The Relationship between The Use of Technological Communication and Social Skills in College Students

These drawbacks include too many people being reliant to talking online rather than in person and not verbally communicating with friends even though they are in the same room. Jasmine Fowlkes shows the reality in how social media is affecting our new generation through her article, “Viewpoint: Why Social Media is Destroying our Social Skills.” After discussing the results conducted by several researchers, Fowlkes states,“As more generations are born into the social age, social media will continue to be the favored communication form among young people. However, this shift may begin to affect their ability to properly communicate in person with peers.” Many start to rely on applications on our devices to talk to people, but this results in less verbal communication. In addition, Kelly-Fay’s Talktrack research study showed that conversations held in person are much more impactful than on social media. Rather than making social media a huge part of your life, Fowlkes wishes that people would look up from their phones and engage more with others since that could change their lives.

Text. Email. Instagram. Facebook. MySpace. Twitter. All made to make life easier and to avoid having to face the social awkwardness of an actual conversation, but is that a good thing? Modern technological advances in the world of communication have robbed society of its ability to conversate normally. The real question is this: Will the people notice before it’s too late?

Alexandra Ossola’s “A New Kind of Social Anxiety in the Classroom,” discusses the consequences of technology use on student’s social skills. Ossola argues, “some academics fear that greater access to technology could exacerbate social anxiety among teens” (Ossola). Ossola sites Tamyra Pierce, a journalism professor at California State University, Fresno, stating “If we are glued to technology 24/7, it’s going to have an effect on social skills-it’s just natural” (qtd. in Ossola). This idea has been confirmed by the exponential increase in the diagnosis of social anxiety and depression, as well as, the early onset of their symptoms. These disorders affect every aspect of a person’s life, from academics, to relationships, to self-esteem. Pierce conducted a study in 2009 which tested the relationship between the use of technology and social anxiety in teenagers. The results showed that “the more the students spent using online communication methods, the more likely they were to show symptoms of anxiety about communicating face-to-face,” and that “teenage girls showed much more anxiety than did their male peers” (qtd in Ossola). These results confirm that technology is exacerbating the deficits in social skills. However, technology has been so intertwined in learning and teaching complex topics that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to separate the two. The use itself is not the issue. The overuse and misuse of technology has become the issue. There needs to become a balance between face-to-face communication and technology

Mr Nass at stanford states the following: “the ultimate risk of heavy technology use is that it diminishes empathy by limiting how much people engage with one another, even in the same room” ( Richtel 18). This shows that because of heavy use of technology, students are not efficient communicators. Students have commenced a poor alternative for communication by texting and emailing which is the non human way of communication. Students are even texting or emailing one another even if their in the same room. Some may argue that, technology is not ruining students communication skills. However, students that use technology to much end up having non efficient communication

Interacting with other people can difficult and at times even unpleasant, but at the end of the day it is a task everyone has to overcome, or not. In Alone Together Turtkle writes of how we have come to readily accept a more technological based world saying, “ Technology is seductive when what it offers meets our human vulnerabilities” (263 Turkle). Today technology allows its users to communicate with others without ever having to see their face via text or email, meeting the vulnerability of being awkward and boring during a conversation in real life. Yet, avoiding actual interaction with people diminishes a persons social intelligence, making a conversing with others all the more difficult as they can no longer rely on the controlled atmosphere of messaging system and have to deal with unexpected questions and topics. Moreover, in the same article Turtle discuses the younger generation aversion to human interaction, she write, “ Teenagers avoid making telephone calls, fearful that they ‘reveal too much’. They would rather text than talk”( Turtle 272). Technology provides a controlled environment in which one decides to what degree he or she would like to interact with other, but this is not how the real world works. One can text answers for a job interview or email the news of a sick relative, somethings have to be done in person. Accordingly, in Tough’s article social intelligence is defined as, “ the ability to recognize interpersonal dynamics and adapt quickly to different social situations”( Tough 2). Online users do not exhibit social intelligence, the online domain is posses no new social situations to adapt to, is something makes one uncomfortable or annoyed they can simply “x” out of a window or go to another website. Increased reliance on technology will hinder the development of character, especially social

The use of social media is ruining this generation’s real life social skills. According to Social Media Today, an online community for professionals, “The amount of time people spend on social media is constantly increasing. Teens now spend up to nine hours a day on social platforms, while 30% of all time spent online is now allocated to social media interaction.” Texting or online communications does not allow people to truly express themselves for who they truly are. There is a loss of social and personal development communicating through social media. For instance, people online are unable to use body language, tone, voice and facial expressions through a text. An article on The Telegraph, pointed out that “One in four people spend more time socialising online, using sites such as Facebook, than they do in person, according to research.” The study also found that even when there is an opportunity to see people face-to-face, on weekends for example, up to 11% of adults still prefer to stay at home and communicate on their devices instead. (USA Today). The problem with socialising online is that affects a person’s ability to communicate properly in face-to-face interactions. The person will feel a sense of social anxiety and not project their voice loud enough for their audience to hear them. For

In a world where time is money and out surroundings pressure us to be the best and to achieve more and more our social life become tainted. Then you have sweet technology which makes communicating much easier. Using technology you make a ton of friends by sharing a picture or chatting with different people across the world. You would think you have multiple friends over the internet when in reality you’re really lonely. The only thing wrong with having a conversation in the real

In this scholarly article, Wailin Wong claims that using the internet lessen the face to face interaction between people communicating. She explains that communicating through social media builds relationship and self- esteem. This article states the nature of social communication online or its effects on social connection and personal well-being.

Technology has changed the way people communicate. People are now easily accessible, wherever they are, quite literally in the palm of their hand. With a simple click or tap of a button, one can easily get in contact with friends, family, or co-workers. One might assume that this instant gratification has negatively affected interpersonal communication, though it could be argued that technology has improved communication between adolescents and their friends as well as adolescents and their families through social media. Social media not only affects how teens interact with their friends, but it also impacts family dynamics as well by increasing connectivity and communication which fosters family closeness.

How can the Internet reduce some of the common communication problems that couples experience in face-to-face conversations? How have social network services changed communication patterns particularly on today’s college campuses? What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of these services?

Paul Lee 's along with the other authors text analyzes how the Internet impacts how people socially interact with one another. They also argue about whether communicating online has the same benefits as "face to face interactions"(2). Their conclusion of the research shows online communication versus

How does electronic communication affect our social behavior as a whole and our psychological development? Communication is an important part of life. We all do it in a daily basis whether it’s face-to-face or through electronics. Communicating through the internet helps us as it decreases a bit in the time that it would usually take for us to keep in touch with our loved ones. However, it also takes away from the face-to-face interaction we would have with them. One of the most popular ways that people communicate electronically is through text messaging. Just like all the other diverse ways that allows us to communicate electronically such as email, instant messaging, social media etc., text messaging affects us both positively and negatively. Actually we are affected both positively and negatively with just the ability to communicate and interact with others electronically. Electronic Communication tends to affects us socially and psychologically; Socially: in a way that it allows us to keep in touch with our loved ones, especially those who live far from us, however it distracts some of us from our priorities; Psychologically: one can be affected in a

Living in the twenty first century is unlike anything else. Everything from having 700 friends, right within your mobile cell phone, or having your alarms contact you and the police instantly when a door in your home unexpectedly opens. Technological advantages are at an all time high, but how is the internet and social media changing teenager’s social skills for the worst? It has been made clear that students are spending excessive amounts of time facing a screen, and that this is causing a decline in social skills, but, more and more professions are valuing the important prowess of social communication and interpretation.

Electronic communication technologies influence the social development of adolescents in several ways including interpersonal communication, and emphasized that interpersonal communications are depersonalized because adolescent now conduct a higher proportion of communication electronically rather than face-to-face or voice-to-voice. (Subrahmanyam & greenfield, 2008). Any type technology to communicate with others, such as cell phones, instant messaging, and social networking sites, it deprives any visual or auditory cues of facial expression, body language, and voice dynamics (Cyr, Berman, & Smith, 2014). Interpersonal relationship problems arise when messages on either end are misunderstood (Erozkan, 2013).

Technology and social media are playing an ever-evolving role in people’s day to day lives. Phones are now many times more powerful than computers used to be, and the level of interconnectedness technology affords us is astonishing. While these breakthroughs have allowed for the advancement of scientific research and made daily tasks more efficient, there is a large issue that seems to be avoided. As technology has changed, the ways in which we mingle in a professional workplace have not. Social skills are still at the forefront of what employers look for in potential job candidates, and the truth is that many young adults and children soon to enter the workforce are ill prepared for effective professional communication due to lack of face to face interaction in daily life from repeated overuse of technological communication.