Social media has become a concurrent sensation by connecting individuals from local groups up to global communities through the internet, allowing interactions and the posting of various media. Despite the advantages of having constant accessibility and convenience with the use of instant interactions through social media, the drawbacks of entirely replacing face-to-face interaction to many people can become severely problematic and generally outweigh the usefulness of social media. An example of a major drawback would be having less personal experiences which may weaken connections between individuals and dampen the benefit of being able to interact with them in the first place.
Firstly, social media acts as an effective medium in aiding social interactions which may be difficult to do so otherwise. A clear case that demonstrates this fact is connecting with others who live far away, such as international friends or family. Conversing and keeping up with someone far away without the use of social media can become tedious and often take up unnecessary time, also requiring planning and considerations for a face-to-face interaction if meeting them is not a daily occurrence. In this case, social media acts as an undeniably great replacement to direct interactions.
However, the complete and total shift from direct interactions dilute the significance and value in personal moments between people. This is as a consequence of stripping away the investment people had to make in setting up for some interactions, one aforementioned example was between people who lived at a distance. The fact that now communication boiled down to a text undermined any greater importance and dedication that used to exist when arranging a meetup.