST compelling. I would LOVE feedback/ideas/opinions. Thanks friends!

Inscape Essay

Here is my vision for this project: to find out how to successfully use social media in a monogamous relationship. I have tons of interest in this project, because I am personally living it right now. I just got out of a somewhat crazy relationship, and social media was one of the main problems in that relationship. I am worried for my future relationships, and the relationships of everyone around me.

Social media is not just something people do for fun, or when they are bored. It’s become somewhat like having coffee, or peeing for my generation. Wake up, make coffee, pee, and check Facebook. It’s automatic, and subconscious for many people. When you look around a coffee shop, it doesn’t look how it did 20 years ago. 20 years ago even 10, heads bobbed around and conversations flew freely, if someone was being still their head was stuck in a book or newspaper. Now, everywhere you go, peoples heads are stuck in their phones. In a coffee shop, you see 20 individuals with faces glued to their phones. Instead of socializing in the coffee line, each individual is consumed with their little gadget in their hand. It scares me. The world is going by, and people aren’t living it, but tweeting it. I can’t get an assignment done without checking my phone.

I fear for the socialness of all people. But mostly, I fear for relationships. If the only way people are perceived is through their social media, how they portray themselves is very important. How can one be sure someone else is giving an accurate depiction of himself or herself? And aside from that, I worry for young generations being exposed too prematurely to things like sex, drugs, rape, war, and hate.

I am only 21, but in my 21 years I feel like I’ve come to know lots about men. Men are visual creatures, visually stimulated. They can see a pornographic picture and have a physical reaction, whereas women aren’t so inclined. By nature, women are more auditory and emotionally stimulated. How does a woman have a successful relationship with a man, when he is the victim that these images seek? He truly can’t help himself in most situations. The image has an unfair advantage on him.

Even if a man were to block most sites, and avoid most women who post these kinds of images, he can’t be caged from them. It is becoming a part of our society. So my question is how, inside of a closed monogamous relationship, does a couple operate? Is social media something that is to be given up after the knot has been tied? Before that?

I feel like these social sites encourage cheating, not purposefully, but in the way they are lustfully designed to create the draw. It’s not in the design, but it's a fallacy. People know that others create their assumptions around their social platforms, so by nature they are aesthetically pleasing. I want to know how these platforms are going to play into future relationships of mine, and how to create boundaries so that both parties can feel safe in a monogamous relationship.

This inscape is loaded I realize, and for my final piece I am sure I’ll have to take one piece of it to dissect. But this is just the brain dump, and how I move to create understanding of this topic. Maybe I should only look first impressions based on social media self-productions. Or maybe how social media alters human relationships all together.