Social Networking and the Boyfriends it Got Me

The other day in class we were shown a chart of the more intimate ways to communicate through media. Through social networking was noted as the least intimate, however that hasn't been the case for me. Maybe my experiences aren't quite the norm but I do want to put them out there. 

In my life I have been in only two serious relationships, lots of dates, but only two serious relationships. Though they haven't worked out in the long run they were both very positive relationships and they both wouldn't have happened had it not been for facebook. Yes facebook. 

The first experience opened up the opportunity to stay in touch, develop close bonds, and maintain a good friendship which enabled us eventually to enter into a romantic engagement. I knew him for a total of 2 years, and for a little over one of those years he was consistently dating someone else. Even though for the first year I understood he was off limits I knew very quickly that he is someone that I would really like to be with. So we kept in touch, and I wrote him every once and while through facebook. When he was having a tough time finding a job I was there to support him and help him... through facebook. Fast forward about a year, he is now single, and through facebook I invite him to a dance. We really hit it off and the next week we were dating, and the week after that he tells me he loves me. It didn't all pan out on my side of things but it's an interesting example of how social networks can have a role in your dating life.

The second experience is even a little more facebook dependent. One winter semester I had met this guy in the Clyde building while I was waiting for my english class to begin, and then after that we met every tuesday and thursday before both our respective classes. However when winter semester wound to a close he wasn't there to be able to gather any form of contact information. All I knew was his first name, his major, and that he grew up in a remote area of Utah. So I was fairly sure I would never see him again, which was unfortunate seeing as I really enjoyed his company. Skip to the middle of May and I get a facebook request from this guy that I thought I would never see again, and a message telling me that I was pretty hard to find. And from there we talked on facebook almost everyday for 4 months and then every other day for 4 more months while I studied abroad in London. Sometimes we talked for hours online, and we developed a really close and strong relationship. Now don't get me wrong we also used other forms of communication such as calling one another and using Skype, but for the most part a lot of our communication was primarily through facebook and it's messaging system. Then when I got back we dated for about 3 months, were quite serious, but things didn't work out on his end.

I just thought I would provide a few personal examples from my life to show that the media has an effect to the extent in which you use it. Social networking tools can be a way to get to know people and they can lead to further relationships depending on the way you use them. At least such has been my experience.