Running head: THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON COMMUNICATION SKILLS 1

The Effects Of Social Media On Communication Skills

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Introduction

In this assignment, I will discuss the effects of Social Media on Communication

Skills. Social media refers to applications or websites that facilitate creation and sharing of

content online. Again, they facilitate participation on social networking activities for the

individuals who have got accounts on the social platforms. Some of the popular social media

platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Snapchat. Social media

platforms facilitate communication amongst individuals through sharing of photos, videos,

audios, calls, video calls, status updates amongst many others. Communication skills refers to

the ability of conveying information from one point to another effectively and efficiently.

Social media have grown as a result of technological advancements. With such special

features embedded in the social media, one expects positive impact on the communication

skills. However, this is has not been the case. Various studies and researches have been done

by various experienced authors and researchers and proved otherwise. Negative impacts

have been associated with the social media such impairing peoples’ ability to share thoughts

with others distorting the communication processes amongst many others. In fact, they have

created more problems when compared to the benefits.

In my discussion, I will find various researches and articles discussing negative

effects associated with social media on communication skills, analyses the causes, effects and

propose feasible solution for addressing the issues.

Discussion

Reider & Carson (2017) carried out a research with an ultimate aim of determining

how the Effects of Social Media on Communication Skills. In their study, they were able to

establish negative impact of social media in communication skills. They found out that

extensive use of social media affects interpersonal communication. They end up deteriorating

its quality. With the current generation, especially the millennia. It has confirmed that over
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93% of today’s communication has gone non-verbal. People no longer have interest for face-

to-face communication. Social messaging system has been preferred in addressing social

issues such as relationships. This makes it difficult to deliver information as expected, as

verbal communication is accompanied by nonverbal cues like boy movements that make the

information delivery more effective.

Engagement in face-to-face communication has got the effect of conveying social

information effectively. It ensures both vocal and visual cues in delivery of the information.

For communication to be effective, Non-verbal communication has been given a lot of

weight. This is based on the fact that it incorporates eye contact, tone of the voice as well as

facial expressions. Face-to-face communication facilitates adjustments of one’s behavior in

respect to the received information. Understanding emotional cues plays critical role in

improving social skills and creating positive peer relationships. Reliance on social media

makes it hard to have effective personal communication (New York Behavioral Health. N.P.,

n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2017).

Rampages.us. N.P., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. (2017) carried research entitled, The Negative

Impacts of Social Media on Face-to-Face Interactions. The study concluded that, social media

had the effect of reducing the amount of Face-to-Face Interactions and the way people

associate with each other. Many people have got access of smartphones. The more the

acquisition of smartphones, the more communication skills keep on deteriorating. People

have become antisocial and therefore, cannot effectively communicate with each other.

Social media have brought about various benefits as it supports communication with

people whom we do not or those are far way. After carrying out comparison on both offline

and online communication, Gannett Satellite Information Network (2017) were able to

conclude that word-of-mouth information exchanges as well as in-depth conversation were

the most influential. Ed Keller and Brad Fay (2015) published an article in support of the
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same. In their article, titled, The Face-to-Face Book: Why Real Relationships Rule in a

Digital Marketplace, they established out that physical communications were more effective

as opposed to the use of social media. Social media was associated with lack of convincing

and influencing powers, hence not ideal for marketing purposes. Communicating with

customers require more effective ways of communication, a combination of both verbal and

nonverbal cues. Most marketing decisions are made based on interpersonal or social

influence. Based on TalkTrack study, over 90% of all influential communication are based on

offline communication, with only 8% online conversations that tend to be effective.

According to Nicholas Dantuono (2015), social media have adversely affected

communication skills amongst adolescents. In order to succeed well in life, there is need to

have social and interaction skills. Children who grow having such skills end up being

successful and useful in life. Face to face scenarios facilitate such interaction amongst the

children. However, with advancements in social media, things have changed. Interactions

amongst children have been highly reduced. Ehmke argues that just like any other species,

human beings are tunes to reading social skills as well as body languages. However,

introduction of computers and smartphones have led to diminishing of social skills and body

language, hence interfering negatively with communication skills. Forecasts indicate that,

failure to control the use of Social Media amongst adolescents and teens, with no doubts, the

coming generation will have poor communication skills.

With the rapid technological advancements in the communication sector,

conversations amongst people have shifted, to the worse and not the better. Over 90% of

communication is through screens and not face-to-face. The screen conversations have taken

away critical considerations in communication such as the ability to sense how the others fell

when relaying the messages. This makes communication ineffective and incomplete, hence

interfering negatively with communication skills (Carson, 2014).

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Through his research, Edwin (2017) was able to come up with some of negative

effects of social media on communication skills. Online communication has made it

impossible to socialize effectively with other people hence facilitating poor verbal skills

amongst people. Text messages is one feature of the social media. People are using emoji and

short forms of words such OMG! Meaning OH! My God, LOL! Meaning laughing out loud,

“btw” for by the way amongst many others. This has made people to be casual when using

languages, and can actually interfere negatively with information delivery, especially to

people who lack understanding of such emoji and short forms.

Effective aspects of verbal communication are left out or omitted as people embrace

the use of shorter words as well as reduced syllables, hence contributing to interpretation of

messages. Again, dialogue is occurring in form of monologue as most of it is through textual

posts and emails that occur in written form. Such people who rely on textual dialogue cannot

fit effectively in verbal communication, due to the lack of the required skills. They lack

mastery of important aspects of verbal communication such as turn taking, tonal variations as

well as speed. Social media typically promote the use of informal language. This interferes

negatively with formal language mastery. Many letters, pronouns, verbs etc. are omitted when

formulating text messages. Translating such communication to verbal becomes difficult, as

both speed and grammar have been interfered with negatively. Listening skills that re critical

in verbal communication are also interfered with. Effectiveness of listening enhances verbal

communication. With effective listening, one is in a position of identifying the required

information, when required as well as why it is required. This makes verbal communication

more effective.

Professor Chatan (2018) use of social media has resulted to low quality of inter-

personal communication. The issue of language impoverishment has increased with the use of

social media platforms. Shortened words such as; ““k”, “ttyl”, “ur”, “der”, “gr8”,”cu”,”tc”
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have been in wide use. Despite the fact that the words are used to deliver information as fast

as possible, the have got devastating results on the syntax as well as grammar. People end up

destroying the beauty of our language through the use of slang terms. People have shifted

from verbal communication to online, hence losing critical communication skills.

“Communication is constantly evolving, some people are used to seeing their friend’s online

avatar as if the face” argues Prof. Chatan. People have put more emphasis on social media

communication, as it seems easy. This has got the effect of eliminating deep as well as

meaningful conversation. People end up losing their ability of communicating effectively and

efficiently, as they lack the required skills.

Albert Einstein quoted that “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human

interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots”. By his quote, Albert simply meant

that technological advancement, especially on the social media is something that must be kept

under adequate control, otherwise it will end up affecting negatively human ability to

socialize and effectively interact with each other as a result of reduced communication skills

(Albert Einstein quotes on technology).

Ways of addressing the Effects of Social Media on Communication Skills

The effect of Social Media on Communication Skills is not something that is beyond

control.

According to a publication made by Lifegist (2013), it was clear that social media have got

negative impact on communication skills. The author proposed the following ways of dealing

with the effects of social media on communication skills. People have to moderate access to

the social media platforms. This can be effectively achieved through reducing the amount of

time spent on the sites. Again, there is need to engage in face to face communication, for

instance; holding family meetings, lectures etc.

Carson (2014) argued that social media should not be the main reason for ineffective
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delivery of information amongst people. “We should never allow social media deprive us the

ability to deliver information, listening and getting appropriate responses”. People ought to

reduce excessive reliance on the social media. Again, when using the social media such as

texting, we should focus more on writing words in full, so that our pronunciation of words is

not negatively affected by what we write. Furthermore, video calls as well as recording

audios can address the issue of communication skills to some extending. These features of

social media facilitate delivery of verbal information, making it a bit understandable. Video

calls and video conferencing have been encouraged more in communication. They have the

capability of ensuring face to face communication, hence people can learn the nonverbal cues

from each such as eye movement, face etc. Therefore, relying more on the use of Video calls

and video conferencing can reduce the negative effects associated with social media on

telecommunication skills (Moreno et al. 2015).

For people to improve on communication skills, there is need to avoid social media

addiction. As we have seen in our discussion, most of the social media features have got

negative consequences on communication skills. Phoebe Waller (2016) proposed seven

essential ways that can make people avoid social media addiction, while improving on their

communication skills on same time.

Turning off notifications from the smartphones or computers. Once one has turned off

the notifications, he or she gets adequate and ample time to accomplish duties as well as

interacting with others effectively. Constant notifications make one to keep on viewing them

as he thinks that he is losing a lot from the internet. This makes it hard for people to ensure

in-depth conversation with each other, hence affecting delivery of the information. Again,

speaking to person who eyes are on screens cannot be in a position of learning your

nonverbal cues. Turning off notifications is ideal for effective face to face communication.

Limiting oneself is another strategy for dealing with the effects of social media. People need
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to set the time they should they should spent on the social media platforms. Allocating small

percentage of your time to social media will guarantee one adequate time to deal effectively

with other people physically, hence boosting his or her communication skills.

Developing new hobbies; a variety of hobbies are available. The most preferred in this

case is music. Engaging in music plays key role in construction of words, tonal variations,

non-verbal cues and many more. This is very effective in enhancing communication skills.

Meeting people in real life. Most friends are made online. However, there is no need

of depending on texting and other online chats. There is need to meet each other physically

and have face to face to communication (Arnold et al. 2015).

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References

“The Impact of Social Media Use on Social Skills.” New York Behavioral Health. N.P., n.d.

Web. 27 Apr. 2017.

“The Negative Impacts of Social Media on Face-to-Face Interactions.” Rampages.us. N.P.,

n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.

“Viewpoint: Why Social Media is destroying Our Social Skills.” USA Today College.

Gannett Satellite Information Network, 18 July 2014. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.

Carson Reider (2014), How Is Social Media Affecting Our Communication? Retrieved from;

https://www.nrmedia.biz/blog/how-is-social-media-affecting-our-communication

Did Einstein Say 'I Fear the Day that Technology Will Surpass Our Human Interaction ...'?

Retrieved from; https://www.snopes.com/einstein-technology-quoteEdwin Nyakang'i

(2017) Negative effects of social media on communication skills (verbal), retrieved

from; http://kenyayote.com/negative-effects-social-media-communication-skills-

verbal/Lifegist (2013), NEGATIVE EFFECTS AND POSSILBE SOLUTIONS TO

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ON STUDENTS ACADEMICS, retrieved from;

https://thespians2011.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/negative-effects-and-possilbe-

solutions-to-social-networking-sites-on-students-academics/

Nicholas Dantuono, (2015), How Social Media is Effecting Social and Communication Skills

among Adolescents, retrieved from;

https://slwrig02.expressions.syr.edu/spring2015wrt205/2015/03/28/how-social-media-

is-effecting-social-and-communication-skills-among-adolescents/

Prof. Chetan (2018), Effects of Social Media on Communication Skills, retrieved from;

http://theknowledgereview.com/effects-social-media-communication-skills/

Reider, Carson. “How is Social Media Affecting Our Communication?” NRMedia.biz. N.P.,

n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.

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Phoebe Waller, (2016) 7 Ways to Stop Your Social Media Addiction, retrieved from;

https://www.bustle.com/articles/144893-7-ways-to-stop-your-social-media-addiction

Arnold, R. M., Back, A. L., Barnato, A. E., Prendergast, T. J., Emlet, L. L., Karpov, I., ... &

Nelson, J. E. (2015). The critical care communication project: improving fellows'

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Moreno, A., Navarro, C., Tench, R., & Zerfass, A. (2015). Does social media usage matter?

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