The days of face-to-face communications seem to have gone by after Facebook changed the way people interacted.

Social networking sites have handed or created innumerable ways for people to communicate with each other.

WTF, LOL, OMG, GR8 Even though it is easy to use Facebook, it enables an informal, unnatural and grammatically incorrect way of communicating. Or what I call the Facebook Generation Communication. Enough reasons to worry English literature professors, teachers and parents. The negative effect of Facebook on communication is already evident in how people interact out of the cyberspace. Students for example use the traits, whether correct or incorrect in writing papers for their classes, in phone conversations and face to face interactions. It has become fascinating for English literature professors and psychologists to study how students find it tolerable to used words like i for I, u for you, sry for sorry, ty for thank you and similar substitutes. This is the acceptable writing norm on social sites like Facebook. Once it becomes a habit among users it will gradually erode the importance of the language in real life. If that doesnt convince you why you should avoid Facebook communication, there are more implications to be discussed. As an increasing number of people are spending more and more of their time communicating through the site, they are gradually forgetting to communicate effectively in face to face, verbal interactions. People who spend more time on Facebook find it difficult to converse and maintain proper eye contact at the same time. Facebook propagates a form of communication where people shy behind the computer screen, smartphones and IPads and this results in lowering of their confidence. This takes away their ability to make an impression on the decision makers. According to many teachers, it is important to have face to face direct communication if you want to make a difference in the real world. In fact, interpersonal communication is a kind of an art that requires significant skills. And, good communication skills are essential when you are searching for a job, asking a stranger for directions or trying to find good services as a customer. Wherever a minimum of 2 people are involved, it is important to have effective communication. And, when you are connecting with professionals, it becomes even more important. In an article released in a Southeast Missouri State University paper, it is highlighted by the author that Facebook has enabled students to stay away from face to face communication. Facebook, email, text messages were all created in order to enable communication in a better way. However, how things have turned out, these tools are actually running the communication skills of people of all age groups. Facebook was originally started as a social hub to help students to remain in touch with their school friends. But, today it has emerged into a platform that people use for contacting and communicating with people they may have never ever met. That really seems strange and its impact on your communication skills and the way you interact with people is a good reason to avoid it.

Some of the leading studies on the negative impact of Facebook on communication have been conducted by students. This is a clear indication how the young adults are starting to realize that it is important for them to avoid Facebook style communicatioms. But, most of the other young adults dont understand how this social site is adding elements to their habits that they take along to their studies and to the real world. As an employee it is important for everyone to communicate effectively, failing effective communication at work would put a heavy damper for your future aspirations. Let alone being able to survive the corporate politics amoung your peers. If you are serious about your real life, then you would have to curtail your online life and start communicating in real life. Among the negative effects of Facebook is how the social networking site is changing the way we communicate. Before I get into that, let me start with a quick story. In 1963, Ray Kroc appeared on national television to proudly serve up McDonalds one billionth hamburger. By the time he died 21 years later, just 10 months short of the sale of the 50 billionth burger, he and his company had forever changed the way we eat by bringing fast food to American families. Whats this have to do with the negative effects of Facebook on communication? Let me explain. Recently, another behemoth company forecasted a similar milestone, albeit with significantly less fanfare. In April, Facebook indicated in its Form S-1 that it expects to have more than a billion users by year-end. In the same filing, the social media giant also reported that its 901 million existing users post more than 300 million pictures and a staggering 3.2 billion comments every day. Numbers like these boggle the mind and are just one indication of the fundamental shift that social media has brought about in terms of how people interact and share information. Just as the Big Mac and other fast foods forever changed how and what we eat and sadly not for the better Facebook and other social media channels are redefining how and what we communicate with potentially equally negative consequences. Junior Meghan Gavin agrees that Facebook does effect face-to-face communication. She says people become so distracted in social networking that they often forget about communicating in the most influential way and they have little hope of being connected to people personally. Social networking sites, specifically Facebook, effects students face-to-face communication, Gavin said. They often forget how to communicate correctly with people in person. Facebook also takes the expressions and emotions out of communicating sophomore Katie Mitcheson says. Instead of meeting in person, many people choose to virtually chat with friends, family members, and even employers on Facebooks instant messenger or comment section. Mitcheson says that the joy of seeing someone smile or the pain of seeing someone cry is being taken away. She says if one cannot be emotionally and personally connected with someone, then they might as well not be connected at all.

Nearly 85 percent of college students log on to Facebook every day according to techrunch.com. The social networking site has become an addiction for many. Instead of students concentrating on their homework or studying for a big test the next day, they are spending hours looking through pictures, answering their page comments, and chatting with friends on the sites instant messenger. Facebook has consumed good grades and face-to-face communication is in jeopardy. According to Professor Swarndeep Gill of the CalU earth science department Facebook can be very distracting. He says that many of his students grades show how they get sucked into distractions such as Facebook and remain glued to their computers for hours. He is concerned that some students are spending too much time on the social networking site when they need to be focusing more on their homework. College is not easy and takes a great deal of focus, Gill said. There is little room for the distractions of Facebook when you want good grades. Senior Allen Pines agrees that the site takes time away from his homework. He says that some of his grades reflect the little time he spends studying. Instead of finishing his work, he finds himself taking multiple breaks to visit Facebook. Doing my homework is important to me, Pines says. But I cant help getting caught up in the world of Facebook. Employers are less than satisfied with the face-to-face communication skills of recent graduates according to allbusiness.com. The social networking site of Facebook does not allow for active communication. Professor Craig Fox of the philosophy department is worried that the shorter attention-grabbing bursts of communication on Facebook could be taken as a detrimental model for all communications. I think that anything that encourages communication between people is potentially a positive thing, Fox said. But it is a very negative thing too. Junior Meghan Gavin agrees that Facebook does effect face-to-face communication. She says people become so distracted in social networking that they often forget about communicating in the most influential way and they have little hope of being connected to people personally. Social networking sites, specifically Facebook, effects students face-to-face communication, Gavin said. They often forget how to communicate correctly with people in person. Facebook also takes the expressions and emotions out of communicating sophomore Katie Mitcheson says. Instead of meeting in person, many people choose to virtually chat with friends, family members, and even employers on Facebooks instant messenger or comment section. Mitcheson says that the joy of seeing someone smile or the pain of seeing someone cry is being taken away. She says if one cannot be emotionally and personally connected with someone, then they might as well not be connected at all.

I do have a Facebook, Mitcheson said. But I try to avoid it as much as possible so that I can stay emotionally connected with friends and family. Even with all the negative aspects of Facebook, many students continue to spend hours on the social networking site. They push their homework aside to chat with friends or update their statuses and perhaps see their face-to-face communication skills erode little by little. I love going on Facebook, freshman Tori Humbert said. I love staying connected with people and checking up on all the latest gossip. One negative effect Facebook has on us is it diminishes our ability to communicate. Im not suggesting you should not communicate through it, but I do not think your life should revolve around communication through this website. Facebook makes it extremely easy to find and keep in contact with friends and family. With that said, it keeps us away from interacting outside of the internet. We now send out email invites to parties and celebrations through here, chat instead of making the phone call, and send emails instead of writing a letter. A lack of face-to-face communication can really hurt the way we interact with people. We may not realize this at first, but it becomes apparent when we feel awkward trying to actually speak to someone. It increases antisocial tendencies because there is no longer direct communication with another person. Another point is how addicted we have become to this social networking site. We wake up and check it like its a newspaper and keep checking it throughout the day to see what gossip there is to pick up on. People have begun to post their every step, from waking up in the morning until the time they go to bed, including pictures of every meal they have; I have actually caught myself almost posting pictures of my home cooked meals. There is even an option to check into places you visit so everyone knows where you are. Facebook is available on your phone so you can log in while away from the computer, feeding your addiction even more. It can really take over your life in a short matter of time. I think the biggest, negative impact Facebook has on our lives is loss of privacy. For instance, if you do not set your profile to private, anybody has access to every piece of information you decide to share. Potential employers can easily search for you here and find all of your personal information, including some posts or pictures that may ruin your chances of getting a job. One negative post can affect the way people perceive you as a person. Even if you do set your profile to private, there are still ways people manage to see things you are doing on here. An example would be if a friend of yours likes a photo or status you have, it will notify their friends of this, therefore the privacy setting is overthrown. You have to be careful as to what you actually want to share for anybody to see. Facebook is a wonderful place to keep in contact and share all your wonderful moments, but I also believe it is important to understand the negative impacts it can have on us. The traditional ways of communication are falling to the wayside, creating a culture of people who are almost afraid to interact with people. Your privacy and security are important, now more than ever, in this age of instant information. Most importantly, I think we need to remember to spend time with our family and friends outside of the internet and enjoy our time together.