So of course we all know how involved everyone is today with social media, but what I looked into was have we all forgotten that we use to have to introduce ourselves face to face in order to get to know someone? And not only that but when you wanted to go out on a date with someone you would have to ask them in person, and fear the rejection. Well now we have it a lot easier, we can scroll through our social media and find someone that we think is attractive and either add them and get to know them, or ask them out on a date with a text message, and if they say no it’s not as hard or embarrassing because it is not face to face.
In today’s world most all people communicate with their friends, or significant others through some sort social media, or texting, rather than calling, or seeing them face to face and I believe that this has taken away from our communication skills. We no longer have to go out and make new friends if we don’t want to, we can just message someone online and start to get to know one another, and then meet up after a while of talking online and it will be like you have been friends for a while. The same goes with romantic relationships, you can talk online for months, and tell each other everything about one another, and when they finally meet it won’t be like they are a stranger, it will be like you have known them a while. Therefore, we don’t have to put ourselves out there anymore, we don’t have to feel uncomfortable and adapt to meeting new people, and going through the awkward fazes, therefore weakening our communication skills. What do you think? Have your communication skills been weakening with the use of social media and texting? Well this connects back to one of the first readings that we did in class, Ten Tips for a Good Digital Life, tips number 5 don't over do it, you should go out and meet new people face to face, hang out with your friends and talk face to face. Meet new people and ask them out face to face. You don't always have to hide behind your phone, strengthen your communication skills by using them as often as you can.
I think this post really raises a concern that resonates with the situation of social media today. It is much easier to communicate online with each other then ever before, and that can be negative for our face to face social skills. I have had a few instances in the past where I have communicated with someone new online. It is definitely easier in some aspects, but then when I met some of them in person, it started out being super awkward and made me wish I could have met them in person initially.
ReplyDeleteI’m not saying meeting new people completely online through social media is inherently bad, but I do think you make a good point in that our social skills might be weakening. One thing that I think adds to that is that social media gives us the opportunity to paint ourselves in a better light. Not just through what we post to enhance our profiles, but this idea of asynchronous communication. We don’t have to respond right away to a message. We can take time to think about what we want to say to make sure we make the most out of our conversations, something that we can’t do in face-to-face communication. Of course, this is good when we want to communicate with our friends and family, but at the same time, it could enable some people to merely rely on it for most of their relationships, thereby weakening their face-to-face social skills.
I find the topic of this post so interesting. It seems as if people prefer initially meeting someone online more than in person. There are no awkward silences or any possible inconveniences of face to face communication. I also find that people find it much easier to tell the people who you are communicating with online personal information than it is with someone who is right in front of you. Humans love to talk about themselves simply by nature and being able to do that online and not deal with any questions that you may not be able to answer is much more appealing than face to face.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy that you mentioned friendships and not simply romantic relationships. I feel like there are more friendships created online than there would be in a class room. People can search their interests and find other people who share the same interests and friendships blossom. I remember in high school when Instagram was initially becoming popular, I spoke to many of the people in the grades above and below online before I even met any of them in person and already felt like friends with them. It seems to be that everyone is most interested in avoiding the initial awkwardness of forming relationships, but I feel that the more people look to online communication to form relationships the harder it will be when communicating in real time. Avoiding the anxieties of socializing will just create more and more tension around socializing, therefor I am unsure if online communication is a particularly safe outlet.
I think communicating online has changed the world tremendously, I think because on the big online culture it has hurt our interpersonal skills very much. The aftermath of this big change is to the point of people not understanding how to start a conversation. This has become one of the biggest fears for people, I’m not saying every one of the pasts were excellent at that, but I do agree that more people don’t know how communicate properly. I also believe that it is more than talking between each other, but most people can’t remember people phone numbers outside mom and dad. In some cases, people don’t even know their parents’ numbers everything is stored on a iCloud.
ReplyDeleteRelating to relationships, I believe people are just looking for the easier way to find their love. They’re so many apps surrounding dating, it gets to the point in which all it takes is a swipe left or swipe right. Most individuals would rather skip the face to face step of meeting someone when all it takes it a click of a button. I believe they’re some people who believe that once you click add on Facebook for example and they add you back, you’re basically “best friends”.
I'll be the first to advocate for meeting people face to face. Something someone told me when I was little that if I wanted to meet my prince charming, I had to start doing what I loved. So I spent a lot of time looking around when I should have been looking forward. Some of the things I love are Bible studies. I was going to one in VA Beach when I was at a military school and I met someone who I almost married. I learned in that relationship that just because you meet someone at church doesn't mean that they are perfect. I'm dating someone now who I met online, and I'm much happier. I would say that it doesn't matter how you meet people but it matters how you connect to people. You definitely need face to face communication to have a meaningful relationship, friendship or otherwise. Me and my boyfriend have a meaningful relationship because we communicate well. If something is bugging us, we talk about it immediately. We don't go to bed angry. We continue to have date nights and hang out with our other friends instead of just watching netflix and staying at home. We text throughout the day, tag each other in memes on Facebook, and send each other goofy selfies (he refuses to get snapchat though!) It doesn't matter how you meet, but it matters how you communicate. It matters that you use the mediums of communication responsibly and wisely.
ReplyDeleteWhile I find the argument that communication skills crumble in the face of online and text messaging interesting, I’d say I have to partially disagree. I think the more accurate observation would be that communication is changing. I’ve had multiple friendships that, for one reason or another, needed to be sustained via online communication. There are missing elements - paralanguage is a huge missing piece of online text that can lead to many a painful miscommunication. However, technology is working hard to give online communication as much power as it can. Emojis, reaction buttons, italics and bolding… All of it is an attempt at replacing the real-life elements that help communication go smoothly.
ReplyDeleteAnother point I’d like to mention is that the online meeting of and conversing with friends doesn’t have to be a threat. With many people, online social networking is an opportunity. There are a variety of reasons why individuals might benefit from or enjoy an online experience over an in-person one. Mental and physical disorders might prevent some from making meaningful in-person connections. In these instances, online communication is much less a scary or unsubstantial circumstance. Without such barriers so clearly out in the open, atypical individuals could be freer to experience the connection that evades them otherwise. This perspective of opportunity over threat is often overlooked, and I think is an essential point of the online communication conversation.
I can say with certainty that meeting a romantic interest in-person after you’ve only talked to each other online can be a lot like meeting a stranger for the first time. Even if you’ve been texting and skyping for years, you’ve still only been seeing a snapshot of this person. And, whether you’re aware of it or not, you’re filling in the missing pieces of who this person is with your own ideals.
ReplyDeleteI met a girl on an online writing web site years ago and we really hit it off. Come to find out, she only lives a few hours from me. When both of us finally worked up the courage to meet, it was so strange, seeing this person who you’ve known for so long, yet don’t really know at all. It’s like, mentally, we were best friends, but physically, just standing in front of each other, we were complete strangers. It definitely messes with your head.
Even so, I completely advocate for online dating and communication. The internet is just another medium for connecting one’s self with other human beings. Overuse can lead to declining in other areas (too much texting maybe hurting your small talk skills in real life), but that’s just life. People adapt to what works best for them.
In our digital age most communication and human interaction have being transform and change over the years. Now its very hard to individuals and groups to express freely without using their smartphone or digital medium. Also most millennials say that its so fake the digital communication vs. in person.
ReplyDeleteSocial media give a great new connections to expand your friendship circle and career. Yet many users have argue that social media has a very negative encounters between individuals. Due to text interaction would not connect with in-person.
I believe social media can help you make great business connections to improve your brand and career. Yet fake personification Hackers Bots. Have produce a negative way to digital connections, luckily companies still work very hard to protect the user information no matter what.