Ansr El Muhammad

ComPlan 22
4/30/2017

1 Page reflection: Personal reflection: How has Social Media impacted your personal relationships? How
has it impacted your view on social issues?

Immediately, when I saw personal relationships in the instructions, I thought about the
Relationship Status on Facebook. I remember my girlfriend and I posted that we were in a relationship.
I was against it, but she wanted everybody to know. I went along with it and when I posted it, a few
days later, a couple of guys (so-called Facebook Friends) sent friend request to my girlfriend. When she
showed me the friend request I asked her how did they know. She didnt know. I told her because of
the relationship status update we did. I ended up deleting my post. She was mad at me for a couple
of days but I didnt. care. I am not one to let everybody know everything that goes in in my life on social
media.

When she messaged them to inquire if she knew them, they both said that we (Me and them) were
friends and when they saw the post they decided to send a friend request. She sent them both a
message back saying that she didnt know them and it would be more proper if they went through me.

I think I am the way I am about social media because of the pre-social media times I grew up in. I was
raised in a gang infested area of Los Angeles, and I have witnessed the scandals that take place when
people know too much about you. To this day, I do not advertise, who my family is on social media
because of it.

I use social media to learn things too, but not about peoples personal relationships. I guess the
personal relationships are there and can be an important thing to know, but its not my focus when I get
online. Social media has allowed me to be able to get various perspectives on different social issues
without waiting to see what the News says. I even take the word of certain social media platforms more
serious than I do the News. I have come to know through social media that there is a greater chance of
being aware of social issues by being connected directly to them than to wait on the story to be released
on television.