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Review Article | Open Access | Asian J. Soc. Sci. Leg. Stud., 2022; 4(1), 01-11 | doi: 10.34104/ajssls.022.01011

Social Media and Social Relationship among Youth: A Changing Pattern and Impacts in Bangladesh

Md. Al Hasibuzzaman* Mail Img ,
Aurthy Noboneeta Mail Img ,
Mina Begum Mail Img ,
Nowshin Nawal Chowdhury Hridi Mail Img

Abstract

Social media is a platform for people to share their varied points of view on life, as well as their experiences, facts, videos, and other information. Digitalization brings the world into more connectivity, increases social diversity and variety, and leads to a significant change in the structure, systems, traditions, and norms. In the twenty-first century, communication is the most important part of social and professional communication. In the last 15 years, social media has changed the way, how we communicate. Faster communication and cheaper ways have become the most valuable things in the modern world. In the past 5 years, Bangladesh has also been influenced by western culture and has seen a rapid growth in social media use. Social media platforms have become deeply integrated into many day-to-day interactions in an increasingly digital society. The vast majorities of Bangladeshis own a Smartphone and use social media on a regular basis. Because of the digital attachment, how the users emotional well-being as well as offline interpersonal relationships have been impacted by their use of relationships. Social media is the platform for people to share their varied points of view on life, as well as their experiences, facts, videos, and other information. This article explored social relationships in the face of growing dependency on social media or virtual communication. It has also been figured out that the risk factor is mainly related to social media use and spread mainly among youth in Bangladesh. The findings suggest the presence of cyber bullying, hate speech, and blasphemy have been polarizing the relationship in parochial senses - communal, ethnic, lingual, and others. Based on secondary sources, the article indicates the necessity of dealing with several issues like socialization and mental health issues on a national level and how they affect our lives. 

INTRODUCTION

The beginning of the twenty-first century Internet boom made it more accessible and communicable to people. People can access data more quickly and it can be easily accessible anywhere. Social media is one of the best ways to share photos, videos, thoughts, micro-tweets, etc. Modern social media attracts people from all ages. But the younger generations are mostly pas-sionate about using it. 

The increased use of social media has influenced a new culture of interpersonal communication and colla-boration among young people. It helped bring friends and family closer to those who lived in distant loca-tions. It has a very low additional cost for connectivity needs, sharing information anywhere in the world, texting opinions and updating each other on events in their lives. Recent studies have also shown that social media facilitates business promotion and interpersonal communication smoothly and also provides a platform for individuals to express themselves (Amedie, 2015) But there are many problems that also happen because of using social media. 

These problems include lack of emotional connection, poor face-to-face communication skills, communi-cating inauthentic expressions of feelings, and making face-to-face interactions disconnected. Bangladeshs government cannot control cyber bullying, hate speech, and many more. Mental health is a big issue. This article will review social media problems and social relationship issues.

Problem Statement

Before using social media, there was more emotional bonding in all relationships, and that made the rela-tionships mostly strong. But after she came into our lives, our lives started to become online social media based. So, our lives are starting to become virtual.  As time passes, our lives become more and more depen-dent on online social media. Because of the lack of face-to-face communication, connections are not as solid as they were before the use of social media (Baskaran et al., 2017). This is because people may communicate their thoughts as well as their feelings on social media, which somehow results in no strong bonds forming. We might refer to social media friends as "fake friends" because they are unable to feel what you feel about anything or recognize your importance.

Social relationship  

People are not outside the reach of society. Humans are social creatures. As a result, we must review several aspects of our society. It is impossible to live alone. As a result, people form a lot of relationships in our society. These social interactions are reflected in our social system.  People go through several stages of social interaction from childhood to death, yet one cant survive without them. It is in our instinct to make social connections. Roy Baumeister, a psychologist, has established a theory that focuses on our basic needs in order to meet these wants. According to the notion, "each of us is born with a need to seek out, develop, maintain, and defend strong social ties." People seek relationships with people at work, school, in our communities and religious groups, on sports teams, in online communities, and in other social set-tings to meet this need. These interactions, according to Baumeister, these relationships will help us feel that we are never alone, as we all belong to a social com-munity. Even being away or being deprived of people can be physically as well as mentally devastating. If we think of our friends, we can easily understand how much this relationship is important and how the relationship actually works in our lives and affects us both physically and psychologically (Bekalu et al., 2019). 

“According to research, online relationships can be as emotionally close and fulfilling as face-to-face rela-tionships. If we had social relationships, we would feel connected to others in ways that we cant experience if we are alone or when we have only superficial rela-tionships” (Butler and Matook, 2015). Living in a society People must undergo different dimensions. Our social structure indicates our social relationships. From childhood to our death, we face different phases of our social relationships, but we cant live without them. A social relationship is one that develops between people who share a common understanding of something. According to Springer, "Social ties relate to the links that exist between people who have repeated contacts that are regarded to have personal importance by the participants." Ties that are ephemeral include those between family members, neighbors, friends, co-workers, and other related associates, but do not in-clude social relationships. In general, encounters and interactions are incidental or regarded as being of minor importance. According to the sage research method, "the term "social relationships" is used to describe relationships between two or more people that are primarily based on their view of social attributes.  

Personal or interpersonal interactions, on the other hand, are terminology used to characterize relation-ships that are largely based on interlocutors psy-chological features, such as personality or internal motivation. So, in a word, "social relationship" indi-cates all types of inter-personal interaction that can occur in a family, institution, or any kind of organi-zation.

Forms/feature

Social relationships are formed primarily on the basis of some fundamental concepts such as various types of social organization, social structure, various social movements, and social systems. But the most fun-damental feature of social relationships is social in-teraction. We meet so many people in our society, like school, college, religious occasions or any kind of movement, but when we get to interact with them and share our knowledge, and then our relationship starts to build. Without interaction, a relationship cannot be for-med. A relationship is established between people as soon as they share knowledge with one another. A particular relationship between people consequently influences the way knowledge is shared (Giddens, 1984). Social relationships build up with proper inter-action. Interaction can happen in cooperation, com-petition, social conflict, accommodation, and so on. Relationships are important for everyone. Here I will mention two theories that are very much related to interactions. Those are social exchange theory and rational choice theory. The theory named "social ex-change theory," which promotes the idea that relation-ships are essential for our daily life, is named. Social exchange theory demonstrates that forming relation-ships is really beneficial because of exchange. Each party in the relationship has some particular beliefs and perspectives that get an opportunity to be exchanged within the interaction, and it works so positively. There is another theory named the Rational Choice Theory. This theory explains how individuals make decisions. Individuals here make decisions based on their own self-interest, which will benefit them greatly

Background information

Before using social media, in our society, relationships were face-to-face interaction based. We also have so many platforms to build and strengthen our bonds with each other, like in educational institutions, different social organizations, any social or religious events or festivals, or in movements where we come and interact with a lot of people and thus form our relationships. Besides that, we all regularly go to our relatives houses and have a wonderful time with them. As I have mentioned before, interaction is the fundamental feature of social relationships. Scholars also build up so many theories and put emphasis on social inter-action to build relationships.  According to relationship model theory of Fiske, (Fiske, 1992) people are soci-able fundamentally.  They naturally shape their social life on the basis of their relationships with others. In this theory, Fiske proposed four elementary mental models: communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching, and market pricing. He believed all thinking about social relationships is based on these four models. Communal sharing relationships are based on the conception of some group of people as being un-differentiated and equivalent. In this type of rela-tionship, people think to themselves that they all have some common sharing substance, like close kinship. Here, communalities are the main focus. Authority ranking relationships are formed on the basis of people who are ordered along some hierarchical dimensions of society. This relationship is authority-based. Rela-tionships between people from different backgrounds, such as those in the military, are an example. The equality matching relationship model focuses on equal or balanced relationships. In this model, people prefer those who feel equal. Here, people value equality (Christensen, 2018). The market pricing relationship model is proportionality-based in relationships. Here, how a person stands in proportion to others is mainly noticed. The people who organized themselves into cost-benefit ratios and other calculations are governed by this model.

Social system: Ancient Stages- Present ages 

We are living in a social world. We have reached the present society through many steps. Societies have changed over the past 12,000 years. Sociologists have explained these changes in their own way. They use different terms and criteria to define the development of human society. Karl Marxs story of society is all about social conflict, which is related to the economic system. One of the sociologists, Max Weber, tells a different tale about human development. He shows that the power of ideas shapes society. But Gerherd  Lensky used the term "socio cultural revolution" to define human history. That means the changes occur-red in a society gaining new technology. Society is a community, nation, or broad grouping of people having common traditions, institutions, and collective activities and interests  (Webster, 2012). For survival as a human in human society, relationships among people have always been a necessity. We can say relationships are the foundation on which humans decide to reproduce and, ultimately, a society is form-ed by them. There is a huge difference in relationships between people in the past and present society. Gerhard Lensky, one of the leading sociologists of todays world, describes how society has changed over the past years. He actually pointed to technology as shaping any society. He differentiated society based on technology, communication, and the economy. We mainly discuss Len Skis view on the development of human society, the social system, and relationships among people. By discussing his works, we can easily understand the differences among societies that existed throughout human history. He divided the whole society into five types: 1). hunting and gathering soci-ety, 2). horticultural and pastoral society, 3). agrarian, 4). industrial, and 5). post-industrial.

Hunting and Gathering Society

From the time of 3 million years ago, our species ap-peared. Until about 12000 years ago, humans were nomadic foragers, also known as hunters and gath-erers. In the simplest of all societies, they were pre-historic nomadic groups that relied on nature, utilized fire and exquisite technology to hunt and gather food and materials to meet their basic needs. They have little ability to control their environment, so they work together, and the formation of families is seen in this society. The number of people in this society was just a few dozens. They spent most of the time hunting wild animals and gathering plants. In this society, men typically hunted large game while women collected vegetation. People collected enough food to satisfy all, but not excessively. Thats why in this society, divi-sion of labor was nonexistent (Giddens, 1984). Hun-ting and gathering society depends on the family to do things like hunting and gathering. They were all leading much the same life. Most of the time, they are looking forward to collecting their next meal. It is said that hunting and gathering societys people come close to being socially equal. In short, we can say this soci-ety was family-centered and had little social inequality.

Horticultural and Pastoral Society

 About 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, people invented a new type of technology that began to change the lives of human beings. By using these tools, they dig the soil to plant seeds. These inventions allowed people to give up hunting and gathering. But not all societies did this. People living in dry regions were more likely to adopt pastoralism (Greenhow, 2011). Thats why this society is called the "horticultural and pastoral society." The number of people was increasing, so hunting and gathering societies for growing plants and raising animals increased food production. Social diver-sification and inequality in terms of gender and wealth were found in this society. This societys people were both nomadic and small-scale permanent and family-centered, similar to a hunting and gathering society. Religious thought was developing in this society.

Agrarian Society

Among all the scientific revolutionary inventions, wheels are one of them through which new civili-zations were formed all over the world. About 5000 years ago, people invented a new technology with a wheel named "plow." With the help of plows, agri-cultural society developed in a place in the Middle East. Unlike other societies, this new breakthrough technology enabled large-scale crop cultivation. Food surplus increased the number of people and also made society unequal. Agrarian society allowed people to stay in one place. Women provided most of the food for other societies, but in agrarian society, men were positioned for dominance because they did hard work by using heavy metal plows pulled by large animals. Religion reinforces the power of the elite. Emerging as a distinct religious, political, and economic system, the family loses its significance and nuclear families are formed in this society.

Industrial Society

In the 18th century, people invented large machines with the help of water power and electricity instead of manmade technology, which led to the emergence of industrial plants. By inventing this large machinery, industrial society developed, but not in the whole world. It happened only in todays rich world, which led the whole world. Thats why social inequality is more strongly founded in this society than in other societies. In industrial society, the whole world was changing rapidly (Lubis et al., 2017). Industrialization brought about technological advances such as the automobile, by which people can move quickly almost anywhere. People also changed their work from farms to factories. The result was that peoples tendency to move from rural to urban, making social life more ano-nymous and increasing cultural diversity. As a result, family size and relationships between each other lose their significance gradually.

Different Uses of Social Media for Maintaining Social Relationships 

The latest social media statistics show that 3.78 billion people use the media worldwide. Bangladesh is not an exceptional one. In fact, from 2020 to 2021, the num-ber of internet users and social media users increased at a high rate and is still increasing. There were 47.61 million internet users in Bangladesh in January 2021, which increased by 7.7 million (+19%) between 2020 and 2021 (Orben and Dunbar, 2017). According to The Digital Report, a report published in February by We Are Social, the total number of social media users in the country is 45 million. The most popular social media platforms are Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, YouTube, Vibes, Skype, Google+, Zoom, Instagram, Telegram, Bip, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Tiktok, etc. Now let me discuss how these platforms are used to main-tain social media.

Facebook 

The most popular social media platform, not only in Bangladesh but also worldwide, is Facebook. This platform was launched in 2004, and now its monthly users are 2.7 billion! The reason for the popularity of Facebook is its amazing features. Firstly, Facebook allows you to have social relationships without any geographical barrier. As there are no geographical res-trictions, people can easily get connected with others worldwide. This unique feature is the main reason behind its huge acceptance. Despite this, Facebook allows its users to brand their company. It has now become a tool for learning, making income, showing talents, ecommerce, self-branding, gaming, financial services, technology, media, education, and business sectors, and so on. Gradually, Facebook is developing new features like Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Facebook groups, Facebook rooms, and much develop-ment is shown in the Facebook privacy sector. One can easily sign in to other internet sites by using their Facebook ID. Facebook groups are created to pursue a certain goal by a group of people. During the video situation in Bangladesh, the rate of social media en-gagement, especially Facebook engagement, has in-creased at a high rate. Now, people spend more time than before on messenger and chatting with others. They are also trying to achieve their self-employment goal through Facebook. During the lockdown, Face-book has become the primary source of information and has played an important role in maintaining social relationships. They use messenger or Facebook groups to communicate with others, and for business, edu-cation, branding, in all sectors, people have become highly dependent on Facebook these days. 79.13% of people in Bangladesh use Facebook. Using Facebook, users can keep in touch with old friends and those at other schools, as well as make new friends, join differ-ent groups according to their interests, promote their parties, and find out how many personal messages they received from their friends, as well as what other posts they made. Facebook constantly adds new features and peoples pictures. Facebooks mission is to connect the world by sharing the power of sharing with people and making the world a more open and connected place      (Parvez et al., 2019; Phoon, 2017). 

Facebook is becoming more than a social networking site for entertainment, as it is also helping communities in a variety of ways, (2010) (Facebook as a tool for promoting global relation-ships). As a social network, Facebook is a place for people to exchange ideas by commenting on various issues.

Messenger 

Its an app developed by Facebook. It is also very popular not only in Bangladesh, but also all over the world. This app is available in 111 languages and was initially released in 2011. Here, one can create groups for gossiping or for other needs. People can do group calls, send messages, do marketing, business, bran-ding, advertisements, and so on. During lockdown, people become more dependent on messengers like Facebook. There is also a feature called "message lite," which uses less internet than the messenger app. around 23% of the population use messenger apps. It allows users to conduct video chats with whomever they choose. During a lockdown, people cannot meet with their close ones. So, they keep in touch with their close ones by phone, text, or video chat. Statistics show that more than 20 billion messages are exchan-ged between businesses and users each month on Facebook Messenger. By this year, messenger users are expected to grow to 2.4 billion.

Twitter

It was launched in 2006, and its monthly active users are 353 million. If your business is related to enter-tainment, sports, politics, technology, or marketing, you stand to earn tremendous engagement on Twitter. In Bangladesh, till June 2021, 1.26% of people were active on this platform. Twitter is an emerging social media site that serves as a microblogging service that allows users to send and read text-based messages, which are called "tweets"  (Lutgendorf et al., 2009). It is commonly used by people to keep in touch with friends, musicians, and celebrities on this site so that they can feel connected and learn to accept others act-ions and feelings. Many people are fascinated with the individual lives of others on Twitter and are interested in knowing what is happening in each others lives. In this specific example of social media, ties of distance have been shortened to people knowing exactly what one another is doing without physically interacting.

WhatsApp

Whatsapp lets contacts on mobile devices communi-cate with one another. More importantly, it allows parties to share information with those they prefer. WhatsApp is another popular social media platform to share ideas, media, and so on. It was launched in 2009 and its monthly users are 2 billion. It is mainly a popular social messaging app. This app is not the obvious choice for business-related activities, but it has a 98% open rate compared to 20% for email. If one uses WhatsApp for customer service and retention, one will quickly learn that the potential for brands on this underutilized channel is enormous. In Bangladesh, this app is mainly used for sending personal messages, media, or calling others. Though it is not as popular in Bangladesh as Facebook. It also has a unique feature called the "WhatsApp Business App," which is mainly used for connecting customers. WhatsApp web is also a good feature that enables you to connect to a PC or laptop. In Bangladesh, 22% of users use WhatsApp. Here in this country, it is actively used as a primary communication platform.

Instagram 

This social media platform was first released in 2010. Its monthly users are 1.16 billion. Instagram is a popular product-based enterprise, where influencers and instructors can thrive on this social network. Stat-istics show that Instagram is currently the sixth most used social media platform in the world. In 2021, the statistics show that 0.43% of people are active Insta-gram users in Bangladesh (Phoon, 2017).

LinkedIn 

This social platform was first launched in 2003, and its monthly active users are 310 million. If one is looking for decision-makers who have the power to hire his company, stock his product, or partner with him, LinkedIn is the place to be. In Bangladesh, 1.22% is active users of LinkedIn. People use this to create a community that is business-related. This user rate is increasing day by day.

Telegram

 It was first launched in 2013 and its monthly active users were 500 million till January 2021. Telegram is now the worlds most downloaded app from the Google Play store. Telegram is cloud-based instant messaging software. It also provides the customer with an encrypted video calling system, file sharing, VoIP, and so many beautiful features. But the most important thing to mention is that it keeps users data confi-dential. During lockdown, Bangladeshi people also use it more actively than before for its features.

Google+ 

Google+ is the official application for Googles popular social network on Android devices. It allows you to do everything that a desktop computer allows you to do. Users can easily upload photos and videos to their Google account directly from their terminal. Users can join video chats with up to eight other indi-viduals using the "hangout" feature, as long as their Internet connection allows it. This network was first launched in 2011. 300 million monthly active users participate in this network and interact. During lock-down, the rate of using the function has become high worldwide, and Bangladesh is no exception to this.

Zoom  

Zoom is a cloud-based online video communication social platform that allows one to set up virtual video as well as audio conferencing, webinars, live chat, and screen sharing. This platform enables you to interact, discuss, and express your thoughts so that you may accomplish more as a group. This app was first relea-sed in 2013, but it only became well known during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. It was only this plat-form that was used frequently to stay in touch during the lockdown. The Zoom daily meeting participants in December 2020 were 350 million (Sawyer and Chen, 2012) At the height of the pandemic, over 90,000 schools used Zoom. Zoom was downloaded 485 million times in 2020. In 2020, over 45 billion minutes of webinars will be hosted on the platform. Bangladesh is also not beyond the zoom era. In our country, Zoom is also the most popular social media platform, especially when educational institutions start con-ducting online classes. Besides this, it is also being used in the business sector.

Viber 

It was first launched in 2012, and its active users are 823 million per month. It is also a very popular plat-form for communicating with others. During COVID 19, Viber saw a 17 percent increase in activations, a 21% increase in group messaging, and a 25% increase in one-to-one messaging in Bangladesh during the first half of 2020.The number of group messages excha-nged grew by 48 percent, while community views increased by 77 percent. Viber also added a feature to use the Bangla font following the use of bangalees.

Skype 

Skype is software that enables the world to have conversations. Due to its versatility and convenience, Skype has become increasingly popular. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make video calls, voice calls, or group calls, send messages inst-antly, and share files with other people on Skype. One can use Skype on their mobile computer or tablet. Skype is a voice-over-IP service and software appli-cation developed by Niklas Zennstrom in 2003. It is internet-based telecommunication software that allows users to video chat, make voice conversations, and send text messages from their PCs, mobile phones, and tablets. It also aids pupils in getting through the class. In this manner, they become more committed to their goals and objectives. Bangladesh has a low level of acceptance for it.

BiP 

The apps description claims, "BiP is a secure, easy-to-use, free communication and life platform that delivers seamless communication and a wide range of utility features like quick translations to 106 languages and currency rates." It was first released in 2013, and it now has 53 million users all around the world. Ac-cording to Mobile Action research, BiP presently retains the #1 spot in Bangladesh among the top messaging apps for the Android operating system. Data showed on Saturday that BiP has been down-loaded by more than 50 million users worldwide, acco-rding to Googles app store.

Pull factors

According to safeopedia, "pull factor" is a geo-gra-phical term that is used to describe factors that attract people to a country, region, religion, organization, etc. In fact, the pull factor is a positive term that is used to explain what makes a place or anything attractive to those migrating from different lands. In other words, pull factors are those which attract or charm others and pull them to accept a change in their lives. The world is still in the midst of a global disease outbreak caused by a coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, also known as CO-VID-19. To combat the COVID-19 epidemic, govern-ments and public health organizations all over the world have implemented social distancing and stay-at-home policies (World Health Organization, 2020). While particular limits vary by country, government strategies to deal with the coronavirus outbreak fre-quently include the closure of schools, non-essential physical stores and enterprises, as well as the res-triction of public transit and places, as well as social gatherings. Public contact has plummeted as a result of these situations. In their efforts to stay socially con-nected, new problems develop for people all over the world. Industry estimates revealed that digital media usage skyrocketed during the initial months of the epidemic, as individuals spent more time at home owing to coronavirus lockdowns (Kemp, 2020). Such increases were especially prevalent for social media and messaging apps, but particularly remarkable was the unprecedented uptake of video conferencing apps and programs. Given peoples widespread reliance on information and communication technologies (ICTs) for social interaction under such stay-at-home circum-stances, this bears further examination. Digital com-munication technology has fully changed the social interaction process. People are now spending even more time with technology while consuming news media, watching television, using social media to con-nect with others, utilizing lifestyle apps to shop for groceries and other consumer goods, and engaging in home workouts (Nielsen Global Media, 2020). 

Moreover, increased engagement with technology is required of students for educational purposes and for those now working from home. Online platforms are, by design, addictive (Alter, 2017). They encourage and pull people to endless scrolling and do not have a clear ‘stop point, which is why it is so common for people to spend many hours online or engaged with social media. The same phenomenon exists with online or YouTube news videos. Now I will discuss some pull factors of using technology that determine social interaction.

1) Facebook: Facebook will be used by 46 million people in Bangladesh until July 2021. People are so attracted to using Facebook because of its ama-zing features that benefit users the most. Such as in business marketing, education, comedy, to get news updates, people are mostly dependent on Facebook.

2) Mobile phone: In the world, there is no person who does not use a mobile phone. During the pan-demic, to maintain social connection with others, people spend more time on their mobile phones, as they dont need to go to a particular place to meet a particular person.

3) Youtube: Around 6.12% of people use Youtube in Bangladesh. A study by Pew Research found that Youtube is used 51% for educational purposes. It can be said that YouTube is very popular as a study medium. Besides this, people watch different types of content, such as commentary, memes, reviews, songs, videos, etc.

4) Whatsapp: Whatsapps popularity stems from its security features. Here, users can keep their con-versations secret, while users can call, send mes-sages, or even mute conversations, and can easily communicate. Here, users can have control of their secret issues.

5) Messenger: Messenger is a very well-known mes-saging app. There is no one in the world that hasnt used Messenger. During COVID-19, Messenger became one of the most important apps to keep in touch with others. According to Nepoleonchat statistics, there will be 40,210,000 messenger users in Bangladesh as of February 20, 2021.

6) Telegram: It can migrating phone numbers or add a second number, users can upload multiple profile pictures, users can keep the chat secret, and users can also customize the look of telegrams, etc.

7) Instagram: There are 3500400 users in Bangladesh who are active on Instagram. People aged 18 to 24 are the largest group of people to use Instagram. Its a great platform to share videos, photos, and for messaging and calls.

8) Twitter: 2.96% of Bangladeshis use Twitter in August 2021, according to Star counter. It is mainly used for marketing purposes.

Push Factor

During lockdown, we encountered a variety of new and unusual scenarios. Many circumstances arose that we were completely unfamiliar with previously. For example, since human beings cannot survive without connecting with others, eliminating social distance appears completely unattainable. However, we had gone through a difficult period as a result of COVID 19. As a result, people have become increasingly reli-ant on online social media platforms to pass the time and communicate with others. In the education in-dustry, an offline system is widely accepted-some-thing no one could have predicted previously. It all occurs, though. As a result, the circumstances pro-duced by the COVID-19 epidemic, I believe, is the driving force here. People embrace these social plat-forms as partners since they must stay at home for their own protection. Every students life revolves around social media. Accessing information, providing infor-mation, and communicating via social media is often easier and more convenient. Students and tutors can communicate and learn from one another via these platforms.

1) Maintaining good relationships is crucial during a pandemic for several reasons, such as communi-cating with distant relatives who cannot be reached face-to-face, interacting with coworkers, friends, and colleagues, and trying to track down jobs.

2) There are new ways of entertaining yourself by playing games, listening to music, reading jokes and fun stories.

1) Informing the public about current events, ex-pressing opinions, making contributions and more social media related news people trust.

2) It takes a lot of effort to raise public awareness about any serious issue. People can easily go with any issue that is sensitive to the government and the people.

3) People can be manipulated so quickly to spread false news.

4) It takes a lot of time to get involved with social media. As a business, you should designate some-one to consistently update your pages and profile with relevant content. Unwanted content is more and more common on social media.

5) Since anyone can make a phony record and do anything without being tailed, it has ended up being extremely straightforward for anyone to spook on the internet. Dangers, terrorizing messages, and bits of gossip can be sent to the majority to cause in-convenience and uproar in the general public.

6) Personal information and security can be hacked into the hands of cybercriminals if someones account has been hacked in the past.

7) The addicting aspect of internet networking is terrible, and it may also exasperate peoples lives. It can also waste peoples time when they might be doing something else. Tasks and exercises that are lucrative are employed.

8) There are several examples of people who have used internet networking to conduct fraud and fraud.

After the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, we all had to go through new and also tough situations. But here, people accept social media platforms as their near companions to survive this problematic situation. Because spending time on social media is quite easy and convenient. It does not require a timetable, and even in any situation, social media can be used. So, these social media platforms catch all the attention of the worlds people. Not only has this social media platform become an addiction for users. Social media isnt just for sharing photos and thoughts. Instagram and Facebook pages are very popular in Southeast Asia for local businesses online. Nowadays, Instagram is the most popular platform to promote a business. Facebook groups are very popular among Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani students. There are many groups that are famous for higher studies, research, photo-graphy, travel, and many more. Even when students are doing homework, they work as a group. Instant messenger is very helpful in this case. Whats App is famous for video and audio calls. In South East Asia, many workers are sent abroad for work. From an Asian perspective, it is very common to use whats app and IMO as instant messaging. During the COVID-19 pandemic, instant messaging apps helped all over the world to take part in social relationships. Pandemic also shows that Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft teams, and Skype are the best ways to work from home. Home offices were very popular during the pandemic, and it will continue into the next generation to work from home. During the COVID-19 pandemic almost 2 years ago, people used Facebook for entertainment purposes. Because of the heavy quarantine and long days, people are forced to stay at home and com-municate primarily through social media. People not only communicate virtually, but they also use ecom-merce websites to make purchases most of the time. time, ecommerce and online businesses have shown more than 230% growth in Southeast Asia (Sawyer and Chen, 2012).  But with the increasing use of social media, people are staying away from close ones who are their real friends. But COVED 19 helps us to understand how much it is important to communicate physically with others, as people now become more dependent on social media and become isolated. Edu-cation and administrative work have also become dependent on virtual platforms. But virtual platforms can never provide them with the proper education that can be provided in offline classrooms.

Mental health 

In todays world, mental illness is a severe and prevalent health problem. Every year, tens of millions of individuals are affected by it. Only a small per-centage of people with depression obtains adequate treatment. This is the position paper examines several recent attempts to investigate the possibility of using social media postings as a new sort of marketing. People with mental illness might be seen through a new lens when it comes to comprehending and com-municating with populations. Information obtained from social media has the potential to enhance stan-dard survey methodologies by providing finer-grained measurements of behavior throughout time (Valen-zuela et al., 2014). While dramatically increasing the size of the population sample. We finish by empha-sizing how this line of research could aid in the development of instruments for detecting the onset of depressive illnesses. Individually, for healthcare agen-cies to use or on behalf of people, allowing those suffering from mental illness to be more independent and more conscious of their mental health. Adolescents can manage their mental health using social media, which is a relatively new medium. Indeed, many young people report using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to escape the external pressures that are compromising their mental health. According to recent research, 57 percent of US teenagers have started relationships online, with 50 percent of those polled having "friended" someone on Facebook (or equivalent) to express their love interest. Clearly, social media has its own way of playing an increa-singly important role in adolescent social, mental, and emotional development. Social media may provide new types of communication and social connection, but there were concerns about how much time young people spent online at first. According to the study, Internet use was connected to a decrease in face-to-face contact, stress, increased social isolation, sadness, and sleep deprivation. As outcomes, a range of beha-vioral indicators of mental health and well-being will be evaluated. These will include both general mental health symptoms as well as prior outcomes linked to social media use. Among the latter variables will be Suicidal ideation, social anxiety, loneliness, and a lack of empathy are all symptoms of depression. As expec-ted, among other variables, social desirability was consistently associated with fewer reports of negative symptoms. All negative effects, including suicidal thoughts, were consistently protected by social sup-port. Conflict between parents and children was fore-seen. Suicidal thoughts, mental health issues, and loneliness are all too common. Its likely that some forms of social media use serve as a "cry for help" for those who already have mental health issues(Wang and Edwards, 2016). According to those who have been implicated, the government should pay more attention to mental health in the general population. In the midst of a COVID-19 battle, fortunately, the Chinese government has stepped in to help. Mental health services are available through a variety of channels, including a helpline, an online consultation, and an on-line course and outpatient consultation, but sadness and anxiety should be given more attention (Wok et al., 2012; Kumari et al., 2021; Pervin & Hassan, 2020)

CONCLUSION

Bangladeshi people face a challenge in the digital world to cope with. Social media and social relations are very important. However, it must be used with res-traint and without addiction. Social media has different merits, but it likewise has a few faults that influence individuals contrarily. In organizations, false data can lead the training framework to disappointment. In organizations, the wrong promotion will influence productivity. Online net workings can man-handle the general public by attacking an individuals security. Bangladesh is facing in this digital world both mental issues and social issues related to culture and family. In the real world, family and friends are more impor-tant than fancy photos on social media. It is very challenging to balance social media and real social life in the modern world.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This study was conducted as the team work of Dhaka University Research Society (DURS). All Authors here are the member of DURS; acknowledge the con-tribution of Research Manager Muhammad Tanbirul Islam. The authors also want to acknowledge a few folks that have influenced my life. Professor Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman, Institute of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Dr. Kazi Muhammad Rezaul Karim, Institute of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Dr. Tanjina Rahman, Institute of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The corresponding author and coauthors had no conflict of interest in conducting this research.

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Article Info:

Academic Editor

Dr. Sonjoy Bishwas, Executive, Universe Publishing Group (UniversePG), California, USA.

Received

December 1, 2021

Accepted

January 3, 2022

Published

January 10, 2022

Article DOI: 10.34104/ajssls.022.01011

Corresponding author

Md. Al Hasibuzzaman*

Institute of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Cite this article

Hasibuzzaman MA, Noboneeta A, Begum M, and Hridi NNC. (2022). Social media and social relationship among youth: a changing pattern and impacts in Bangladesh, Asian J. Soc. Sci. Leg. Stud., 4(1), 01-11. https://doi.org/10.34104/ajssls.022.01011 

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