by Bethany Jett @BetJett
Critics say that social media
creates less personal face-to-face interaction. “Too
often at events or parties, guests are attached to their smartphones tweeting
or texting, but no one is truly engaging or interacting with the people around
them”
(Fowlkes, 2012).
One criticism is that our
youth aren’t being taught how to have real conversations because they’re used
to communicating behind a screen. I realized that truth when I asked my nine-year-old
son to answer my mom’s call while I was driving. His phone mannerism was less
than impressive.
Then I realized something.
Of course my son didn’t have stellar phone manners. I hadn’t taught him.
His manners had nothing to
do with social media and more to do with the small amount of time he’s ever had
to talk on the phone. After all, talking to grandparents is way more fun via
FaceTime or Skype.
Back to my point. Social
media in itself doesn’t create a lack of conversational skills. These skills
need to be taught, just like I have to teach my sons how to use the phone. And
we have lots of opportunities for face-to-face conversations at school, home,
church, and extra-curricular activities. We need to use those opportunities to
teach our kids (and practice, ourselves) the art of conversation instead of
hiding behind our cells. Similarly, we have to teach our kids the art of
communicating online.
Instead of social media
creating a deficit, I believe that social media creates a stronger bond in
interpersonal relationships.
Here’s why.
The words “Facebook
Official” mean that something big has happened, but only the people closest to
you knew first. This can be pregnancy announcements, dating relationships,
leaving a job, or in my most recent case, when my husband returned home from an
overseas military deployment.
Sometimes we don’t want
personal information on social media because
we have relationships with people who have earned “I get to know first!”
status.
We become more personal
with where we live as well. Yes, we can sleuth people’s home addresses, but
most people don’t give out that information. Some of us don’t even put our
phone numbers on our business cards.
As a society, our personal
contact information has become sacred, reserved for those closest to us.
And that’s okay.
Even using social media or
texting, we decrease the amount of people we want to communicate with. Many of
us have group text threads, Facebook family groups, and SnapChat “Group Snaps.”
While we may still share a lot of our lives with the entire “interweb,” the
important news often gets shared in a different communication model before we
let everyone know our business.
Social media isn’t going
away. The platforms we use may change but we should embrace where we’re headed.
Parents have a responsibility to teach their kids how to communicate on all
modes of technology (in an age-appropriate manner) because it’s how they’ll be
communicating as adults.
So whether we choose to
share our awesome Thanksgiving meals on Facebook or give a play-by-play of our
favorite football game on Instagram Stories, let’s be real, authentic, and
enjoy that we get to tell our story in our own way.
TWEETABLES
Bethany Jett is the co-owner of Serious Writer, Inc., and Vice President of Platinum Literary Services where she specializes in marketing, nonfiction proposal creation,
ghostwriting, and developmental editing. Her love for email funnels and social
media led to her pursuing her Master of Fine Arts degree in Communication with
an emphasis in marketing and public relations.
References:
Fowlkes, J. (2012, October 11). Viewpoint: Why social media is
destroying our social skills. Opinion. USA Today College. Retrieved from http://college.usatoday.com/2012/10/11/opinion-why-social-media-is-destroying-our-social-skills/
This is great Bethany, thanks for being "authentic"!
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