Social Media and the Way We Communicate | Teen Ink

Social Media and the Way We Communicate

April 18, 2016
By MeriseM BRONZE, Lexington, Kentucky
MeriseM BRONZE, Lexington, Kentucky
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Over the years with the development of technology and the introduction of social media, our ability to communicate has been harmed by having false sense of connection, also social media has affected our social skills.

Social media has harmed our ability to communicate due to false sense of connection,  meaning it makes it more difficult for people to distinguished a meaningful relationship. According to Cornell’s University Professor Steven Strogatz he states that “numerous causal relationships are formed through social”. Also from personal experience I’ve notice the amount of people in my community form friendships because of social media, like for example two communicating on any websites they decide they would want to meet up because they think they know each other well enough to become friends and know each other, not knowing the true side of the other person. This means that face to face are the most important. Strogatz fears that face to face relationships are starting to become weaker. From a different point of view in the article Don’t fear the Network it says that social media helps people to stay in touch with others they haven’t seen in a long time or has moved away. It increases online connection which has changed their perceptions of the social world.But  people are only using social media to connect with family and friends, because they seem that is the only way to communicate with them instead of seeing their friend or family in person with excuses like “ I don’t have the time.”  That is how the way of false sense of connection has harmed our ability to communicate.

Social media has affected our social skills which is one of the reasons why social media has harmed our ability to communicate because it is dominating both online and offline communication. Recent studies show from the article Why Social media is destroying our skills author Jasmine Fowlkes she stated that “One in four people spend more time socializing online on websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace than they do in person”. For example at events or parties, guests are attached to their smartphones tweeting, texting, or surfing the web. Most people at these places are not engaging or interacting with the ones around them. Others might say that people’s social skills have developed due to social media, and it helps them speak more productively in the real world. That could be false because another study shown from Jasmine Fowlkes states that “11% of adults still prefer to stay at home and communicate on their devices instead.” That might not be much but it still shows how some can still be lazy and just stay in their houses all day . That is how social media ruined our social skills.


Those are some reasons how social media has affected our ability to communicate with new technology changing human minds by affecting their social skills and giving them false sense of connection.


The author's comments:

Merise  is a sophomore in high school in Lexington Kentucky. Right now Merise is a member of the Dunbar football team, enjoys studying courses like sports marketing, foundations of technology, hoping one day he can become a computer software engineer or work in the business and management industry. On his free time Merise likes to play basketball and go to the YMCA.

 

This is an Op-Ed about how social media has affected our ability to communicate over the years.


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