The New York Times
The Opinion Page
January 2, 2018 11:59 pm
The impact of social media on communication skills
Averie Smith for The New York Times
Social media usage has added to the on going issue of less face-to-face conversation and continuing decline in communication skills that are needed for everyday interactions. It should not be a surprise that in 2017, 81 percent of U.S Americans have some social media accounts. This is a rising concern that people are losing the ability to use communication skills during personal interaction. People should begin to take this situation seriously and make changes to ensure that communication skills are developed.
Communication skills are important at every stage of life. Unfortunately, the use of social media platforms is being exposed to children, which leads to the poor development of communication skills. If people use social media platforms as a way to keep their children quiet and/or from misbehaving, then parents do not have developed the communication skills to do so. This situation begins the starting stages of not learning how to interact with individuals. Developing these communication skills from an early age will benefit a person all throughout his or her life.
“The Impact of Social Media Use on Social Skills” states that “ when we engage in face-to-face communication, social information is conveyed by vocal and visual cues in the context of the situation”. These cues are developed from an early age through social interactions with parents, peers, and others that get suppressed when social media is being used instead. “The Impact of Social Media Use on Social Skills” states, “Non-verbal communication is an important part of communicating and it includes facial expression, eye contact, tone of voice as well as posture, space between individuals, etc. (Knapp & Hall, 2010)” (The Impact, “n.d.). If these types of communication skills are not understood, which are crucial for social interaction then it will cause miscommunication between individuals.
Since many people have the ability to access social media it has become the opportunity to pass time and only worsen as more people have the ability to get smartphones. As people have more opportunities to communicate through social media since the producers make the platforms simple to use. Although, it is simpler to interact through these social media account it eliminates the need for social communication skills. “The Negative Impacts of Social media on Face-to-Face Interactions” states, “ Although it may be viewed as a positive change, this has caused people to become more antisocial than ever before, as counterintuitive as that may sound” (The Negative, “n.d.).
Also, the amount of time people are spending on social media has an impact on the development of communication skills being used too. Since people do not have the communication skills to interact with others, then the quality of these interactions decrease as well. As a result, people chose to use social media to have interactions with people because it eliminates the emotional factors that would normally take part in face-to-face interactions. “The Negative Impact of Social Media on Face-to-Face Interactions” states, “ Social media is a driving force behind these changes” (The Negative, ‘n.d.).
When we are engaged in conversation through social media many people do not use the English language in the correct manner. “The Negative Impact of Social Media on Face-to-Face Interactions” states, “ The issue that people will run into is when they try to integrate these forms of communication into the language that is used everyday” (The Negative, “n.d.). As a result of this people decrease their own social skills by using this form of communication that limits their ability to correctly communicate with other individuals.
If people do not realize the damage that is being done by using social media as the only platform of communication then their social skill interactions will suffer. There needs to be limits on how much usage of social media interaction so that people have opportunities to have face-to-face interactions. With limits in mind there will be a need for change in society about this current issue since people tend to follow what others are doing at the moment. Also, this impact of social media communication will need the help from everyone at all stages of life to make this important change about social media interactions. The failure of communication between people can lead to bigger issues if people do not change their view on face-to-face interactions and communication skills in the future.