To begin, I know this is ironic that I’m using social media to stress my concern, however at this point it has become the most effective way to communicate my thoughts to the most amount of people.
Social media. Facebook. MySpace. Twitter. Everyone knows what I am talking about, not simply by word of mouth, but by a social media revolution. Everyone has a Facebook account, people are quickly catching onto the Twitter phenomenon, my question is, what exactly is this social media doing to us? Is it completely changing the way we communicate without us even knowing? Is it strong enough to create a permanent impact on our society?
Now, I am only twenty-one years old, old enough to admit my lack of knowledge about society, but young enough to think I can still figure out all the answers. What I want to figure out is if our society is changing, if the way we communicate is permanently altered due to social media.
The famous sociologist Emile Durkheim talked about how society would ultimately fail due to his notion of anomie and a general lack of solidarity. Basically, we’re losing everything that kept us together as a functioning society; to Durkheim that meant that institutions such as religion and education, the glue that held us together, are no longer valued parts of our society, and all together our values are diminishing. The more we communicate through technology, the less solidarity we have.
We now have a technological society. With that, we have a lack of traditional, normal communication. For example, lets talk about a normal day at Penn State. You walk to class like everyone else, but do you stop to smile, wave or greet anyone, or are you staring at your Smartphone or listening to your IPOD to avoid communication? When you sit in class it’s not like High School where everyone is talking until the second that class starts, now it’s much more common that everyone is sitting in silence, most likely on their Smartphones tending to their online relationships, rather than dare to obtain an actual relationship with someone.
Times are most definitely changing, but what I struggle to figure out is, is it good, or bad?
To learn more about Emile Durkheim and his impact on the social world, click here:
http://www.sociology.org/content/vol005.003/dubeski.html
This is such a well written post. You bring up some great points on how social media is changing the way we communicate. I recently read how some feel more comfortable communicating online rather than face-to-face and would rather do all communication through social media. In a way I feel that it could harm society. If everyone would rather continue communicating online rather than talking and meeting new people in class how is that going to create better social and communication skills? Sometimes it feels that people want to shut everyone out of their life and not be bothered when they only play on their phones or listen to music in class which could make them missing out on meeting new people that they could become great friends with. I feel that communication is more than just in writing, and without verbal face-to-face communication it can harm society and how we continue to learn, especially in today’s world where online classes are becoming more popular.
ReplyDeleteThis is becoming a huge trend lately, and not necessarily in a positive way. I too and guilty of wearing my headphones when walking to class or texting on my IPhone to keep me occupied on my walk from the Business Building to Sparks. What’s worse is I now hear people shouting at each other to make plans. You would assume they would say call me later and we’ll make plans. However, people are not just saying text me, tweet me, or Facebook me to make their plans. Wasn’t the point in making plans to interact? I guess you don’t have to interact anymore to lead to the interaction.
ReplyDeleteYour post really got me thinking. I see everyday how much college students rely on technology as they walk to class or even in class. I admit I am guilty of this as well. Listening to my iPod on my walk to class or checking my cell in class has all become normal to me. Social media has been credited to bringing people from all around the world together so they can have conversation, but now I'm wondering if it’s hurting basic social skills. I feel like some people may feel more comfortable talking to others behind a computer screen than face to face. If this is the case then our society may have a problem. Through social media we can have good conversations and share opinions but you lose that face to face communication that is so important. They say that gestures and facial expressions are the most important part of communicating and over the computer we could lose that and lose meaningful relationships with people. Nothing is more genuine than having a good conversation with someone, in person. This is a great topic that I feel will be brought up more and more in the future.
ReplyDeleteI remember having a Myspace and then I went to Facebook. Then my parents and grandparents started coming onto Facebook, so I turned to Twitter. I have now seen Twitter have a lot more high schoolers coming on board. This is really annoying to me. Social media has become a way to communicate our feelings but people have forgotten how to verbally communicate. This makes it important to have classes where we need to present or have speech classes. People no longer know how to communicate in the right way anymore.
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