Is Online Social Networking Hurting Your Communication Skills?
By roberten
@roberten (3128)
United States
August 6, 2012 5:59am CST
I keep hearing that our face-to-face communication skills are being lost due to our participation and dependency on social networking sites. I was wondering how this may be effecting you. Are you unable to make eye contact during employment interviews? Has your spelling been affected? This is just one sample of what I'm referring to:
http://www.thedaonline.com/opinion/social-networking-hurts-the-communication-skills-of-college-students-1.1689315
(This is NOT a referral link.)
Things change, I wonder if this is not just a metamorphosis of how we will be communicating in the future. Curious to hear your thoughts.
1 person likes this
8 responses
@aswath_10 (53)
• India
6 Aug 12
In south India normally we wont speak English.. After i joined the social sites i begin to learn English words and how to write paragraphs, still i am making lot of grammar mistakes but i am feeling little confident in my communication than my past.. so i feel social media not hurting communication skills on all circumstance.. this is just my opinion.. Thanks
1 person likes this
@roberten (3128)
• United States
6 Aug 12
aswath_10, you have made a very valid point, in some instances social networking sites can have a positive effect on learning languages which proves all is not lost. It is not the medium but how you use it that matters. If the world can get on the same page we can enhance all our communication.
olliekobra1, Mylot is a wonderful vehicle for learning. When I lived in South Korea, I watched a lot of television to help me learn the language. I suppose the bottom line is to use our communication tools more wisely for the best results.
@olliekobra1 (1825)
•
6 Aug 12
that is a good point, mylot is very good for that also waqtching tv is good aswell as well so facebook can be a good learning tool.
1 person likes this
@hsofyan (3446)
• Jakarta, Indonesia
6 Aug 12
Yes, I agree with that site. People are more likely to communicate online, will look stiff when communicating offline. And this will affect the self-confidence when face to face. I think people are skilled writing, tend to be not skilled at speaking.
@roberten (3128)
• United States
6 Aug 12
The cat is already out of the bag, I do not think the youth will give up their textese to easily. We may have to recognize it and make reference to it when teaching taditional english courses; stressing the importance of verb communications. I am sure the debate has just begun.
1 person likes this
@Jshean20 (14349)
• Canada
7 Aug 12
Before I joined any type of Social Networking site my social skills were already lacking so this hasn't made any type of difference. If anything social networking helps me because it atleast allows me to communicate with people on some level rather than little or no communication at all.
@jugsjugs (12967)
•
8 Aug 12
I feel that there are more people that spend more time on a pc than going out to see their friends.
I feel that some people go on sites like face book to start up trouble and not to go on there to chat to people.I pop on face book just to leave a message for a friend or two, maybe add a photo or two as well, where as I would print one out normally and send it through the post.
@roberten (3128)
• United States
9 Aug 12
Great observations, I had not considered these points of view. I spend a lot of time online (mainly earning or playing games) instead of trying to make friends. I do have a facebook acct but I mainly use it for messaging my family members. Most of my socializing is done here on Mylot.
@olliekobra1 (1825)
•
6 Aug 12
I have also noticed that people's Grammar has been effected people are spelling u and not you, but this may be down to laziness
@roberten (3128)
• United States
6 Aug 12
Absolutely correct! My daughter had to teach me textese when I first started using Facebook, I couldn't understand the abbreviations like: "LOL", etc. I was very frustrated. I still do not understand all of the language the young people use while texting and social networking or emailing but I am willing to learn.
@olliekobra1 (1825)
•
6 Aug 12
i have the same problem i run a football team with a lot of younger guys and they text me and i cant even understand it i do wish they would write normally personally.
@olliekobra1 (1825)
•
6 Aug 12
I agree with this totally I do believe that communicating on facebook and Twitter is effecting our social interaction I personally would still prefer to interact with people face to face I like more human approach but I believe that the youth of today does struggle and this problem will only get worse.
@olliekobra1 (1825)
•
6 Aug 12
it may even get worse the younger people may even struggle to form proper relationships in later life due to not interacting with people.
1 person likes this
@ravisivan (14079)
• India
6 Aug 12
yes. it does affect communication ability of students. students can look at the cell phone and computer laptops and not at the face of people. luckily this situation has not come to India because use of cell phones, laptops is prohibited in class rooms. good day.
@roberten (3128)
• United States
6 Aug 12
Wow, ravisivan, I did not know that. Of course, it has been quite a while since I attended school, so I do not have a strong knowledge of what goes on there now-a-days. This may be part of the recipe for correcting this issue worldwide. Mylot is such a wonder "think tank"!
@vidhyaprakash_2 (7116)
• India
6 Aug 12
Hi friend, i don't think social sites spoiled our communication skills, it increased it. Using social sites we can make a lot of friends around world and have more fun and enjoyment with them through interaction.
@roberten (3128)
• United States
6 Aug 12
I agree that social networking makes the world smaller and increase our potential to make new friends but are we affected negatively when we meet face-to-face? The youth have created an entirely new universal language that they are extremely comfortable with but I am not sure it is proper language for daily communications. Too much of a good thing can be bad for you.
