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Studies show social media may be good for networking, not personal skills

Correspondent

Published: Friday, April 23, 2010

Updated: Friday, April 23, 2010 03:04

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Social networking is one of the fastest growing communication channels. However, social networking can be the detriment to personal contact and interpersonal communication.

A new study from the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda (ICMPA) at University of Maryland shows American college students who admit they are addicted to social media have symptoms of withdrawal from the technology world similar to drug and alcohol addictions.

There were 200 students who were asked to give up all media for 24 hours and then asked to blog on their experience.

Susan Moeller, a journalism professor at University of Maryland, said, “We were surprised by how many students admitted that they were ‘incredibly addicted’ to media…we noticed that what they wrote at length about was how they hated losing their personal connections. Going without media meant, in their world, going without their friends and family,” according to the study.

Social networking is the ability to communicate and interact with people who share the same interests on a global level. Some examples of social networking sites are MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Linked In.

While this form of communication is one that is growing globally, interpersonal skills are dying out.

“It’s possible that some might turn to social networking to shy away from direct contact,” said David Harris, a third-year psychology student from Miami.

Social networking has taken leaps and causes many to question logic, such as whether sending a letter via postal service is more personal than that of an email, text message, or tweet.

However, individuals such as Sharon Johnson-Arnold, CEO and consultant of Technowrite Inc., said social networking has positive connotations to interpersonal communication.
“I am definitely a fan of social networking, it allows us to stay connected to people very easily,” Johnson-Arnold said.

She believes social networking is not a hindrance to interpersonal communication because it offers the ability to locate lost friends, build relationships with new people and connect with people globally.

Social networking can allow us to communicate quickly and effectively, however social networking may be an easy scapegoat to reality.

 

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2 comments

http://xeesm.com/AxelS
Fri Apr 23 2010 20:27
Agree with Frank - entirely disagree with that study.
In 1890 doctors predicted that a human body can't sustain driving faster than 20 miles/hour.
In the well known book "Bowling Alone" Robert Putnam accused the American society to completely isolates itself.
I can go on and on and on.
The social revolution is just that - a revolution. Just a few hours ago I posted on another blog "What's your social age?"
I guess ICMPA is just one of the 'older social group' - not that it's bad - only it is sad that people "report" about something that they just don't know enough about. But then, that is just how things got done in the old society: You ask a few hundred people, the ones you always asked. You love and trust your qualitative and quantitative models and then add your past experience to predict the future. But already Galileo had that problem and people after us will have that too....

Now to the experiment about "addiction to media" do the same with TV, Cars, your Home, your Food anything and wow we are so 'addicted' to sleep in a bad and not on the street, we are so 'addicted' to drive to our office and don't walk....

Frank Angelone
Fri Apr 23 2010 03:00
I disagree with almost everything that ICMPA has mentioned in their study. I think what they fail to realize is the way we communicate is rapidly changing. Social networks are taking over and it's the primary way to get information in real time and interact with those that share a common interest. Granted, this can lead to a lack of personal communication in "real life," but regardless of how you look at it...interacting on social networking platforms is real life. There's still another human being on the other end of that conversation. To say that it's causing a lack of personal communication is absolute bogus. Since when was talking to someone considered a lack of personal communication? We are just interacting in a different capacity today. The world as we once knew it isn't the same as today's world. Everything is constantly evolving and we have to be willing to adapt to those changes or we will be sucked into a vortex that leaves us trapped in a past life. Yes, there are people out there who don't communicate "in person" as well as they do online. Is that a sign of the generation they come from? Absolutely, but older generations didn't grow up with these technologies we have today. They only knew one form of communication. Today, we have an unlimited amount of free resources at our disposal to interact with people. I still do believe that people should be able to take those online conversations and then bring them to a personal level, but not everyone can do that. It's like asking a person to fix your computer when they're an accountant. It's not scalable and it's not their strong point. Text messaging is the new cell phone! Think about it...how many people actually do you see talking on their phone? The vast majority is using text as the way to communicate. Is it the wrong way of interacting, NO! It's a new platform that many who are only accustomed to face to face interaction are afraid of. They use their justifications of not understanding social media as there reason why people today lack personal skills. Wrong. They lack the ability to adapt. Their are plenty of older people using technology and social media just as productively as someone in their early 20's. Most don't want to adapt. There are those that hind behind social media and texting as the only way to communicate and that isn't necessarily a good thing, but just think, after talking with someone on a social network for a while and building trust with them, interacting in person isn't as difficult.






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