How Social Media Has Changed Communication

Social media has had quite a strong effect on how people currently communicate. Communication with people who are far away has been altered so that they can be reached almost immediately. There really isn't an excuse anymore for not communicating. Between cell phones and social media like Facebook, people are available nearly all of the time. So even if a person lost their phone, they are still reachable using Facebook--if they have it, which most people these days do.

Another way in which communication has changed is that it is much less personal than it used to be. Back in the day the only way to communicate was to be in person and from there people could use phones which is still more personal than a lot of the communicating we do now, which often happens through texting and sending messages. With communicating becoming less personal, there is concern about people lacking proper and effective social skills which most people used to have. Rather than striking up conversation with the student sitting next to me, it is easy for me to pull out my phone instead and respond to texts and media.

There is also the knowledge of being able to know what is going on in people's lives without ever having to have a conversation with them about it. For instance, I know about what people from high school are up to just from being friends with them on Facebook and/or following them on Instagram. I don't have a desire to catch up with them like I might if all of this information readily available whenever I want to read or look at it. I know that I don't always like to post everything I do because than when I want to talk to someone about something I've done recently, they've already seen or heard about it.

Of course there are benefits, like being able to stay in touch with people one may never have before and being able to communicate quickly but there definitely are some downsides.