A famous Dutch comedian once said:,, When we invented the calculator, we got worse at calculating. Could it be that because of communication technology we got worse at communicating?”. Making things easier often means we get worse at thing, we need to practice. Our brains need the exercise to tackle more difficult problems later on. For Example: if you wanted to say something to your auntie, that lives on the other side of the ocean, you’d send a letter. You would think long and hard on what and how to say it. Your brain gets to exercise. You’re being creative. You’re message would hold meaning. Some of this is because the medium used is the letter, which enables you to think before you communicate. And because of the slower pace of life people had time to think about their message. If you’d go to a bar the messages of people would therefore be more thought over. Because people would be used to think before sending their message, at least a fraction longer then now. In making it easier to send your message to someone else and the demand of modern society to react fast, the message becomes less thought through. Communication has gotten more volatile. We see it every day. Combine this with the anonymity of the internet and you’ve got a cacophony of un-thought-through messages. Every moron with an opinion can be part of an intelligent discussion. And smoothly the norm is transformed to; Say anything, anytime, anywhere, anyhow. So the quality of communication has gotten less.

 If this holds any truth, what can we expect of social media? Will it make us less social? The definition of social, according to Wikipedia is: ‘Social’ always refers to the interaction of organisms with other organisms and to their collective co-existence, irrespective of whether they are aware of it or not, and irrespective of whether the interaction is voluntary or involuntary’.

People are tweeting, writing on walls(Facebook) and chatting with their friends. ’Talking’ to them. They’re interacting with other organisms and their collective co-existence. So far so good. However, as any communications expert can tell you 55% of impact is determined by body language—postures, gestures, and eye contact(“Inference of Attitude from Nonverbal Communication in Two Channels”, Mehrabian and Ferris, 1967).In facebooking and tweeting this part of the communication process is almost non-existent. Because this 55% is not or present, you would have to choose your words wisely for the social message to get across. This is not what happens, due to the reaction time restrictions of modern society. So your message makes less impact. In my opinion, your message reflects your personality. And if your message loses 55% of its meaning, people only get 45% of your personality. I think sociality leans heavily on knowing the personality of whom you’re communicating with. In this aspect I do think social media is de-socializing us.

tagged with: social, communication, social media

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