The rise of smartphones and social media has profoundly transformed human interactions, challenging and reshaping traditional concepts of friendship, intimacy, and belonging — that's the opening finding of a 2025 study published in Nature & Anthropology by researcher Heslley Machado Silva.

The question isn't whether technology changed how we relate to each other. It clearly has. The question is what it changed it into.

More Connections, Less Depth

Research on social media and interpersonal relationships consistently finds a gap between the number of connections people maintain digitally and the depth of those connections. Studies summarized in the literature indicate that around 60% of young people feel their relationships have been strengthened by social media, while 40% report concerns about the quality of those relationships. The shift toward shorter, more frequent interactions — a quick like, a brief reply, a reaction emoji — has reduced the frequency and depth of longer conversations that build genuine understanding between people.

Researchers call this the difference between connection and contact. Technology dramatically increases contact. Whether it increases meaningful connection is a much harder question to answer, and the evidence is mixed at best.

Phubbing and the Problem of Presence

The Silva study examines a phenomenon called "phubbing" — the act of snubbing someone in person by paying attention to your phone instead of them. It's an observable pattern in restaurants, during family meals, in classrooms, and at social gatherings. Families who are physically in the same room increasingly interact less with each other than with their digital networks. The study notes that the absence of eye contact, impoverished verbal interaction, and reliance on screen-mediated communication can undermine social skills like empathy and the ability to read others' emotional states — skills that humans developed across thousands of years of face-to-face interaction.

What Stayed Positive

Technology has genuinely extended the reach of human relationships in ways that matter. Video calling keeps families connected across continents. Social platforms allow people with rare conditions or niche interests to find genuine community that would have been impossible before. During COVID-19, when physical distance was mandatory, digital connection prevented the kind of total social isolation that causes serious psychological harm. For older adults and people who are geographically isolated, digitally-mediated relationships are sometimes the primary form of social contact available to them — and research confirms that having that contact is significantly better than having none.

The Algorithm's Role

Social platforms are designed to maximize engagement, which means maximizing the time you spend on them. Algorithms surface content that produces strong emotional reactions — outrage and anxiety keep users scrolling more reliably than contentment. This creates environments where emotional intensity is constantly amplified, comparison to curated idealized versions of others' lives is constant, and the pace of interaction is set by a system with no interest in whether that pace is good for anyone's relationships or mental health. Research consistently links heavy social media use with increased anxiety and depression, particularly among younger users.

Finding the Balance

The Silva study and related research point toward an interdisciplinary approach — combining insights from anthropology, psychology, and data science — to understand and respond to these shifts. At an individual level, the practical answer is intentionality: choosing when to be digitally present and when to be physically present, and recognizing that meaningful relationships are built more through sustained, attentive, real-world interaction than through the quantity of digital contact. Technology is a tool. Like all tools, what it produces depends on how thoughtfully it's used.