Pros and cons of Social media
The invention of social media revitalized the nature of social communications, offering the opportunity to create and share ideas through virtual networks. Due to the ease of access, social media platforms have broadly impacted the modes of lives of millions of users. There is, however, a debate on the impact of social media on real life communication. Social media negatively impacts people’s ability to engage in real life interactive discourses. As well, the positive effects supersede the cynical fact.
Social media platforms are based on electronic gadgetry like phones and computers. Unlike real communication, these platforms do not offer face to face feel in an interactive discussion. It is argued that social media sabotages real conversation by eliminating the physical audience. Using social media hence affects the ability of a person to engage in authentic communication productively. The real audience enhances the development of communication skills among the parties, an aspect which is missing in the social media.
Social media platforms are easily accessible. The increasing use of platforms like email, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram is posing a psychological impact on the users. According to research by (), social media users are more obsessed with their phones and computer. The obsession disrupts the effectiveness of real communication. … highlights that social media users, especially the youth, are constantly interrupted by notifications on their screens. As such, they cannot effectively participate in real communication since they are more excited by anticipated social media responses than the actual environment.
Real time communication entails the direct expression of emotions and feelings. Social media does not include such options as emotions and body expressions, which in actual communications, conveys a magnitude of information. The use of social media as a mode of communication hence obstructs the meanings and information that could have been carried by emotions and feelings in real conversation. Social media also impedes real communication by eliminating the real-time response. Social media will require one to wait for a response after sending an email or a message. This affects real communication, which is based on a real-time response from a real audience.
Real communication has a barrier of time and place in their applicability. For instance, one needs to be in the same place at the same time as the audience for communication to happen. These barriers to communication are broken by social media and technology, enabling people to connect regardless of the time and distance between them. Social medial can also advance a person’s communication skills through writing and calling by offers a platform for people from different cultures to interacts and share ideas. It can hence be argued that social media exposes people to various social issues. The exposure enables people to make meaningful contributions in real communication discourses.
Social media sabotages real communication in many ways. Social media is a tool that has been used to enhance virtual communication. It has enabled the connection of people from diverse cultures and with shared interests. This, however, does not mean effective communication. Removing vital aspects like facial and body expressions in a conversation may distort the message. Also, with the increasing obsession of these platforms among users, it is becoming hard for people to engage in real communications effectively. People are also shifting their reliance on social media platforms as a means of communication, significantly impacting the status of the actual conversation.