Knapp's Relationship Model

I've always said that relationships are meant to die out eventually (I even wrote it into my last blog), but social media has made the dying out a little harder.

Declining stages of Knapp's Relationship Model

I think relationships don't necessarily die out anymore, unless something really drastic happens between two or more people within their relationship. Even when a relationship has died out amicably, I think social media makes people keep them around as a "friend" on Facebook or other platform, but might not ever talk again like they did before. Social media allows for relationships to remain in either the "Stagnation" or "Avoidance" stage, in my opinion.

One example of this is with a friend that was a good friend of mine when I first moved to North Carolina. She lived in South Carolina and she invited me to spend Thanksgiving with her family one year. It wasn't the first time I'd be spending Thanksgiving with them; I had spent Thanksgiving with her two other times, but it had been a couple years since then.

Basically, her brother had a new girlfriend that he brought to Thanksgiving dinner. It was all going well, and his girlfriend was talking about casual things. I can't remember what exactly was the topic of discussion, but I do feel that it was nothing to warrant his disrespect towards his girlfriend. He openly cursed her out in front of us and called her names. Even though I wasn't family, I couldn't keep my mouth shut and I told him I didn't like how he was talking to her. I also told his girlfriend not to tolerate being talked down to that way. It was just a horrible display of domestic disrespect that couldn't be ignored, and he needed to know that it isn't okay. No one else seemed to be telling him that it wasn't okay, which is why I took it upon me to say something.

All in all, I do believe that my friend didn't appreciate me getting involved into what I guess would be something for another family member to address, not a visitor. I enjoyed the rest of my stay with her, but after that we never really talked again. On Facebook it was all small talk, but it dwindled to just likes, and now there's no interaction at all. We are still friends, but it's hard to say if we're still friends in real life.

If it weren't for Facebook and Instagram, I think our friendship would be completely in the Termination stage.