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Thomas Peterson Professor Angela Rounsaville ENC 1102H 13 November 2013 Through the Computer Screen: An Online Analysis of UCF Communication Introduction It is rather difficult to walk across a college campus today and a student on his/her cell phone or computer using a social networking site. Because of this, it is easy to argue that social media is ubiquitous for young adults, college students in particular (Boyd 210). One of the reasons this phenomena is occurring is partially due to the inundation of such readily available and apt technology but another reason is that social networking has become commonplace and a routine for our generation. With students spending what seems to be an inordinate amount of time plugged into social media, it makes one curious for what they could possibly be doing for that long. A good majority of the time, these students are interacting with one another through social media. This interaction can be seen as communication. As weird as it may seem, there has definitely been a shift in the past years in reference to communication. Before the advent of technology such as laptops, cell phones and iPods, people typically communicated to one another either in letters through the pony or through face-to-face interaction. Because this form of communication via the internet is as new to not only our society, but humanity as a whole, there is a lot of room for error and problems. Through my research, I am hoping to define the trends (both on communication styles/tactics as well as interests/values) across

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specific social media sites that I feel encompass the University of Central Florida (UCF) online community as a whole as to determine what the community values. From the research that has been conducted and future research, there are two main goals. The first is to understand the student body at the UCFs online community. Because this school is primarily a commuter campus, one of the better ways to get the bigger picture is to go online because not only would that encompass a large proportion of the students, but the students are already there and more or less are waiting to be researched whether they know it or not. The second end goal that can be achieve through this sort of research is to clearly define the social norms of communication of a forum that is relatively new and not highly researched thus far. While I am looking at the UCF online community to further enhance my understanding and appreciation of it, the superordinate goal of my project is to document social norms and uncover the communication styles within social media in order to contribute to prior literature that somewhat relates. There is already some discussion on social media communication. However, they all seem to talk about the prevalence of this unifying communication online that I personally do not see taking place. Author Denis McQuails book Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction discusses the effect of an increase in mass media and the subsequent changes in communication (McQuail 1). He even makes a pyramid for levels of communication starting with intrapersonal all the way to what he deems is society-wide networks, mass communication for example (McQuail 18). While that is definitely something to take into account in that online communication is not the only form of communication, he speaks in a way that makes it appear that interaction between individuals is everywhere in social settings (like that of social

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networking sites). Furthermore, Tumblr has been dubbed a communication trendsetter (Creamer). While this is stated by one who is an expert in his respective field, I would have to respectfully disagree with his claim for the purposes of my own paper. While there is communication on these sites, the way communication is looked as is completely different between the verbal and nonverbal. Also, it was believed that with a frequent online communication window, there would be a positive effect on online friendship formation (Peter 425). When an experiment was performed, the results turned out much more differently than expected. While the experiment highlighted those who were characterized as introverts, it was found that there was no motive for online communication for social compensation and in fact there was no correlation between communication and friendship formation (Peter 426). In order to gain a better perspective of the UCF online community, an ethnographical research project will be performed. In addition to understanding this specific community, the reader will be able to learn about specific trends that are site specific as well as some trends that are so common for most of the students that attend UCF, that they transcend all every form of social media. This will be a continuation of other scholars within the discourse community of new media studies, but chiefly within the communication studies. Some of the major findings prove to be quite interesting. One of the most intriguing discoveries that what seems to be the most common form of online communication does not even utilize words. This took the research to a whole new level, non-communicative communication. For structural purposes, there obviously there must be an introduction at to tie in the reader so he/she will continue to read on. With my own paper, I wanted to establish just where

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I am looking and what I am looking for; through this research project, I delved online in order to discover the social norms of communication within social media websites utilized by the UCF community. A persons methodology must also be accounted for as to ensure that the findings can be trusted and validated. I will later discuss why I chose to employ interviews and in depth analysis of a research space as opposed to other methods of primary data collection. Once it is clear that the research chose a research plan that is viable enough to produce cohesive and relevant results, the results themselves must be identified and also extensively explained. The explanation of the findings is perhaps one of the most crucial elements of the entire paper as it gives meaning to the product(s) of the research and subsequently validates why the research was conducted in the first place. For the results, the most pivotal claim I will discuss is on the topic (which I will also define) of what I refer to as non -communicative communication. While a conclusion is not a seal on the paper, it closes what the writer has to say, but leave room for further work by future researchers. This is done because there really is no such thing as a final word that can be said about a topic. Times and circumstances change and that trickles down to new research and new findings; the research I am conducting is an example of this as it could not be done without the technology that enabled online communication. In my own conclusion, I will tie in how all of my findings relate to the notion of communication mentioned above and what it could mean for future generations. Methods By coupling two different methods of primary data collection, the goals of this research project, which chiefly are to gain a better understanding of the social norms of communication in an online forum, will hopefully be achieved.

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Because my ethnographic research is about online communication through social media, I completed most of my research on the computer. In order to find what UCF students specifically post, I looked at the UCF-affiliated tags on Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram and jotted down notes on the trends I see within and on the sites themselves and also paying close attention to trends that may appear between the sites so I can find out what makes these sites similar as well as different from one another in terms of who is posting and what are they posting. For Facebook, there are many different avenues to find a page or group related to UCF, so I will be exploring the UCF Class of 2017 (Official Group) page which I, as well as over 4400 other students of the freshman class here at UCF are members of. I am using these subdivisions of these websites so I may weed out everything else except what UCF students are posting about UCF or at least what they feel the need to tag as UCF affiliated. In addition to the online method of research, I conducted several interviews. I originally thought there was more to gain from someone about their attitudes on social media when talking face to face as opposed to online; in an online forum, people are more likely to be more radical as to gain attention, where as in person, they will be more real and honest. For the individual interviews, four UCF freshman participated. It consisted of two males and two females from different backgrounds; the panel included an individual of African-American descent, another of Jewish descent, a homosexual and a white girl. Their diversification was also furthered when each individual picked a different social media website as his/her favorite. I chose these individuals as I believed I would be the best representation of students not only across the UCF campus, but of most university campuses across the country. Again these

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interviews were to give the people who posted a voice and so that they could comment and contribute their attitudes about the subject matter. The online jottings will allow me to gain a completely unbiased look into the world of the UCF online community while the interviews will provide a much needed personal opinion. While I did an exploitation of a research space (being the social media websites themselves) as well as in depth interviews, there were many other options on how to collect my primary research that I did forgo. Perhaps the most important reason as to why I did not use these various methods, which can include but are certainly not limited to surveys and experiments, is because they would either not be appropriate or would not help to achieve the superordinate goals. Specifically, an experiment looks at a cause and effect relationship; the aim of this research is to note and identify social phenomena so an observational study would yield better results. Results/Discussion: What proved to be interesting during the interviews was when furthered probed on the favorite site the individual utilized the most, three of the four stated that they liked that particular site because of the easiness factor they believed the website to possess to communicate their ideas and interests with friends depending on the website itself through a post. While all of the sites are different from one another, there is still a large commonality in that the user will make postings. A good portion of the time, a posting is in the form of text/picture and the reasoning behind why someone makes a posting often goes unknown except maybe to convey a message to people they know are following them and eagerly awaiting what the poster has to say/show.

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When asked, most of the students in the study say they post what they post so others will see and react to it. I feel accomplished when I get a lot of likes on a(n Instagram) post said one student. That feeling of pride seemed to be a theme for all the others as they too agreed that when a post gets a certain number of likes and/or favorites, they feel better about themselves. This leads me to believe that a central reason why people make postings is to not only have others see what they are doing, but for others to give them approval and thus their postings and profiles are subsequently justifiable. While the student I interviewed in the study seemed to be preoccupied with how many likes/favorites a posting got, none of them mentioned someone literally saying that they liked the post. This again led me to believe that that majority of social interaction online took a nonverbal or non-communicative form. One more thing I noted during the interviews was that when I talked in terms of others commenting on posts made by those I interviewed, they chiefly discussed the likes, favorites and retweets which does not constitute a comment as no words are used. While this is a form of interaction between users on social media websites, this is not something that can be categorized as verbal communication. In order to not lead the interviewees into validating my claim, I looked heavily into the social media sites to see whether or not this idea of noncommunicative communication dominated social media. This idea of non-communicative communication is interplay between online users but utilizes no actual words. More often than not this will be seen as a favorite, like, or retweet; however, a follow on any social media website or a friend request on Facebook is another form of non-communicative communication that the person who initiates this action wants to see what the receiver is posting in his/her online forum. This follow or friend request is

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something that takes place quite often, but unfortunately, the general public has no access as it is specific to the holder on the account that is being followed or requested. Yet, there is no denying that it takes place and is another form of communication on the nonverbal persuasion. While in no way explicit, one could argue that this following phenomena can be seen to an extent. A major finding during the course of my research that I noted nearly every time I went to collect data was that on Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook there were picture postings. Even though this is a common posting students use as it is conceivable that the youth generation has become more visual over time, these pictures had another similar attribute; they all were picture linked to a persons Instagram account. What I can take away from this is that Instagram is in a sense at the epicenter of the online social media forefront. While it is not the most popular by numbers across the nation, it is the one that I can see the most crossover between the social media sites I specifically decided to look at. One of the reasons why users do this is so people will click the link and go to the posters Instagram account. Once there, there poster is hoping that the interested party will go through their account and if he/she likes it enough will subsequently follow them. Having a large number of likes on a post is definitely important to students, but a social norm specific to Instagram is what is known as a follower ratio. This is the proportion of people who follow a user to the number of people that individual him/herself follows. It is common knowledge among those who use Instagram that you want to have more followers than people you follow, thus increasing your follower ratio. This ratio communicates to others that this profile is something special and that the postings are liked by a large number of people.

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From the primary research collected, it seemed to be that for Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr, the notion that most of the communication occurred in a non -verbal manner proved to be true. For Tumblr, arguably or seemingly the least used (or least tagged UCF) almost every notification that a posting would get was in the form of a like. While having the option to reblog or even comment, it was seldom used within the UCF tag of Tumblr. Furthermore, in Instagram, which is one of the most popular sites with its integration of multimedia had hardly any interaction within the UCF affiliated tag. In one sitting, it seemed as though most of the photos that were shown only had between 12-20 likes. Continuing the trend from Tumblr, there was no verbal interaction in the form of a comment on the pictures. On Twitter, which mainly consists of 140 character maximum text posts, there was little to no interaction as well. While I have seen my friends having conversations on Twitter, I was unable to find this in the #UCF subsection of Twitter. While one of the most fundamental aspects of the UCF creed is the idea of community, it does not seem as though this core belief extends itself to the digital world between students. There was however, one outlier for the non-communicative communication; where others appeared dead and empty, Facebook seemed to be lively and an explosion of interaction. Whether a troll, question, sales pitch or otherwise, one will seldom see a post on the UCF Class of 2017 (Official Group) that goes on without at least one like or comment. In actuality, most of the postings within this specific group will have many comments and likes from many freshman. While not all of the 4851 members of this group are freshman at UCF, there are many students who are there to help one another. Considering that most of the members are new students at UCF, a majority of the postings are questions on a myriad of

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topics ranging from which classes/professors to take, where to go for events etc. In addition to questions, there are many picture and text posts that are jokes either about the common struggles that are experienced by most UCF students or bashing other schools, namely USF. Even though Facebook is the most reciprocative social media website I looked into, there are several explanations as to why that is so that could account for what was observed. First and foremost, the UCF Class of 2017 (Official Group) is perhaps the most specific subcategory within a site I looked into and perhaps since the purpose of this groups also contributed to the fact that there was far more interaction than the other sites. Conclusion: The fact that this was a group was observed could differentiate it from every other tag that was involved in the study. Going back to the purpose, the group was created for students to interact with one another as well as make friends and ask questions. Perhaps since this was the only instance where there was a clear goal of the site that made the members feel more inclined to interact with one another that they actually did. While there is no discrediting the fact that Facebook utilized communication more so than any other forum, perhaps the methodology utilized in primary data collection lead to this and that it is possible in reality Facebook is just as quiet as the others. What can be learned from the primary research though is that there are social norms of social networking sites. Perhaps the most commonly seen norm of all is not even one of words, but a simple click of a keyboard or a press of a touchscreen that can be seen as a like, favorite or retweet. While it is unclear what has driven individuals to shy away from words and opt for the short and to the point validation, it seems as though the poster seems unfazed by this

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phenomena. In fact, users seem to be quite satisfied with themselves when a good number of others will either like, retweet or favorite their posting. For some, they see this as a validation for the post and feel accomplished that their posting was appreciated by others and that this feeling fuels the fire within an individual to keep posting. Social media dominates the lives of most young people, especially college students. Joseph Grenny once said The world has changed and a significant proportion of realtionships happen online but manners havent caught up with technology (Mientaka). If people do not follow the social norms online, not just on social networking sites, then the future of communication online seems abysmal. Considering that a majority of communication online is what I have learned to call non-communicative communication and words are seldom being used to interact with one another I wonder what is to come next for social media not only on college campuses, but on a much wider scale as well. Works Cited: Boyd, Danah M., and Nicole B. Ellison. "Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication: n. pag. Rpt. in International Communication Association. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. postgradolinguistica. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. <http://www.postgradolinguistica.ucv.cl/dev/documentos/90,889,Social_network_boyd_ 2007.pdf>. Creamer, Matthew. "Media Morph: Tumblr." Advertising Age 78.44 (2007): 31. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 19 Oct. 2013. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2013.

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Dr. Jochen Peter, Patti M. Valkenburg, and Alexander P. Schouten. CyberPsychology & Behavior. October 2005, 8(5): 423-430. doi:10.1089/cpb.2005.8.423. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. McQuail, Denis. Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction. 6th ed. London: SAGE Publications, 2010. Print. Mientka, Matthew. "Social Media Challenges Social Norms, As More Users Experience Online Rudeness." Medical Daily. N.p., 10 Apr. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. <http://www.medicaldaily.com/social-media-challenges-social-norms-more-usersexperience-online-rudeness-244981>.