podcasts

Guest: What is social networking?

 

Me: Social networking is a way to communicate over the Internet.  Using a social networking site, we can keep up with friends, share and comment on photos, meet new people, communicate with one another, video chat, instant message, and so much more.

 

Guest: Are there a lot of social networking sites? What are some examples of them? Do you use any?

 

Me: There are lots of social networking sites, and each is used a bit differently.  Some examples include Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Pinterest, MySpace, Instagram, and so on.  I do communicate with friends over Facebook, as it is easy to keep up with them and is sometimes the easiest way to communicate with them when they’re far away.

 

Guest: How is communicating different through social networking sites, and why is it easier?

 

Me: Fact of the matter is, communicating over social networking sites is much different than communicating face to face, and is often more convenient.   It is more convenient because you do not have to be in the same room as the person you’re communicating with, you just both have to be logged on at the same time.  When they are not online, you can still view their photos and see what they’ve posted to find out what’s new.  As for easier, some people find it much simpler to communicate over a medium than face to face with another person.  A communication apprehensive person, or someone who is unsure how to act or is uncomfortable in social situations may find it easier because of the reduced cues environment.  This means that there are no non-verbal signals, you are not looking someone in the face and they are not looking at you, there is no need to worry about stuttering or speech impediments, and there are no other people around watching you speak with another person.  So, people who may be communication or apprehensive may prefer to communicate over a medium for these and other reasons, just like people without communication apprehension.

Six ideas for activist blog posts

Idea 1: What is considered social media? How many people use it? How much time are people on it in a given time period?

Idea 2: What kind of people use social media? Middle schoolers, high schoolers, college students, young adults, mid-lifers, popular people, loners, researchers, marketers, people who love to take/look at/comment on pictures.

Idea 3: How do I plan to look into the correlation between social media and social apprehension?

Idea 4: What behaviors does social apprehension include?

Idea 5: Communication apprehension gene and social media

Idea 6: limitations of my study, study results, descriptions, charts, graphs, etc.

 

 

 

Trial About Me and Description for project 1

About Me

I am a 21 year old Communication Studies major at the University of Rhode Island.  As a senior in my discipline, I have taken many communication courses throughout the past four years, and many have focused on media.  I am currently enrolled in a course all about the effects media has on us, so I decided to take this a step further for this blog.  Our society focuses on heavily on social media, and most of us log on daily for a little while.  With all of this time spent staring on a screen and communicating through text, it must hurt our social skills somehow.  I felt this was an appropriate given my academic background, and feel properly equipped to deliver the results to my readers.

Description

Ever wondered if social media is bad for you?  If yes, read this blog.  I am also interested in this, and also wonder how many hours are spent on social media in any given time period by individuals.  I am looking for a correlation between the volume of social media being used and our social skills.  So, does social media impair our social skills or make us communication comprehensive? Let’s find out!

Brainstorm

As a senior communication major, much of my education has been focused on the ways in which we communicate and how that has changed over time.  One prominent way our communication tactics have changed is we have switched all face to face communication all the time, and now we have mediated communication to play with.  Mediated communication is any communication we do over a given medium, whether it be print (texting) on a computer (email, social media), or over a phone.  I have always been interested in how this change has effected our social skills.  We now text or email our friends instead of calling them, does this make us socially incompetent over the phone?  We use Facebook and Twitter to chat and keep up with our friends, does this make us more socially apprehensive in social situations? Maybe.

I have two ways to go about researching this for this project.  I can narrow it down to only text-based communication, or I can dive into the social media realm and look into how we are socially inept.  Our society strives on us being social and having certain social skills… is our generation ruining society as we know it? Job interviews, education, etcetera depend on social individuals… so what now?

Social media has always caught my interest.  It’s so dangerous and the whole world is connected.  Based on my interest in the subject and it’s currency, I choose to focus on social media for this project.  So, does social media make us socially apprehensive? Let’s find out.

Social media and its correlation to communication apprehension

Social media is quickly becoming an important part of society.  We can keep up with friends, market, share photos, and do many other things with it.  While it is so important, is it effecting our abilities to be social? Some studies have found that it does.

It is my goal for this blog to show my audience that social media can be detrimental to our social skills.  It may make us more apprehensive in social situations and could potentially hold us back in our education, jobs, and so on. 

My audience I feel will be people who are most reliant on social media.  When I begin my research, I will find out a bit more who this will be.  I’m thinking it will be mostly people around my age, perhaps give or take ten years (leaving us with an age gap of 11-31 years old).  While this may not be accurate, I plan to find this out in my research.  Once I find my target audience, I can cater my blog to them, writing in such a way that they will understand and enjoy.

Challenges I may face are plentiful.  I could find out that social media does not effect our social skills.  I may not be able to compile enough subjects to survey for my report.  I could not find any research at all. Who knows.  But, as a writer, I will always find a way to meet my goal, and that is to inform my audience about the social dangers of social media.