NAME: NELISA B.

DAGARAT GRADE & SECTION: 11-STEM H

Cut Down the Distance

Persuasive Speech: How does social media
devalue personal communication?

What if, social media was never invented? I know, with a human’s creative and

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innovative mind, it would be impossible that no one would ever have the idea to

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create a faster way of communication, which is the whole concept and the start

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of social media. Still, if it never existed, we would probably be using letters and

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quills tied with a string and then stamped with a wax seal to send messages to

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someone from a distant place. Sounds so aesthetic, right? It’s a trend nowadays.

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t
However, putting the aesthetics of it aside, sending letters is a real struggle.

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You’re going to send a letter and the receiver’s going to receive it a week or a

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month later. The communication was too slow. For that reason, social media is

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undoubtedly one of mankind’s greatest inventions. The world became closer; the

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longer distance was cut down by social media and even created new forms of

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communication. Who would have thought there would be something such as a

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video call, right? Social media is amazing. Be that as it may, it’s the cause of why
people close to each other are drifting apart.
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According to Statista, in 2022, there are 4.59 Billion people that use social

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media, which is more than half of the world’s population. If you don’t realize how

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big that is, then, look around you. Everyone and their mom is using social media;

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that includes you and me. I am part of generation z; so, needless to say, I use

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social media and so does my family.

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Now, I asked you to look around, right? It doesn’t matter if you’re in public or at

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home as long as there are people or a person in the same room as you; observe

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them. I’ll bet they are either facing a gadget and using social media or sleeping.

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Because nowadays, people and social media are inseparable. Now then, notice

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how you’re in the same room as them but are not speaking to each other, instead,

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you’re both facing a device. That is what social media does to us. Again, the

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longer distance was cut down but it is creating new distance between close
individuals as it creates new forms of communication.
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We need to do something about that and have efficient face-to-face

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communication again. I’m not here to tell you to quit social media. That’s

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impossible. We just have to cut down the distance and to do that let’s first know

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what is causing this, and then let’s cut down the distance, together.

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Alright, does anyone here have an online friend? If you do, you would know

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what I’m talking about. Online friend makes us very comfortable, they might not

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know our real name but they do know our darkest emotions, our problems, and

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everything else that we couldn’t tell other people. Our communication gap

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between friends and families is because we chose not to open up to them.

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According to studies, 11% of adults would rather stay home on the weekends and
update their Facebook statuses than go out for real-life experiences.

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To be able to have efficient face-to-face communication, we have to give time

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and choose to communicate with one another. Some of you might say, “We’re still

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communicating with each other, though. It’s not that serious.”, yes, there is

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communication. However, don’t you feel sad thinking about it? The fact that your

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parents, siblings, or best friend is physically close to you yet both of you still had
to turn on a device and be on social media to be entertained, to smile, to laugh,
to be happy. Don’t you feel sad? Because I do, I’m sad and frustrated that I’m only
realizing this now.
a t r a t
g a r ga
a D a
Social media does not only devalue personal communication, but it also

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damages our connections with our loved ones creating distance. How to cut

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down the distance? Simply cut it; like what Mark Manson’s Yoda impersonation

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says, “Do, or do not; there is no ‘how’”. Instead of getting our phones first thing in
the morning, let’s greet each other and have a small talk over breakfast. We
don’t have to quit social media as it’s now essential to our lives, we just have to
set some limits. By choosing to limit ourselves, we are restoring our connections
and the real essence of communication.

Source:
https://www.theeducationmagazine.com/word-art/social-media-affects-communication/