The question of whether the development of modern types of communication via emails and messages has decreased the amount of time people spend meeting their friends is topic of significant debate. While some argue that this issue has had a detrimental effect on their social lives, I believe that it has both negative and positive aspects on people’s social lives.
On the one hand, the major benefit of online communication is its convenience, especially for people who are always hectic. Some groups of people such as students, employees, etc always spend a lot of time studying, researching or working on site, so it is uncomfortable to move to other places only for gossip or discuss a small issues that can be solved through chatting online. In addition, it helps maintain and strengthen long-distance relationships. For example, for a long-distance couple, travelling from one place to another is expensive, while a video call can help them feel closer with each other.
On the other hand, modern forms of communication can cause misunderstandings. In the light of people cannot see facial expressions or hear the real voice, messages can be easily misunderstood. This might lead to conflicts in the relationships, more seriously, there are a lot of scam situations via messages or calls. Moreovers, people might dependent on electronic devices, causing bad physical and mental health. Using phones and computers too often lead to health problems such as eye strain, headaches, and lack in sleep, or feeling of loneliness and emptiness.
Overall, although modern forms of communication can reduce face-to-face meetings and have a negative effect on social lives, they also have a positive effect. Therefore, I believe the positive or negative results depends on how people use these forms of communication.