Social Media has done a number on how college students make friends and maintain relationships. We see and have access to people we have never seen or have never met. On paper, that's cool, right? I get to know people from the other side of the world or the other side of campus; I get to hear from and learn from people who live differently from me.

I never plan on being in a Syrian refugee camp, so it is amazing to me that I can do a quick Google search and see through the eye of a camera what a Syrian refugee camp is like.

I never plan on living in Oregon, Morocco, Arizona or Orlando, so when I see a hallmate’s Instagram post from back home in one of those places, I feel like I get to experience Oregon or Morocco or whatever.

The New York Times videos on Youtube take me to Istanbul, into the home of a physically disabled person or to Kate Middleton. All this gives me a broader idea of the world. In my mind, I feel like I have traveled to Oregon or Istanbul.

I don’t know Kate Middleton, I’ve never met her and I probably never will, but for some reason, my mind treats her like someone I know well because I’ve watched probably 60 hours worth of interviews and documentaries about her.

Seeing the world by camera is incredible and one of the most revolutionary ideas of the last 150 some years, but when we take it too far, we trick ourselves by thinking we know someone. My mind acts like I know her when I don’t.

We do this with people we go to school with, I can pass someone in the hall often enough to recognize them. I can stalk them on Instagram and Twitter and feel like I know them. I can meet someone once, add them on Snapchat, Insta and Twitter and, all of a sudden, every time I open one of those social media, there they are. Social media gives me a disproportionate amount of access to someone I hardly know.

I think I know someone, let’s call her Jess, because I’ve met her once and I get to see her Snapstory every day. I can listen to her voice on Snapchat, read her opinions on Twitter and see her selfies on The Gram. But the same eyes I see on my screen are the same eyes I’ve only looked into once (or in some cases, never at all).

The idea that I can know Jess solely based off a quick interaction and then hours and hours of screen time cheat me of the idea of who she really is. I don’t really know who she is because we all manipulate our social media to make us look a certain way.

Suddenly, knowing another person isn’t weighed as heavily anymore. We say we know someone we have only met online and we say we know someone who is in our small group. That’s not the same thing, those two relationships are not equal. We have changed the definition of friends. All of a sudden, a "friend" is someone I’ve met once and then read their tweets every day. Not only do I only get a one-time interaction with them, but what I get to know about them on their socials is strictly dictated by them. Jess gets to manipulate what I know about her, what her interests are, what she looks like, what she thinks. This is not true friendship or truly knowing another human.

This kind of shallow friendship has also changed our idea of authenticity. Is a real friendship one that you have because you have mutual followers or friends on socials? Is this really the best genuine relationships that our generation can produce?

Making intentional human interaction is vital to making our generation a generation of healthy individuals.

Knowing someone off of texting or social media or being someone’s "internet friend" is not intentional or real. It means nothing. I can whip out my phone at any time and send a quick text at my leisure, I can do my hair and makeup to pose for selfies or Facetime, I can take four hours to respond because, at the moment, I am busy. I can manipulate what you know or see about me and when you see me and how you see me.

Real relationships are ones that I make time for and the ones I am physically there for. I schedule dinner with someone because I want to make designated time with and for them. Sometimes, I run into friends and we grab coffee or hang out randomly at the spur of the moment, they catch me when I’m emotional, not wearing makeup, angry or absolutely exhausted. We talk person to person until 3 a.m., laughing so hard we cry or dancing to some throwback 2000’s music. My friends and I get to worship in each other’s presence, dine together, pray together, hug, put our arms around each others' shoulders or sit next to each other, not saying anything for hours. True friendship is not something you can manipulate or control.

Someday, I hope to go to Istanbul so I can see with my own eyes the buildings I know from online. Someday, I hope to look into the actual eyes of a physically disabled person like the one’s I’ve watched documentaries about. For me, I want to meet the people at my school I’ve never met but I follow on Twitter. Making true, real relationships is a priority for me in 2017, because genuine friendships are less and less prevalent today.