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Erika Reiner Professor Campbell Extended Inquiry Project 27 March 2014 When Social Media Reaches [no] Communication *Titles Per Entry {Making It Happen} Why do we tend to lead towards social media? Why are we so dependent on it? This is what I want to know. Our generation of young adults are so involved with social media that we steer away from real communication. For instance, take the fact that even the manager owner of RDH RDH, a residential dining hall ning hall on UNC Charlotte campus, yells to the college students eagerly waiting in line to eat that they need to check social media if the dining hall will be closed later on due to inclement weather. Thhis owner knows how to communicate with our generation, but does the generation know how to communicate to each other? This is not just about our generation either, but the generations surrounding. The younger generations began to have a smartphone at age ten. I did not even know what a smartphone was when I was ten. Then of course the older generations nagging on about how they would have to walk to a friends house to see if they could hangout, and it was not a phone call away and that they did not even have a cell phone. The real question is how are these various social media sites affecting our communication skills in society? In order to find out the answer to this question, there will be an in depth case of

Reiner 2 ! inquiry throughout research. Throughout this research we will find the key to social interactions in everyday life.

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{Looking Into} Digging deep into the social media world, there are many interesting facts about social media. For example, while I was listening to a segment on NPR: Social Medias Growing Influence, Scott Simon and Clay Shirky talk about Simons one million followers on Twitter, but something that Simon stated really stood out to me. Simon said, ...I really do think of each and everyone of those million as friends. While Shirky replies states, There is absolutely something special to the relationship. All I mean is you cant have a two-way conversation with a million people (NPR.org). While Simon agreed, Shirky could not have been more correct by his statement, who is to say you know each and every single one of our followers on Twitter or friends on Facebook. This is our problem that I want to see unfold- why do we have real fake friends. How can you call someone that you have only ever met on social media your friend? Communication skills lack because you are only talking to your friends on social media, not in person. The argument called Friends with Benefits by Kate Dailey is a good example of this. DaileyShe states, Shy people who may not always be able to engage friends in the real world are finding solace in the structure of Facebook. This indicates that the shy people depend on it more so than outgoing people, which could be true, but why? It could be that people now hide behind the computer- which leads to no face to face communication. Get out and see the world, talk to people as you pass them instead of looking down at your phone. Go against the social norms and make your own. While I was at a birthday dinner for my close friend, I felt like

Reiner 3 ! I was talking to the pictures on the walls while the others at dinner were on their phones. This bothered me because we are all together for a nice dinner to celebrate the birth of a close friend that we all knew and could not hold a conversation for more than five minutes without looking at a cell phone. In addition, while researching I had found a Social Media Update 2013, in which this it states that some 73% of online adults now use a social networking site of some kind...and some 42% of online adults now use multiple social networking sites (Duggan and Smith). So how come the adults nowthey did not use it back then, but now they are using it more than young adults in this generation. Is there really a big difference between the percentages of usage between the generations? This allows us to look more into the differences of generations and how the social media has affected them.

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{This & That /// Then & Now} Generations seem to be changing as the days go by. First you have Generation X that rely on their feet to go and hang out with their friends, then you have my generation, the Millennials, who are relying on their phones 24/7 to make sure they know exactly what is going on in everyones lives. LThen lastly, the New Silent Generation who- well they are pretty much screwed up based on the societies norms. Though, is the real problem social media or society? It could be both social media and society, but I believe that the social media is the cause of to the poorbad society that we live in. If it was not for the drama on social media that leers society into it, then we would not have as many problems as we do today. Although social media has many pros and cons I believe that the cons out rule the pros. For instance, in a seminar on

Reiner 4 ! social media researchers they talked about some of the following se pros and cons. According to ProCon.org,tThe pros are that social networking sites spread information faster than any other media, law enforcement uses social networking sites to catch and prosecute criminals; and social media allows for quick, easy dissemination of public and safety information from reputable sources. On the contraryiety, social media enables the spread of unreliable and false information, social networking sites lack privacy and expose users to government and corporate intrusions; and social networking site users are vulnerable to security attacks such as hacking, identity theft, and viruses (ProCon.org). So with this stated, we see that yes thereir are many good qualities that come with social media, but their are bad ones just as well. While these might not have anything to do with the face to face communication, it brings an extra understanding to the intended audience with how social media can affect communication.

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{Communication is actually the key} When is the last time that you have talked to someone over the phone about your everyday life- whether it was telling them about something that happened earlier that day or just to see how they are doing? It could have been a long time because you see Facebook status updates and Tweets every second of the day that there is no need to have a face to face (or ear to ear) conversation with someone. I catch myself saying Oh yeah, I saw that on TwitterFacebook more that I am actually excited to hear about the story itself because I have already read about it. This also leads back to Daileys article, when she states, its the fastest way to disseminate important information to the group without having to deal with painful phone calls. While this is true, it is not the way that a close friend or relative should find that kind of information out.out

Reiner 5 ! either exciting or tragic information. What is so difficult hard about picking up the phone and seeing how your friend is doing or telling them excitinged news? Face to face communication is key and society needs to express that more often, instead of promoting social media on the daily basis. When it is stated that social media reaches no one-on-one communication, it means exactly that. Social media does not give you the interaction that you should have on a daily basis with someone. Yes, the technologies of this century haves definitely made it easier to communicate with one another, but we should not take those for granted. For example, if a child could only FaceTime or Skype their loved one over in Afghanistan fighting for our country, the video chat is the only form of communication available for them while the time is very limited and cherished. Yet on the other side of the borders, we have friends that text each other just for the fun of it, myself included, but when they get into big groups they are so nervous to speak out and be bold. So the Wwith the real question being how are these various social media sites are affecting our communication skills in society; we can now conclude that the real key is communication rather than social media. Social media is another form of communication, but not the one that will get us far in life. Social media sites are good for spreading news, whether it wether is local or world news, and but are a good source to stay up to date with friends from your childhood or someone you met over a cruise. Though it is good for these various tasks, one thing it is not good for is relationship communication. Relationship communication is communication between two or more people in a face to face confrontation and this allows the conversation to be

Reiner 6 ! real and interactive. With this being said,Thus face to face communication is a must in society in order for communication to be a fundamental skill in life. !

Reiner 7 ! Works Cited

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Duggan, Maeve, and Aaron Smith. "Social Media Update 2013." Pew Research Centers Internet American Life Project RSS. Pew Research Center, 30 Dec. 2013. Web. 8 Mar. 2014. Hu, Elise. "Facebook Makes Us Sadder And Less Satisfied, Study Finds." NPR. NPR, 20 Aug. 2013. Web. 8 Mar. 2014. Keyes, Allison. "A Social Media Makeover?" NPR. NPR, 7 Apr. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. NPR. "Social Media's Growing Influence." NPR. NPR, 12 Sept. 2009. Web. 8 Mar. 2014. ProCon.org. Are Social Networking Sites good for Our Society?" ProCon.org. 9 Sep. 2011. Web. 3 Mar. 2013.