Chapter 2 - Communicating with Social Media

2.1 Identify the distinguishing characteristics of social media, which combine elements of mass and personal communication.

• Social media is distinguished from other forms of communication by user-generated content, variable audience size, and interactivity.

• Uses and gratifications theory explains that social media serve the following functions: social interaction, providing information, passing the time, and entertainment.

• Social media can be “masspersonal”, combining elements of both mass and interpersonal communication.

  Exercises:

  1. How does your use of social media reflect the characteristics of user-generated content, variable audience size, interactivity, and collaboration?

  2. For 1 week, describe how your use of social media reflects the following uses and gratifications: social interaction, providing information, passing the time, and entertainment. What other functions does using social media serve?

  3. To what extent is your social media “masspersonal” in nature?

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2.2 Cases for using social media versus face-to-face communication, noting important differences.

• Mediated communication is less rich than face-to-face interaction. For that reason, it is more prone to ambiguity. When asynchronous, mediated communication is easier to use for managing one’s identity. The permanent nature of mediated content means that regrettable behaviour can have long-lasting repercussions.

• Paradoxically, mediated communication can be hyperpersonal, accelerating the discussion of personal topics and relational development beyond what normally happens in face-to-face interaction.

• Keeping these characteristics in mind can help communicators decide which communication channel is most appropriate and effective in a given situation.

Exercises:

1. Apply the information in this section to a representative sample of your communication, explaining in each case what communication channel is most effective.

2. Describe a situation in which choosing a different communication channel might have led to better results.

2.3 Identify the benefits and drawbacks of mediated communication, and use this knowledge to maximise effectiveness and minimise the potential for harm.

• The use of social media has the potential for great benefit, including sparking romance, facilitating friendships, and providing opportunities to connect with others you might not see face to face. In addition, using social media can help sustain and enrich personal relationships, provide social support, and promote social advocacy and fundraising.

• The drawbacks of social media use include potential harm to offline relationships and increased risk of depression, loneliness, and social anxiety. It’s more difficult to detect deception in mediated relationships, and social media can provide an avenue for abusive behaviour including stalking, harassment, and cyberbullying. Social media also enables misinformation to proliferate, which is often difficult to detect.

Exercises:

1. How is your life richer from using social media? How much do the downsides described in this section affect your personal and relational well-being?

2.4 Describe how factors such as gender and age can influence social media use.

• Social media content, platform preference, word choice, and likelihood of harassment vary by gender.

• People raised with the internet differ significantly in their orientation toward social media than do those who learned online communication as adults. Even for “digital natives,” the content of mediated communication changes according to age.

Exercises:

1. Interview a digital immigrant who lived in the world before social media. How different has the digital immigrant’s life been in terms of the benefits and risks outlined in this section?

2. Use the material in this section to compare your use of social media with the use of classmates or others with different gender orientations. Based on your findings and the information in this section, how can you adapt your communication when interacting with people from different demographic groups?

2.5 explain how to use social media confidently to maintain positive relationships, minimise misunderstandings, and protect yourself.

• Maintaining positive relationships online comes from using a civil tone, preserving privacy boundaries, respecting others’ needs for undivided attention, and being mindful of bystanders.

• Self-protection includes using mobile devices safely, being careful about what you post, being a critical consumer of online information, and balancing mediated and face-to-face time.

Exercises:

1. Ask several of your social media contacts to evaluate how well you follow the guidelines for maintaining positive relationships. Based on the feedback you receive, how can you become a more competent user of social media?

2. Use the guidelines for staying safe to evaluate how well you protect yourself when using social media. What are your strengths? In what areas do you need to improve?

Key Terms

• asynchronous communication = a lag between receiving and responding to messages

• cyberbullying = a malicious act in which one or more parties aggressively harass a victim online, often in public forums

• cyberstalking = ongoing obsessive and/or malicious monitoring of the social media presence of a person

• disinhibition = the tendency to transmit messages without considering their consequences

• gatekeeper = a person who acts as a hub for receiving messages and sharing (or not sharing) them with others

• hyperpersonal =

• communication

• leanness

• masspersonal communication

• online surveillance

• phubbing

• polymediation

• richness

• social media

• synchronous

• trolling

• uses and gratification theory