With social media sites being such a significant part of our day and age I can’t help but think that maybe it’s hindered our relationships instead of helping it. We no longer talk on the phone when we can tweet short and concise messages or send voice notes via BBM. We no longer get together to catch up or shoot the breeze when we can simply browse a face book page to see what’s the latest happenings in our loved ones lives.

We‘ve become accustomed to throwing the word “friend” around like it has no value at all. You have complete strangers adding you to sites like face book and Linked In and calling themselves your friend. We tweet to people that we’ve never met on a daily basis and yet hesitate to speak to our family or pick up the phone to call them.

I have close to 500 followers on twitter and yet I talk to about 10% of them. It actually worries me to think that maybe the other followers are just sticking their noses in my tweets. I mean if you’re not following me to talk to me then what are you following me for?

While I know that I’m making a generalization here, I can almost guarantee that you’re guilty of doing one or more of the things that I’ve mentioned above. In fact we all are, myself included.

The important thing is to realize that while social media may be a fun way to past the time, friendships are like relationships. They both need nurturing and care (and more than 140 characters) in order for them to be successful.

So take some time out of your day to call a friend, new or old and get re-acquainted – without technology

xoxo

Elle