Social networking has become a very important part in our lives, it allows many people to communicate with practically anyone around the world, but it also has its negative effects on us. Social networks negatively affect our personal relationships and represent a distraction in our daily lives. People spend too much time on their social networking sites that they miss out on the enjoyable moments they could experience in the real world. About 39% of Americans spend their time socializing online, and 20% of people prefer to communicate via text or online rather than communicating face-to-face. (Social Media Destroys… Relationships) People around the world spend approximately 10.5 billion minutes every day on Facebook alone, not counting mobile device use. For about 20 years people have spent every day on social networks instead of enjoying life. (Social media destroys... relationships) Social networks have made it difficult for us to go out and spend time with our friends and family, pretty much everywhere you go there is always someone on the phone probably checking their Facebook or Twitter account instead of interacting with those who are there with them. Even face-to-face interactions have gone down the drain because social networks have made it so easy for anyone, be it someone across the country or your friendly neighbor across the street, to talk on social networking sites. Relationships with family members were also negatively affected. While it's nice to be able to communicate with your family member who lives 300 miles away from you through social networking sites, children and teens spend a lot of their time on their phones checking... middle of paper. ...and they are more focused on social media than work. Many teens are on their phones and checking their social media while in class and this distracts everyone from learning things they will need to know and some teens also check their social networking sites while working and many teens get fired because of it . Social networking has distracted people from the real world and has also negatively affected people's relationships. The more we spend on these social networking sites, the more we miss out on something in life. There is a possibility that in the future there will be absolutely no face-to-face interactions with people anymore and relationships will probably continue to get worse and worse. We should all unplug from social media, even if just for a day, and try to have fun with our friends and family..