Human beings in past cultures have used several acts to court others into relationships, whether it be through direct communication or something such as physical dancing for courtship. In recent years, due to the increase in technology use and the advancements that humans have made, things such as cell phones, social networks, and media are vital forms of human interaction. Humans are even going as far as creating applications, such as tinder or grinder, that serve the purpose of introducing a potential couple. These apps solely rely on pictures of people and texting ability to communicate. A couple could potentially meet online, talk to each other and never actually meet face to face until they wanted to explore something more physical. Dating apps and especially texting have influenced and impacted our youth culture by creating a society that depends on technology to make human connections. Several articles have been published discussing the problems with exposing technology to children and what that impact may have on their psyche. Scientific studies and experiments have been conducted, mainly with teenagers, that shed a dark light on the usage of technology. The studies have found that use of social media and texting has lead to bullying, more violent relationships, jealousy among couples, and  distrust in relationships. Scientist found simple acts, such as posting a photo on Facebook with the opposite sex, to cause discomfort and paranoia in couples. Technological communication such as texting, lead to decreased social skills in teenagers and social behaviors when in physical situations. Scientist also discovered that teens that used technology early and often began to show signs of lack of empathy for others, this is due to people not being able to see the effects their words have on another person because the conversation is taking place over a screen. Despite being associated with many negative aspects, technology has also been used to connect human together to form long relationships and might in fact be the future for our society.

An article called "The Role of Communication Technology in Adolescent Relationships and Identity Development" discusses how a group of scientist conducted a study of how technological communication affected teenagers and young adults. The studies that were conducted focused on teenage groups that had relationships with their peers. The study evaluated how often each individual texted and went on social media. The study further explored what most of subjects of texts were about. In terms of a relationship stand point the couples generally communicated everyday and seemed fined, however scientist noticed negative symptoms for each individual during the studies. For example couples that spent of their time communicating using technology such as texting or social media messaging had developed forms of anxiety and peer aggression. Compared to couples that spent a lot of  talking face to face. The couples that had more direct contact with each other seemed to be more satisfied and in a more relaxed and stress free relationship. The scientist concluded that couples that integrated a extensive use of communicative technologies  in their relationships lead to internal problems, identity distress, and mistrust among partners.

This was not the only article to feature technology as negative among couples. The article "Understanding The Role of Technology In Adolescent Dating and Dating Violence" by Patricia Carreno, did a similar social experiment relating to teenagers dating and their usage of communicative technologies. However this article dug in deeper and explored more of cyber bullying through dating. The article sheds light on how students can terrorize each other on the internet and social media sites. Couples, who were fighting, would post negative comments about their partner or post pictures of them making fun, usually with friends liking these comments and photos and adding in. The article took information from over 30 high school students, who had experience with problematic relationships in the past. The article discussed how because of cell phones and social media, that students were more likely to dissolve a relationship over the phone or media. Thus showing that because people have the ability to communicate over technology that people are more afraid of confrontation, even to the point of calling someone over the phone. This thus leads to people having less empathy toward others. The article further explored how couples used social media sites as a why of spying on their partner as well as isolating their partners from others. This lead psychologists to believe that social media sites promoted jealousy among couples and couples had to make sure that all their friends knew that they were dating. For example Facebook contains the feature of a "relationship status". This affected each gender in generally the same tone. Both boys and girls reacted in a negative way and used social media similarly.

Not all forms of technology was discovered to be bad for relationships. An article called "The Impact of Communication Technologies On Life And Relationship Satisfaction" written by Goodman-Deane, examined how technology affects a couples overall satisfaction. Studies were done by interviewing couples and asking them what kind of communicative technology they use best. It was discovered that couples that used cell phones to call one another and things such as FaceTime or Skype, were overall more satisfied then couples who communicated primarily through texting and direct messaging. The survey done in the article was taken by over two thousand participants. The survey questioned couples on what they used most to communicate wether it was texting, face timing, calling, or social media sites. The questions that followed ask to rate a n individuals happiness in the relationship. Couples that spent more time actually talking and were audibly social with each other reported more happiness then those, that preferred texting as a way of communication. This applies to the scientific theory that since humans are naturally social creatures we respond better to audible communication, then inaudible. Texting contains no emotion and it can sometimes be hard to understand a person's tone behind a text message unless he/she includes lots of punctuation, which the average person doesn't normally include. Things such as face-timing and talking over a phone still contain emotion and are more personal because couples can physically hear each other. A text message doesn't have those same qualities and should be used as a temporary form of communication not as a permanent one.  

Despite many scientific articles emerging that show technology use as a negative impact on teenagers and couples, there are actually some articles that support technology and believe that it is the future of the human race. The article "Love in the Age of Like" by Aziz Ansari discusses the online dating industry and how millions of Americans have found love and have had successful marriages. The comedian Ansari, describe it to being similar as his father's arranged marriage. "The first girl, he said, was "a little too tall," and the second girl was "a little too short." Then he met my mom. He quickly deduced that she was the appropriate height (finally!), and they talked for about 30 minutes. They decided it would work. A week later, they were married."( Ansari, Love in the Age of Like). Ansari describes online dating apps to be similar to how his father made his choice for his wife. He picked over several options, different personalities and appearances until he found the right one. Many individuals believe this to be the way of the future with millions of people currently using these dating sites. The main problem with dating sites was wether people could find their actual soulmate or just meet someone for the simple purpose of a rendezvous. The article also showed that some people loved dating sites as they felt that they could easily connect with someone who matched their exact interests, while others thought that it became to much work with an overwhelming amount of options. A girl interviewed named Pyria, deleted several of her online accounts because she would rather find her soulmate through her social friend groups, claiming that she would have to pick between so many guys online. The article proves that for some people online dating is revolutionary and connects people together, but for others the "old fashioned" way of just meeting someone through friends or just by chance is what they preferred.

Technology has definitely connected the human race in more ways then one. Wether it's keeping us up to date on current world events or to remind you that it's your friends birthday. Social media has been crucial and vital to keeping millions of people busy. The issue of wether or not technology is good for relationships and for developing young adults is still up to debate. With many believing that it's a serious issue and have facts supporting that using things such as texting will effect our social behaviors with others and make use less genuine. The other side views technology as an important tool that humans should be exposed to as it helps us learn faster and connects us to people, potentially our lost soulmate. The facts are true on both sides of the debate, the conclusion that can be drawn is that we need to learn as a society to moderate  are use of technology because if it overwhelms our lives too much we will lose an important social layer that makes us human. 

