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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS AND RESEARCH (IJSPR) ISSN: 2349-4689
Issue 109, Volume 38, Number 02, 2017
Influence of Social Media in Interpersonal
Communication
Dr. K .R. Subramanian
Senior Consultant& Professor Of Management
SYNOPSIS:Social media has impacted various facets of
modern life and it has a profound influence in inter-personal
communication. The present day is characterized by acute lack
of time for individuals and families due to the need for husband
and wife to be employed for meeting the needs of a satisfactory
life style. Time has become the most precious resource, and
people are finding means of saving time because of their fast
paced life style. People need interaction for fulfilling their
social needs and social media has become a preferred medium
for communication with the proliferation of digital and mobile
technologies. Digitalization has reduced the face to face
interaction of human beings whether it is for marketing or
promoting a product or a personal communication. The mobile
phone has created a social situation whereby people are getting
used to avoidance of person to person communication by
switching over to mobile. The present day life styles and lack of
time have made the usage of mobiles and other communication
aids more useful for social contact. The present research paper
would analyze the impact of social media and in the way people
communicate with each other or lack of it!
Key words:Social media and interpersonal communication,
change in life styles and communication media, lack of time
and its impact on communication methods.
I. INTRODUCTION
Life has become fast paced. Everybody seems to be in a
hurry to reach office or school or any other destination.
There seems to be no time for people to even pause and
greet each other when they come across friends or
acquaintances. Everyone wonders as to what has happened
or is happening. But heart of heart the fact is we are all
aware of the reasons. Social media is steadily but surely
impacting the way we live and communicate with one
another. All of us very much aware that communication is
the life blood of our existence and realize how important it
is in our lives. Over a period of a decade or more, we are
become addicted to the social media and mobile
communication. Digital devices have made our lives
apparently easy but actually complicating it perhaps
beyond control. Today our social interactions have been
reduced to impersonal; mobile contacts or trough other
electronic media available. What has happened to our
conversation with friendly neighbors when we meet them
outside our house or in the market or school when we go to
leave our children? Even our children contact their friends
in the neighborhood through mobiles only. They have also
become victims of the digital revolution and the lazy life
styles they have been inflicted!
Some protagonists say that there is no going back. So if
you happen to glance around a restaurant you will be hard-
pressed to find people who don’t have their heads down
using their cell phones to text, Tweet, or update their Face
book statuses—all while sharing a meal with others at their
table. Social media’s effect on our ability to interact and
communicate is visible throughout all areas of society, so
what does this mean for interpersonal communication?
According to Paul Booth, PhD, an assistant professor of
media and cinema studies in the College of
Communication at DePaul University in Chicago, social
media certainly affects how we engage with one another
across all venues and ages. “There has been a shift in the
way we communicate; rather than face-to-face interaction,
we’re tending to prefer mediated communication,” he says.
“We’d rather e-mail than meet; we’d rather text than talk
on the phone.”
Three key issues are surfacing regarding the role social
media now plays in people’s communication styles. First,
when we communicate through social media, we tend to
trust the people on the other end of the communication, so
our messages tend to be more open. Second, our social
connections are not strengthened as much through social
media as they are face-to-face, so we don’t tend to deepen
our relationships—they tend to exist in the status quo.
Last, we tend to follow and interact with people who agree
with our points of view, so we aren’t getting the same
diversity of viewpoints as we’ve gotten in the past. Experts
agree that those who have a keen sense of observation
must be aware that people are changing the way they
communicate. What does the future hold for social media
and its potential continuous effect on interpersonal
communication within society? Social media will continue
to become increasingly integrated into the normal human
experience like most of the communication technologies
that preceded it. They will continue to increase the volume
of the human communication process, and we will
continue to learn how to use them for good and for bad.
II. METHODOLOGY AND OBJECTIVES
The present research paper is an attempt to assess and
highlight the growing influence of social media in the
Communication process between individuals.
Communication as we know is the life blood of our
activities as individuals and communities and is an
essential requirement for social interaction. To analyze the
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growing influence of the digital devices and the social
media on the interpersonal relationship, more specifically
the following Objectives have been identified for the
purpose of this research paper.
1. A review if the progress of social media in
communication
2. A critical analysis of growth of this media in
interpersonal communication
3. The proliferation, impact and influence of mobile
devices in communication
4. The impact, pros and cons of such developments
5. Review and Recommendations
On a preliminary review of literature it was found that
adequate literature is available in the print and electronic
media, particularly the web pages. Hence it was decided
that there was no need for a separate questionnaire survey
as the analysis and compilation of the available data would
be adequate. A comprehensive review of literature and
conclusions thereof is given below.
III. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Far-Reaching Effects of social media includes cyber
bullying. Nicholas David Bowman, PhD, an assistant
professor of communication studies in the Beverly College
of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University, says
actions that trigger a bad online relationship likely are the
same ones that trigger a bad relationship in real life—only
the modality has changed.
Figure 1; The Rise of visuals in social media
“For example, cyber bullying has largely the same
antecedents and behavioral, emotional, and affective
consequences as does a non-cyber bullying,” Bowman
says. “Yet the difference is the ‘more’—that is, social
media allows for more contact, more communication, and
in a more public manner.” In a bullying event, often the
person being bullied can remove himself or herself from
the environment, at least temporarily. For example, a child
being bullied at school can escape the playground when he
or she goes home each night. “However, cyber bullying is
marked by its persistence,” Bowman says. “The bullying
messages don’t stay in a particular space, such as a
playground, but can follow the child home. If we consider
that bullying effects on an individual can build over time,
then there is a real concern that increasing contact between
bullies and their targets in persistent and digital
interactions might exacerbate the problem.”
Figure 2: Discretion needed in digital media
communication
One big concern surrounding social media’s impact is
communication overload—learning how to handle and
make sense of this “more” information we now have. We
are getting more information about more people than ever
before, and we feel a need to process and perhaps even
respond to it all. In fact, there has been some very early
recent data suggesting that teens are perhaps pulling away
from Face book because it’s just too much for them to
handle. Another concern lies in technology addiction,
when individuals spend more time with their smart phone
than interacting with the people around them, to the
detriment of those face-to-face relationships. For these
people, they likely feel such a strong sense of identity
online that they have some difficulty separating their
virtual actions from their actual ones. Internet addiction
now will be listed as a mental illness marked by emotional
shutdown, lack of concentration, and withdrawal
symptoms, so we may be closer to diagnosing and
understanding socially detrimental human-technology
relationships. However, many have cautioned that Internet
addiction might be an inaccurate portrayal, if social media
is designed to connect people with people, then is it really
a human-technology relationship or is it a human-human
relationship mediated by technology?
One potentially negative consequence of social media is a
lack of privacy. Because interpersonal communication is
changing, we are likely to share on social media the sort of
information we might have previously shared privately
face-to-face. We always have to keep in mind that our
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social networks are searchable—even when privacy
settings are set extremely high, it is always possible to find
out personal information.
Of course, the negativity surrounding social media is
countered by positive influences, including the ability to
communicate with more people across greater distances
and with increased speed. Messages can be shared and
spread farther and faster than at any other time in human
history and a lot of good can be done by spreading positive
messages in this way. As communication and information
travel faster and faster, the world seems to get smaller and
smaller. As a result, this changes how the world
communicates, especially with today’s obsession with
social media networks. Before social media, we were
extremely limited in our means to interact with others and
we were limited largely to the people that we knew in-
person. There were things we (those my age and older) had
to deal with that millennials do not have to , your
significant other’s parent answering the phone when you
called, waiting for a letter in the mail, waiting a week to
get your pictures that you sent off to be developed, and so
on. The internet and social media has drastically changed
the way people all over the world, interact and
communicate.
One of the biggest positive changes in the way that we
interact, due to social media networks, is the sheer number
of people that we can interact with. Because of social
media networks, we are now able to interact with
thousands of people all over the world – this is why we see
people who have thousands of Face book friends or tens of
thousands of Twitter followers. Without social media, that
would be impossible. Social media networks allow us the
opportunity to share opinions with a far wider audience.
Another big change that has occurred is that there is now
no filter on the way we speak. In the past, unless you
spoke to people directly, you had no way to get your
message across regardless of your freedom of speech.
Now we can use social media to get our messages out to
thousands or even millions of people uncensored.
Figure 3: A Picture Really Does Paint 1000 Words.
Photo Courtesy istockphoto.com
Social media has also changed the way that we interact,
mainly the way we have lost some of our social skills.
Some people are completely incapable of carrying on a
normal conversation or interacting with people in person
because of the dependency of social media. Social
networks are becoming one of the dominant ways we
communicate. People are more obsessed with checking
their smart phone every 2 minutes than engaging in
meaningful conversation with their child or spouse. Social
media and technology are double-edged swords. It’s
awesome to have and can really help us, but it also
distracts us to the point of being blind and deaf to
everything else going on.
Figure 4: Social media usage is on the rise!
It can also be argued that social networks have affected our
communication by the way we converse and in our writing
techniques. The social web has changed the written word
in a couple of crucial ways: Writing is more summarized:
However, this has allowed for shorter sentences or
paragraphs and made way for neglecting correct grammar
use. Abbreviations are more prevalent: People who
communicate via social media or text message aren’t
necessarily spelling things incorrectly; they are speaking a
new language entirely. “TTYL” (Talk to You Later) is
commonly used to let someone know you will talk to them
later. In today’s world, abbreviations are now so common
that we do not even have to think twice about what they
stand for. There is not a right or wrong way to
communicate and/or adapt social language into our lives.
However, we are all becoming engulfed in this new world
of communication due to technology—and if we haven’t
done so already, will be forced to learn this new form of
language, especially if you are a parent of a teen. The
Figure 5 given below really sums up the internet. As
illustrated in the cartoon ‘On the internet, nobody knows
you’re a dog, (published by The New Yorker in 1993), the
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anonymity afforded by online communication raises
interesting questions about authenticity and trust
As more and more Social media interaction now dominates
both online and offline conversations (Example: A Diwali
Greetings – Figure 6). In a society where interacting and
over-sharing online is the norm, you’re probably more
likely to speak to friends and family through electronic
devices than face-to-face. But are social media and modern
technology destroying our interpersonal social skills?
Generations are born into the social age; social media will
continue to be the favored communication form among
young people. However, this shift may begin to affect their
ability to properly communicate in person with peers.
Figure 5: On anonymity of internet usage!
Figure 6: A Diwali Greetings through social media
Marketing has been around for a lot more time than we
may be tempted to believe. Social media is relatively new
when compared with it but there is no way to deny the fact
that it is the one medium that had the highest influence
ever on marketing. When communicating with the target
audience, gaining access to a two-way communication is
really important. Social networks like Face book and
Twitter allow the target audience to respond to marketing
messages. This offers instant feedback and marketers
automatically know that they are doing something right as
responses are positive. Alternatively, modifications can be
done if responses are negative. Social media marketing is
practically a gold mine for smaller firms since they can be
heard. Social media had a huge impact on public relations,
marketing and advertising. Companies actually manage to
save thousands every year, some every month, thanks to
the fact that they manage to move away from the regular
channels used: TV, radio and print.
Social networks help the businesses in a variety of ways.
Traditional marketing mediums such as the radio, TV
commercials and print ads are completely obsolete now
and demand for thousands of dollars. However, with social
media the businesses can connect with their targeted
customers for free, the only cost is energy and time.
Through Face book, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other social
site you can lower your marketing cost to a significant
level.
The increasing popularity of social sites like Twitter, Face
book and LinkedIn, social networks has gained attention as
the most viable communication choice for the bloggers,
article writers and content creators. These social
networking sites have opened the opportunity for all the
writers and bloggers to connect with their tech savvy
clients to share your expertise and articles. Your audience
will further share your articles, blog or expertise in their
social circle which further enhance your networks of the
followers.
Figure 7: Positive effects of social media
Social networks have removed all the communication and
interaction barriers, and now one can communicate his/her
perception and thoughts over a variety of topics. Students
and experts are able to share and communicate with like-
minded people and can ask for the input and opinion on a
particular topic. Another positive impact of social
networking sites is to unite people on a huge platform for
the achievement of some specific objective. This is very
important to bring the positive change in society.
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Social media brings in so much information about the
target audience that a marketing campaign has. It is not
that difficult to learn what people love and you can use all
the information that is freely available about those
individuals you are interested in. Social media is
something that you have to use these days because it offers
a lot of data. Use that information in order to be successful
on the long run. Although social media is incredibly useful
in helping all marketing communication efforts become
more effective, it is really important that you use all
channels properly. All companies have to be consistent and
use social media in a proper way. One thing that many do
not know is that when you use social media channels, you
cannot do it sparingly. Have patience and always use your
channels in order to improve your marketing channels.
IV. ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION
It is hard to contain or restrict youngsters from using social
media platforms, which offer a variety of conveniences.
Social media has changed the way in which people
communicate – the face to face interactions have reduced.
The reasons may be many, but the reality is same! In a
society which is on the run and is hard pressed for time
short and easy communications will replace the long
drawn written communications. This is a natural
development. What we need to understand is whether this
has created positive or negative consequences. Basically
because of the need for people to be socially associated
and social interactions are needed; but due to paucity of
time in the current environment social media has taken the
center stage.
A review of Literature has shown that social media has
shown significant growth as the preferred medium of
communication. Face book and What’s App have captured
the fancy of youngsters and together they have conquered
80-90% of the social media usage. The benefits offered by
this media, is instant contact anywhere in the world and
easy accessibility as communications become faster and
faster the world seems to shrink. This medium offers the
advantage of contacting several people at the same time
through groups and if needed messages can be dispersed to
a large number of people, as is done by Advertisement and
Promotion of various products and services. One of the
great advantages is that smaller size companies can reach
out to a large number of customers at a reasonable budget
for promoting their wares. The impact of the new social
media is tremendous. More and more companies are
finding newer means of reaching out to people through this
medium. A more recent example is the new wave of
election campaigns by all parties!
There are positive and negative impacts due to the
proliferation of this medium. While social media has
definitely helped marketing and marketers, it has brought
along with it a new perspective about how things get done
and has impressed the youngsters in the impressionable
age group. While appreciating the speed of disseminating
information, the consequences of such actions to making
the youngsters more lackadaisical and lazy has to be
considered. Youngsters seem to prefer isolation and they
seem to be in their own imaginary world rather than the
real life friends and interaction with neighbors and elders
in the family. Lack of respect towards elders in the family
and friends circle is a development which needs to be
taken with caution! But progress cannot be stopped. It has
to stand the test of times!
Information overload and lack of privacy are two major
issues in social media. There is no control over the
information that you will get through social media for
example through what’s App. Getting more information
before people are ready to receive and process the same for
useful consumption makes them confused. The continuous
bombarding of messages through hand held devices leaves
no time for reflection and analysis and leads to some kind
of addiction and resignation to the situation. This leads
progressively to avoidance of face to face communication.
There is difficulty in separating virtual reality from reality
and loss of privacy. Since massive information is spread
through social media, there is no room for privacy –
everybody knows everything about the other person. This
is a dangerous situation leading to herd mentality and the
individual loses his discretion. Humans are progressively
made into robots processing commands. And these
commands can originate from anti-social elements
including terrorists!
V. RECOMMENDATION
We must remember that social media is really only a
decade old. That’s very young in the history of
communication technology, it has been influential, but it
hasn’t really settled into a routine yet. As social media
becomes more normalized, we’ll stop seeing it as changing
things and start seeing it as the way things are. As a society
we’ll be OK—we’ve always adjusted to new technology.
So whether it’s wearable communication media, such as
Google glasses, or more cloud computing, we’ll change
and adapt. Communication is constantly evolving. Some
people are as used to seeing their friends’ online avatar as
they are their face. People increasingly prefer quick and
frequent engagement with instant updates on news than a
prolonged chat and are also finding new ways to catch up
with friends from the comfort of their sofa ( can we call
them couch potatoes!)
At the end of the day, nothing can replace face-to-face
conversation and interactions. Despite the explosion of
online endorsements and social media dialogue between
individuals and brands, researchers have found word-of-
mouth exchanges and in-depth conversation are still most
influential.
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