This is an excellent question Schwartz and Barnes asked, as face-to-face communication is slowly fading away. Instead of calling people on the telephone or talking to someone in person, text messages and e-mails have taken over. Social media sites, such as Blogger, Facebook and Twitter, are allowing people to keep their "friends" updated on what they are doing without actually communicating with individuals. Facebook, for example, allows "friends" to keep updated on a person's life, including relationships and what they're doing, without actually talking to anyone. This site has even added Facebook Chat because writing on walls wasn't effective anymore.
Social media sites and the Internet have made people less friendly in person. People prefer to communicate through instant messaging or e-mails as well as blogs, tweets and wall postings. Talking in person strikes fear into people, making them feel awkward and second guessing everything they say. However, with social media sites, the awkward silences are not present and you can edit what you're thoughts before communicating them.
Unfortunately, social media is making us less social in person. We would rather spend time in the comfort of our own homes in sweatpants updating complete strangers about our lives instead of going to the local watering hole and meeting new people. Maybe this is why online dating has become so popular and effective. Without the pressures of face-to-face communication, people can be themselves on social media (or dating) sites. Just like the video killed the radio star, social media is going to kill face-to-face communication (okay, maybe not kill but severely damage).
1 comment:
I completely agree with you. I think social media is definitely taking steps towards replacing face-to-face communication. I am not saying social media is bad, but I think the public needs to find a balance between these two types of communications. With the direction things are already heading, this balance might be hard to reach. Our generation is attached to their computers and are constantly talking about how much they hate awkward situations and speaking in public. I think this is in large part due to the lack of one on one communication. Last year, Melissa told PRSSA to put ourselves in awkwards situations because it would help us in the real world. But with social media, there is a much lesser chance to be put in an awkwards situation. And if you are, you can delete the comment or deal with it later. I really hope that our generation and the pr world can find a happy medium between face to face communication and social media.
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