Stefana Broadbent, a cognitive scientist and part of a new class of ethnographers who study the way people use and interact with others through technology, explains that our social habits and the way relationships function have been positively affected by the new digital age in this interesting TED video.

Numerous people are skeptical of maintaining great human relationships through the democratization of communication in forms such as instant messaging and texting, as well as new social media like Facebook and Twitter. However, Broadbent’s research supports the fact that relationships are actually being developed more deeply through these new forms of communication.

With all of the social media channels, Broadbent explains that people are simply choosing to break a long “imposed isolation”.For example, on average, people communicate on a regular basis with up to just seven other people. While the average person on Facebook has around 120 friends, they only regularly exchange information with about four to six of those friends. Additionally, 80 percent of phone calls are simply made to the same four people.

At first, these statistics surprised sociologists; however, after looking at who was using these technologies and from where they were using them, sociologists realized this social transformation is adding a sense of overall intimacy to our day-to-day relationships.

To watch the full video and learn more about how the Internet enables intimacy, click here.