Communication and Information seemingly travels quicker at present, given how easy it has become to share information from person to person. The world seems like it is becoming smaller and smaller each day, since we have wide scale resources to connect with individuals in any part of today’s world. As a result of this, communication has changed through the use of social media especially with the obsessive culture of “followers, likes and shares” taking over human nature.
Before social media hit the world, our interaction with others were extremely limited. It was mostly with the people we knew in person. We also had to deal with certain things such as, calling your significant other, having a parent answer the phone, waiting for a letter in the mail from a pen-pal, waiting a week to get your pictures that you sent off to be developed and so on.
It’s no secret that the internet and social media has drastically changed the way people all over the world communicate and interact.
One of the biggest changes that social media brought about is the sheer number of people that we can interact with. We are now able to interact with thousands of people all over the world with a click of a button. It is no surprise to see people who have thousands of Facebook friends or tens of thousands of Twitter followers. This would be impossible without social media. It gives us the opportunity to share opinions and engage with a far wider audience.
Have you noticed that there is no filter on the way we speak anymore?
We might have had our freedom of speech in the past, but the only way to get your message across was to speak to people directly. But now we can get our messages out to thousands or even millions of people uncensored thanks to social media.
For example;
Blok and Dino – The marketing duo was a result of satirical comedy going viral on social media, causing them to switch from comedic videos to advertising videos.
Now we may be able to interact with thousands of people online but, somewhere along the way we may lose some of our social skills. Some people are completely incapable of carrying on a normal conversation or interacting with people in person.
Social networks such as Snapchat or Instagram are becoming one of the main ways that we communicate. Lots of people are more interested in checking their smartphone every 2 minutes than having a meaningful conversation with their family. I guess you can say that social media and technology are double-edged swords. It could be a very helpful tool and is also quite fun to have, but it’s an unhealthy distraction to the point that we have no idea what’s going on around us.
Try this, the next time you are out, just keep an eye out for how many people you see walking or sitting in a café with their friends and staring down at their smartphone.
One other thing social media has managed to change? The written word.
We have adapted to writing in a more concise manner thanks to networks such as Twitter helping us realize that the 140-character limit is what we needed to get to the core of what we are conveying. However, on the downside, this means shorter sentences or paragraphs being used and correct grammar going out the window.
Let’s not forget the abbreviations. People who communicate via social media or text message aren’t necessarily spelling things incorrectly. It’s just that they are speaking a new language entirely. For example “TTYL” is used to let someone know that you will talk to them later and ‘BRB’ means be right back. It has become so common that we do not have to think twice about what the abbreviations stand for nowadays.
Social Media has changed us so much so that most of us don’t actually know how to communicate in person as we do through social media. Social media captivates us but also discourages actual engagement which we don’t realize. The question I leave you with here is… Would a world without social media, while not-so-convenient, help us develop better communication skills in real life? It’s quite a tough question but, I’ll leave that to you to ponder on.
