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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 (SimonNPR.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

Reiner 3 ! social norms and make your own. While I was at a birthday dinner for my close friend, I felt like 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

Reiner 4 ! has many pros and cons I believe that the cons out rule the pros. For instance, in a seminar on 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. {Facing One Another} Today it seems to be a generalization that young adults steer away from face to face communication, but why? I have realized just being a ordinary college student that most people are on social media daily-even during class. The new, trendy social media site is Yik Yak, a site where you can yik yak about random things or people around you anonymously. This is available via iPhone and Android and thousands of college students have downloaded this application. This Yik Yak is another social media site that has been added into the equation of no real communication. The communication skills of college students have abruptly changed in the past years, its actually a little terrifying. According to a Social Interactions Across Media study by Nancy

Reiner 5 ! Baym, Yan Bing Zhang, and Mei-Chen Lin in 2004, college students tended to have a dominate interaction of face to face, while the phone and internet were about the same interaction with slimmer rates (Baym, Zhang and Lin). Although this study is just a few years after the internet became popular, now a decade after that, the face to face interactions has lowered tremendously. The study also suggests that instead of a trade-off between high quality face-to-face conversations and lower quality internet interactions, students are supplementing high quality face-to-face conversations and telephone calls with really good internet interactions (Baym, Zhang and Lin). This proves that although the statistics were not that big of difference, that even in 2004 college students were still using the internet over face-to-face communication. However, the cell phone is also an issue when it comes to the topic of face-to-face interaction. Today, the typical cellular device would be considered a smart phone- iPhone or Android. These smart phones make is more accessible to the social media sites with the smart phone apps. Mark Glaser, a host for PBS, wrote an article speaking about this problem of cell phones killing face-to-face interaction. Glaser states, But when my friend chooses to tap on his iPhone while we are out having dinner, I feel like Im having dinner for three: me, him and the iPhone (Glaser). I completely agree with this statement, as I was speaking to the pictures on the walls at dinner earlier. I am glad I am not the only one that sees the issue with the cell phones and technologies of today. Glaser took the words out of my mouth when he says, Of course, I am not anti-technology and am in awe of the iPhone. Of course we are not the only two that are like this, but we are the few of the billions of people living on planet Earth that do know when is the right time not to pull out a cell phone in order to keep the face-to-face conversation alive between friends.

Reiner 6 ! {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 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

Reiner 7 ! 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 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 8 ! Works Cited

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Baym, Nancy K, Yan B. Zhang, and Mei-Chen Lin. "Social Interactions Across Media: Interpersonal Communication on the Internet, Telephone and Face-to-Face." New Media & Society. 6.3 (2004): 299-318. Print. Dailey, Kate. "Friends With Benefits: Do Facebook Friends Provide the Same Support as Those In Real Life?" Newsweek.com. NEWSWEEK, 19 May 2010. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. 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. Glaser, Mark. "MediaShift." PBS. PBS, 22 Oct. 2007. Web. 13 Apr. 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. Simon, Scott.. "Social Media's Growing Influence." NPR. NPR, 12 Sept. 2009. Web. 8 Mar. 2014.