How Has Social Media Changed Communication

From the time that I was born in the early nineties to about age 10 I can remember that the fastest way for people to communicate was by phone call and that my parents and their families and friends used letters and phone calls for their main form of communication. My mom would have my sisters and I write letters to our relatives and friends who lived further away and they would write letters back. Personal emails where in their adolescence and I think that I was 10 when my dad signed me up for my first email account which is the one that I still use today! I remember thinking that email was great because of how quick my friends and I could communicate between each other. Later on MSN, my email provider, added instant messaging and you could create a little profile with your picture and some personal information. Often times I got in trouble with my parents because I would spend way too much time instant messaging and emailing my friends! Then when I was in the sixth grade I believe, Myspace became a huge hit, especially with my generation. Every single one of my friends had a Myspace and it was very clear that if you didn’t have one you weren’t cool. Unfortunately my parents made it very clear that I was not allowed to have a Myspace and they even went as far as blocking it on the computer! This was when I noticed a change in the way my friends communicated, suddenly the gossip was about what another kid posted on their page and what music they listened to and the pictures they shared. Very quickly various social trends emerged with Myspace, cliques where formed online and people began to get mean via the internet. Internet bullying became rampant in my school and sometimes the fight moved from the internet to behind the cafeteria. Since I was not allowed the privilege of a Myspace it seemed crazy to me what was going on. I felt like my generation were no longer innocent and free spirited kids.

I was a freshman in high school when Facebook pushed Myspace out of the limelight and even though my parents still forbade me to have one, I got one anyway. Soon after I was caught on Facebook my parents had them too. Needless to say I was pretty much hooked on Facebook from the beginning. I consider myself to be a social person and this social platform made it even easier to be social. However after a while I realized that I was starting to become careless about what I posted on Facebook and there times that I posted some damaging words. It was the same for everyone else, people who would not ever have said something to another person’s face was suddenly writing about it on Facebook. This is true today with any social media platform, when you post something negative on social media there isn’t an instant retaliation and even when retaliation occurs there is no face to face communication and the intimidation of argument is non-existent. While social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are often used for the spreading of comedy, ideas, information and more it seems like there are also what I like to call social battles that occur every day and many people feed off of the negativity. While I enjoy using Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr I think they have caused people to lose touch with genuine interpersonal communication and we are quickly losing the ability to create beneficial meaning from communication.