The Impact of Social Media on

Communication Skills

By:

• Hossam Ahmed Mohamed - 5443

• Omar Mamdouh Mohamed Hassan – 5931
• Habiba Ahmed Hassan – 6391
• Mohammed Refaat Ali – 6380
• Lina Hanno – 6552
Abstract

This report summarizes the effects of social media on hindering communication skills and reducing social
activity in the world. Each reason is supported by evidence by referring to four published books and some
articles online. It focuses mainly on social media via the Web, such as, Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace, to
which many of the youth are exposed to nowadays, and this exposure has led to addiction. This paper
informs people about the issue of social media affecting communication skills and calls for means to solve
this problem.

About a decade ago, the word ‘social media’ would not have been heard by many. But today, the basic needs
of a man are changing. Conventionally, they were food, cloth, and shelter but now, we have to add internet,
mobile and social media to that list. Man has always been called a social animal and nowadays social media
seems to be one of his most proficient social needs. Communication is the primary motto of the concept of
social media. But is the motto looking realistic?

The emergence of social media has created a new avenue for facilitating daily information and communication
needs. As technology grows and expands our range of communication, social media is becoming a vital tool
for daily social interaction. It creates opportunity for people to interact with each other in a way that is both
helpful and essential to socially motivate people. The rapid-fire quick communication style that captivates the
millennials and other generation has shifted our conversations from ‘face-to-face’ instances to ‘through –the-
screen’ ones.

Social Media is described as the collection of online communication channels dedicated to community-based
input, interaction, content sharing and collaboration. Some of the commonly known communication websites
are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. With the help of this websites people can share memories,
reconnect with friends, plan events, and communicate almost instantaneously. The social media has positive
as well as negative impacts on communication skills.
Introduction:
Social networks have become the central facilitator for daily communication with peers, family and
acquaintances. It is affecting our relationships and decreases the quality of inter-personal communication.
Another impairment of communication skills caused by the extensive use of social media platform is the
impoverishment of language. Using messengers’ people often use shortened versions of words in order to
type and deliver their messages as quickly as possible. Shortened versions like “k”, “ttyl”, “ur”, “der”,
“gr8”,”cu”,”tc” and so on completely ruins the grammar and syntax. It also develops the use of slang terms
and sometimes people tend to forget that they are neglecting the beauty of language when they are online
busy with the social media.

Social media and online communication is believed to be having adverse effect on social skills and
communication among adolescents. Long ago, the time when social media did not exist and social
communication and interaction were the only way of communication. In the era of technology, social media
interactions now dominates both online and offline conversations. In a society where interacting and over-
sharing is the norm, you are probably more likely to speak to friends and family through electronic devices
than face-to-face. Often at events or parties, guests are attached to their smart phones twitting or texting, but
no one is truly engaging or interacting with the people around them. 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.

“Communication is constantly evolving; some people are used to seeing their friend’s online avatar as if the
face”. There is a greater desire to share with other people you barely know, than actually hanging out with
friends and making memories. At the end of the day, nothing can replace face-to-face conversation and
interaction. Despite the explosion of online endorsements and social media dialogue between individuals
and brands, researchers have found word-of-mouth exchanges and in-depth conversations are still most
influential.
Whether or not people want to accept it, social media has several negative impacts on their daily lives. We
cannot deny the fact that social platform is very helpful providing news, gossips, and to keep in touch with
friends and family, but we cannot afford it to become the focal point of our lives. The access that people
have on the internet and social media specifically has become too easy. It has made the language lazy and
thus resulting people uninterested in meeting others in person, which eliminates any chance of deep and
meaningful conversation. People have started losing their ability to communicate efficiently, which is a
testament, to what kind of total control social media has over their lives. Overall, social media can be
beneficial if used wisely and in the proper proportion. So, it is easy to conclude that the negative impact of
social media far outweighs any benefits that they may provide to society at this juncture.

Social Media Effects on Communication

Around 3 billion people use social media today, which means that 40% of the world uses social media for
communication. It’s no surprise that this widespread use has social media effects on communication.

11% of adults reported preferring staying home on Facebook than going out on the weekend.
Communication is affected in ways such as personal expression, our expectations of others, and the way
companies communicate with customers.

Young People Read News

Social media has made reading the news cool again. According to
Wibbitz, 23% of young users get news from social media, and a
whopping 61% get political news from Facebook. On social media, people
share interesting news they read, and they can follow various news sources’
pages.

Getting the Full Picture

Stories — a part of Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook — mean that people get the full picture of an event, activity,
or occurrence in someone’s life. We no longer just get a snapshot of a home-cooked meal, we might see the entire
process from start to finish.

This has changed the way people think about what to post — there is much less thought put into a post when it is a
story that will be erased after 24 hours.
Broadcasting Live
Broadcasting live started as a fun, innocent idea to share life’s moments, but it’s transformed to become a large part
of political movements, sharing some dark aspects of today’s society. The option to post live videos has created an
important platform for serious issues that need to be spoken about.

Exposure to Messaging Information Overload

Many people tend to binge on social media, spending hours and hours scrolling though sites. Ultimately, this may
lead to a constant craving of more internet and more social media consumption. The more people get, the more they
want — and it’s hard to stop the cycle.

Boredom in Conversation

Here’s a sad social media effect on communication. We are becoming bored when we have real, in-person
conversations. People have such a need for social media consumption and that instant, colorful feedback only social
media can give, they will often become bored during real conversations, resorting to their phones. This can lead to a
decrease in the quality and number of meaningful conversations.

Reactions to Non-Verbal, Emotional, and Social Cues

In-person reactions to non-verbal, emotional, or social cues are changing in that people don’t need to respond to
these types of communication when they are online. This leads to less experience and awareness of others’ needs
based on these types of cues that can only be received from in-person communication.
Self-Expression/Sense of Urgency

No one has to wait for longer than a few hours for a response, and people have come to expect that timeline for
conversations. There is so much of a sense of urgency that people are often anxious if they haven’t heard back from
a family member, friend, or partner in a number of hours.

Need to Share
Social media has created a feeling among users that they must
share whatever they are doing — from restaurant orders, to
concerts, to the books they are reading. This can be a social media
positive effect because people are getting more exposure to things
they might not otherwise, such as new reads. But it can also be a
negative effect as it can urge people to become dependent on
posting anything occurring in their own lives and painting those
occurrences as rosier than they truly are.

Photo by Vinicius Wiesehofer from Pexels

How We Value Ourselves

When people see others having a wonderful life, as represented on social media, they tend to have a negative self-
image, and start to devalue their own ways of life. In addition, there is a feeling of needing to paint an inaccurately
positive and ‘fun’ version of one’s own life which leads to feelings of negativity about one’s ‘real’ life.
 Communication Style

1. Summarized Writing
Starting with the limited character text messaging of the 2000s, and nowadays with the 140-character tweet,
messages have been getting shorter and more concise. Other areas of communication have adapted for summarized
writing as well, such as in shortened work memos, shortened academic communication between students and
professors, and shortened messages in advertising.

2. Abbreviations
The abbreviated style of communicating that became popular when text messaging started in the 00’s has continued
into online conversations. It has also made its way into traditionally non-abbreviated forms of communication such
as spoken language, email communication, and even academic forms of writing.

This has caused concern among some academics, citing studies that show a causation between “texts” and negative
effects on literacy skills such as writing skills and reading accuracy. Other studies show that using “texts” has no
effect on spelling ability, or correct grammar use.

3. Unfiltered Interactions

Social media and internet interactions offer a veil between the person sending and the person receiving the message.
These interactions are no longer face to face, and this can lead to some unfiltered conversations as people feel they
can say anything with no repercussions.

4. GIFs and Emojis

The introduction of using emojis to illustrate a written message or a GIF to express a reaction may seem fun and
innocent, but it is also interfering with our ability to properly craft a written response. It ends up being too tempting
to respond with a small picture, or a funny moving photo than to use the mind to create a response with words from
scratch.
Conclusion:

Social Media making us Less Social.

“Too much chatter, too little real conversation.” A psychologist in California state university, Larry Rosen

say that technology is distracting us from our real-world relationships. In this day and age, many people

focus on their virtual relationships than the actual ones, sure more connected but most disconnected. Over

30 years of research and as many as 24 countries involved in this research conclude that the biggest

influence or game changers were social communications platforms, in connection to that portable

computers and not even to guess, smartphones. (Hannah, K. C, 2005). The most amazing this is that most

of the Y generation could blame social media for missing out on a conversation and check their phones

very many times a day without external efforts or being prompted to. In a proper setting, among friends or

out shopping people usually are on their phone and one doesn’t have to look far but just the person coming

or one who’s behind you. One of the driving forces behind this need to constantly check your phone is

anxiety of the event in the virtual world. Many research also found that many conversations which are

held on phone are seldom meaningful but other just have a yearning to show off to the world how their life

is and some are pretending. (Mergel, I. A., et al, 2013).

There are positive and negative impacts due to the proliferation of this medium. While social media has

definitely helped marketing and marketers, it has brought along with it a new perspective about how
things get done and has impressed the youngsters in the impressionable age group. While appreciating the

speed of disseminating information, the consequences of such actions to making the youngsters more

lackadaisical and lazier has to be considered. Youngsters seem to prefer isolation and they seem to be in

their own imaginary world rather than the real-life friends and interaction with neighbors and elders in the

family. Lack of respect towards elders in the family and friends circle is a development which needs to be

taken with caution! But progress cannot be stopped. It has to stand the test of times! Information overload

and lack of privacy are two major issues in social media. There is no control over the information that you

will get through social media for example through what’s App. Getting more information before people
are ready to receive and process the same for useful consumption makes them confused. The continuous

bombarding of messages through hand held devices leaves no time for reflection and analysis and leads to

some kind of addiction and resignation to the situation. This leads progressively to avoidance of face to

face communication. There is difficulty in separating virtual reality from reality and loss of privacy. Since

massive information is spread through social media, there is no room for privacy – everybody knows

everything about the other person. This is a dangerous situation leading to herd mentality and the

individual loses his discretion. Humans are progressively made into robots processing commands. And

these commands can originate from anti-social elements

References:

• “Effects of social media on communication skills. Bartleby. (2022).” Retrieved from

https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Effects-of-social-media-on-communication-skills-
PKKKTNL3RZYA
• “(10 Ways) How Social Media Affects Communication Skills?. (2022)”. Retrieved from
https://upjourney.com/how-social-media-affects-communication-skills
• “Effects of Social Media on Communication Skills_Education magazine. (2022)”. Retrieved from
https://theknowledgereview.com/effects-social-media-communication-skills/