Electronic Communication (Term Paper Sample)

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Effects of Current Electronic Communication and Interaction on Social Behavior and Psychological Development
Introduction
Scholars, especially in sociology and psychology have noted with immense concern the massive increase in the usage of social networking media over the past several years. This is illustrated by the fact that within eight years, the subscription and usage of Facebook had grown to almost a billion people by 2012. WhatsApp, on the other hand, has stood out as the most popular messenger application globally. Some recent studies revealed that it has become more popular than Twitter with more than three-hundred million active monthly users. Several billion messages are passed on a daily basis through WhatsApp. Its availability across almost all mobile phones and easy usage has made it so popular, attracting so many users (Messengers Review 1).
In their 2011 works, Fischer and Reuber (2) observed that social media plays an important role in the modern effectuation process even as people from across the globe adopt such media as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace.com, WhatsApp, and YouTube. The extent of adoption is so serious that entrepreneurs have deployed social media as a marketing tool because it is apparent that a significant portion of the world population has accepted the central role played by this form of communication in keeping-in-touch with others (Pernisco 1).
As both young and old people use social media to interact with each other and get in touch with the rest of the world, much is also happening in relation to social behavior and psychological development. The traditional means of communication, such as face-to-face conversations and public interactions have been affected a great deal by the emergence of social media (Pernisco 1). This paper seeks to understand how social media, such as Facebook and WhatsApp have affected the manner in which people interact or relate with each other.
Facebook and WhatsApp on Social Interactions
Social networking media plays an important role in the contemporary society in relation to the manner in which people communicate, create relationships, and share information. As social networking sites gain greater popularity, human social interaction has been affected in a number of ways, which is part of adaptation to the modern technological world. The users of web 2.0 socialize in a totally new and unique way compared to the old generation that used letters, and face-to-face interactions. Communication via such media is completely different from the traditional methods. Through Facebook and WhatsApp, a user can connect with unlimited number of people, some of whom one has never met face-to-face. Strangers get to know each other through Facebook, become close friends chatting every day and opening to each other but may never even meet in their lifetime.
Through social networking sites, such as Facebook, meeting old friends, family members, and business partners has been made easier and possible. One does not have to travel all the way to their various destinations to be able to catch up or even converse. Members can freely exchange ideas or express themselves as if they were in a face-to-face meeting (Alassiri, Muda, and Ghazali 48). From the comfort of one’s office, it is possible to discuss details, including striking business deals and sharing experiences through social networks. For example, friends who have not met for more than ten years have had totally different experiences, including getting married, having children, buying houses, and new cars among other experiences. Facebook has made it possible for people to share such experiences through conversations and sharing of photos. Through chatting and messages through inboxes, people are also able to share very personal information even when they are thousands of miles away.
Alassiri et al. observed that “platform for communication, social networking site, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn enable its user to post anything about themselves and relate to other users based on their intended image” (48). Although its argues that the images do not necessarily represent an honest representation of the sender’s personality, the reality is that through them one can connect with persons far off and feel as if they are not as apart. Unlike a face-to-face encounter where the real image of a person is present and obviously perceivable in an interaction, social networks, such as Facebook have created room for people to forge unreal and deceitful images they would want to sell to the persons they interact with. Numerous studies have demonstrated that social network users tend to create their own avatars describing their identify primed with physical attributes, which portray their intentions together with the message they desire to pass to their audience (Alassiri et al. 48). Therefore, this has interfered with sincerity in interaction that is caused by face-to-face conversations.
In his book on Facebook role in redefining community, Jesse Rice observed that building relationships require time. However, as the number of relationships increases, one finds less time to spend with different persons in various circles of interaction. This causes the way in which people interact to become superficial, whereby people only use short sentences and messages to pass the most vital message. Interacting parties will only use the few minutes they have to send a short message to a friend, share a video with family, place an order on an item, or put an update in a sentence or two. Such will start shaping relationships between the parties involved. Unlike in a planned or unplanned where people will discuss the details of their experiences and ideologies, Facebook and other social networking sites propel people to only interact at a superficial level, creating some level of formality and eroding emotional attachment. Emotional distance is the resultant product of such an interaction, which leads to friends and family members behaving like business partners (Rice 110-111).
Rice (112) posited that the kind of communication that takes place is more of one person speaking/sharing and having an audience to respond to his/her ideas, experiences, and feelings. Thus, the social network tends to change the nature of human relationships when it turns friends into audiences or performers. Moreover, he argued that online social networks have a practically homogeneous way of operation. The users are committed to self-exposure even as the creation as well as noticeable consumption of intimate images and details of others’ and one’s life becomes the main activity in the world of social networking. It does not allow or encourage reticence but only revelation. Rice sees self-revelation as the currency within the social economy of Facebook (Rice 112). Users only write statements and attach videos or post photos not because they hope to communicate anything to their audience but only to trigger reactions.
Facebook and WhatsApp have taken the place of face to face interactions, thus substituting this traditional way of interaction. This has affected the relationships between persons by eroding intimacy that comes along with face to face interactions. Although some people use social media to extend their normal interactions, it is apparent that among some people, such sites have served to replace the traditional interactions. Many people are no longer planning face to face meeting, coffee, and diner because they feel Facebook and WhatsApp are enough tools for sharing whatever they would want to share (Newham 4-5). Family members have developed a tendency of twitting, facebooking, and writing messages to each other through WhatsApp, which was totally different in the past. Nowadays, a person will just post a photo of him/herself sleepy in the office to communicate to friends and family that he/she is tired and sleepy. Instead of getting an encouragement or comforting message from the audience, some will just “Like” the photo as others only acknowledge. This would be different in a face to face encounter where one will seek to understand what has caused the present appearance, and provide the desired comfort and encouragement.
Jones and Hafner felt that the way human beings think has adversely been affected by social networking sites, such as Facebook. Traditionally, privacy used to be exactly as it means—not revealing that which is supposed to be personal (156). People kept emotions, ideas, and feelings of themselves to themselves, and were not ready to disclose to the public but only to persons that they were very close to. They would not let the “whole world” know that their husbands had cheated on them, their wives had abused them, their children had been suspended from school, their parents had parted ways, or their relationships were not working. Indeed, such information remained personal, and was only revealed to some selected few. However, with the emergence of social media, the way people think about privacy took a completely different route. It does not bother a person to click that he/she is in a complicated relationship within Facebook or post in a WhatsApp group that his/her partner is showing characteristics of cheating on hi m/her. The understanding of the notion of self has changed as social connections become members of the circle that is disclosed to about self experiences.
Jones and Hafner posited that besides influencing the way people think about privacy, social networking sites also tend to bias the way people think about time and space. They encourage people to think about now and not the past through the constant status updates that keep surfacing every time a new post or response is given to a post. People are continually introducing new information even be...