Volatility within Electronic Communication Essay

    In simple terms, The Flight From Conversation entails the human fight or flight behavior. However, as conversation has begun slipping away from our culture, we’ve failed to fight for it. There is a mentality in society that anything done with a conversation can be done through technology. People have failed to realize the consequences that result from avoiding conversation. We’ve nearly eliminated talking and have replaced it with texting and emailing. We have no realization that texting prevents all feeling that should be involved in that conversation had it been a real conversation. As Turkle states, “ The students had tried to “warm up” their digital messages by using emoticons, typing out the sounds of laughter, and using the forced urgency of TYPING IN ALL CAPS.” (pg. 23). I can personally vouch that this is a very real thing that even I do on a daily basis if not more. People can’t understand that these emotional short cuts and feelings aren’t the same things. On the other hand, they can almost understand the

Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are huge contributors to cyberbullying. These social network sites grant their members the privilege to engage in the actions of the attacker which is a menace. A majority of the cyberbullied population have committed suicide due to the abusive comments. Cyberbullying has gone into a hyper drive with new devices and faster types of social media.

As the drastic increase of social media networks has increased, so too has the cyberbullying prevalence. Merriam-Webster defines cyberbullying as the electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person often done anonymously. Kassandra Gahagan and her fellow colleagues studied cyberbullying among students and its outcomes. Studies show higher rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors with victims of cyberbullying, along with higher rates of depression, anxiety and paranoia (Gahagan, Vaterlaus & Frost, 2015). While cyberbullying can be both intentional or unintentional, it is a negative process which effects the victim. This includes comments, posts without consent and messages. The study conducted sought to determine the prevalence of cyberbullying among young adults and the negative outcomes through asking three questions.

A common problem with communicating through technology in the workplace is the disinhibition effect. The disinhibition effect is when people are more likely to say things through technology that they wouldn’t say in real life, (Suler, 2004). If a person receives a critical email from a co-worker, they’re more likely to respond in a negative and destructive way if they write an email back immediately. This is because when people aren’t actually face-to-face with another person when communicating with them, it’s easier to say more negative

Many social media users, for example, have felt the blow of a very hurtful comment from strangers or friends hidden behind a false identity. For example, Twitter has become a venue where anyone from famous politicians, Hollywood elite, to one’s immediate family may spew out inflammatory and bombastic comments that they would never utter in a face to face encounter. This kind of startling exchange is just a sample of how toxic the Internet can be when the users are not accountable and can hide behind the screen of the internet. Due to the loss of face-to-face contact while online, some people obviously feel free to say whatever they want, and with the lack of initial personal reaction from the recipient of these remarks, the online troll feels no remorse. In the article, "Hiding Behind the Screen," Roger Scruton states, "In human relations, risk avoidance means the avoidance of accountability, the refusal to stand judged in another’s eyes, the refusal to come face to face with another person…to run the risk of rejection. Accountability is not something should avoid; it is something we need to learn.” (59). This statement makes one wonder if the cultural shift to online communication and the inevitable lack of

On the contrary, social media is known as the utmost ways to communicate with others through precise emotional signs. The online communication takes various signals away. For example one of the signals is, over the phone, one can hear the change in a person’s tone, or the ominous/menacing pause that sends a message for one to back off. But, the jokes and snide comments aren’t the only problem, there is also a hostile behavior. An incident, was when Devon, a thirteen year old, asserted that a friend would claim that she spread out rumors about him. Devon even claimed that the boy is a quiet adolescent, but throughout the posts he would express himself by capitalize letters and punctuated by endless exclamation marks, the young teenager claimed she felt as in her friend was screaming in her face. Sometimes kids act differently on behind the screen meaning when being on a social website such as Facebook because they feel more secure to behave like that on a computer and not in person. One feels the powerful behind the computer screen and do not realize the actions they make towards the other

SUMMARY- Lauren Tarshis in the article, Is Facebook Making You Mean? published in September 5, 2011 addresses the topic of social media and asserts that it can have an affect on how we act towards one another, online and in the real world. In this article, Tarshis gives an example of how social media affects our behavior. In this example with Anna and Maya, one person comments on a photo based on the comments of others, which hurt the person who posted it initially. When the picture was first posted, the comments were nice, but after a while, when one person said something insulting or mean, so did others. Some did this because the others were doing it and did not think it was that serious because it was joking. But, it did end up hurting the

To prevent bullying and negative interactions, our youth needs to be trained on how to communicate effectively online. The article “Is Facebook Making You Mean?” states that

In today’s society it would appear that we are communicating more as time passes with the addition to social media into individual lives. With applications such as Twitter, YouTube, and Face book, people are able to communicate with people around the world almost instantly as well as see the things that are being experienced in other countries. However, even though this has somehow made the world seem a bit smaller, communication has not gotten better. Miscommunication is actually now more readily noticeable because of the amount of social media that is available. We begin to see the societal and cultural factors that lead to misunderstandings

It is true that we humans need to discuss, give opinions, and have deep conversation about events that happened in the past or are happening right now and about people we all cross in our life. However, some sources where our discussions, opinions and conversations are built up on are sometimes misleading from its origin. ‘’The news isn't there to tell you what happened. It's there to tell you what it wants you to hear or what it thinks you want to hear’’ ~ Joss Whedon (Goodreads,

The development of the Internet brings lots of convenience to people’s life and work. However, it also provides a platform for some detrimental issues, such as cyber bullying. The article “Meet Facebook’s Mr. Nice: At Facebook, Creating Empathy among Cyberbullying” was published on the website of The New York Times in October, 2014. In the article, the author, Nick Bilton described the current situation of cyber bullying and he stated that although the majority of cyber bullies were unintentional and meant to be friendly, they could cause harm and other negative influence. He claimed that the efforts of Facebook to encourage users to be nice and respectful were essential and effective. By using ethos to establish his claim, pathos to appeal

As social media gets popular and provides an easier access to the Internet, the more difficult it gets to control people’s outburst. Many people wonder, “What is the difference between traditional bullying and cyber bullying?” “What is cyber bullying?” Traditional bullying is when a person is bullying another person face to face. However, with cyber bullying is different. Cyber bullying occurs through out social media and on the Internet. Once in a while I overhear a person questioning about how teens and young kids use social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and etc. Social media has its pros and cons, pro because it gives us an easier to access to sources when we need it right away. Social media also has its cons because social media is very powerful tools, which can be taken advantage of like for example, making shanky comments on pictures or post inappropriate information about another person. Therefore, how fast is cyberbullying expending? How can we use the Internet in a positive way? Two great essays by Jesse Fleck, Leigh Johnson-Migalski, Jemica Carter, and Feleta Wilson explain these reasoning’s.

For the past decade or so there has been a considerable shift in the way we communicate with each other; instead of speaking face-to-face, we prefer to stay in touch by way of a Facebook post or Tweet. Social media dominates our life whether we’re using it, or not. However, not all online dissonance has been healthy and civil. The internet has seen a rise in the number of trolls and predators that lurk the dark corners of the Internet. Threats, and heinous insults flood media networks like Reddit and Snapchat. Online predators who fling insults are enamored by the internet’s alluring anonymity and can’t give it up. Like Christine Rosen says in her article called, “In the Beginning Was the Word,” “technology has introduced new words, changed the meaning of others, and has even introduced new forms of language and communication” (230). The evolutionary trend and prevalence of people intentionally offending others online has led to a

Social media. We have all heard of it. We have all raved about it at some point in our lives. There is no doubt; it plays an imperative part of people’s lives today – users are reliant on social media. It is great that Mark Zuckerberg reminds us to say, “Happy Birthday” to our friends. Yet, we have all seen the dangers it can cause. From identity fraud to cyberbullying - we become exposed to the dangers of the internet. Not only is it hackers and frauds that cause destruction, but social networking posts. Every day, you scroll through Facebook, or Instagram - liking, sharing and commenting on posts. What people don’t see is how words on a ‘status’ or ‘tweet’ can hurt someone. They can’t see that a person’s feelings behind the screens on a computer have been destroyed, because they can’t see what they don’t want to see.

Social sites are a beneficial way to communicate, however, it affects a person’s ability to communicate face to face with others. Many people spend much of their leisure time online rather than connecting with the offline world. In a specific article, a participant spends several hours each day updating her profile instead of talking face to face with others (Livingstone 399). Being online more than offline, decreases people’s abilities to interact with others who are disconnected. Furthermore, by communicating online also contributes to misrepresentation, which leads to misreading a text, leading to mixed emotions of a person who wrote the message. Therefore, social networking reduces an emotional aspect between people as it is hard to tell what a person is feeling through text. In addition, people lack confidence talking to an individual physically rather than virtually. In an