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Communication through Face-to-Face Conversation or Social Media

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         If you and your friends are going to hold a Christmas party and have to discuss the details of it, which kind of methods for communication would you prefer, through a face-to-face conversation or online social media? Communication plays an important part in our daily lives. According to a study mentioned by Dr. Lee and Dr. Hatesohl in 1993, it was said that many of us spent 70 to 80 percent of our waking hours in some form of communication. Apart from the ‘traditional’ way to converse via face-to-face talks, people are also able to keep in touch with others through different types of social media, thanks to the advancement of technology and the Internet. Although we can practice communication through both face-to-face conversations and social media, these two means for communicating have their own features respectively.

          Compared to a face-to-face conversation, conversations through the wide use of technology and social media could no longer be blocked by the limits of time and space. People nowadays generally have their own mobile devices, like cell phones or laptops, to have access to the Internet and social network. With these two elements, people can cross the boundary of distances. We can have an online meeting with others across the other hemisphere via the connection of the net and the help of social platform. Besides, social media allows people to leave the messages for those who are unable to respond immediately with only simple taps on your screen or keyboards. With this kind of assistance, people save plenty of time from grabbing the person in front of you to have a talk.

         Moreover, social platforms are more effective than a face-to-face conversation in terms of transferring information. According to a study, Instant Messaging an effective way of communication in workplace, done by Maina (2013), found that more than 85 percent of all business and organizations now make use of IM for transferring info, which is the abbreviation of instant messaging. One of the reasons for the popularity of the use of IM lies in its ability to communicate regardless where a person is. Furthermore, IM enables people to multitask. Unlike having a face-to-face talk, men can contact with several people on different discussions at the same time or do other works while using IM. Some instant messaging platforms even provide the aid to detect the presence of friends. In other words, people have no excuses for not replying due to being offline, because the system would show whether the person is online or not. And this application has greatly improved the efficiency of communication.

     However, a face-to-face conversation appears to get people to have stronger ties with others than communicating through social media. The research done by Iowa State University in 2003, involved 32 pairs of undergraduates, who didn’t know each other in the beginning. And these pairs were divided into two groups: one group would have to talk face-to-face and the other would have a talk via social network. The result of this study indicates that students in the face-to-face group have more positive emotional responses toward this experiment and acquire more vivid memories of the conversation than those in the social media group. Therefore, a face-to-face conversation seems to connect people more among the feeling of closeness than what social media does.(See Pic 1. and Pic 2.)

         Communication takes a large amount of time in our interactions with others. To conduct this important task comes mainly with two different methods, and these two ways are through face-to-face and social media. Owing to the advance of the tech and web, the utilization of social media becomes more and more popular. Having conversations via social media would not be limited by time or places and could transmit information effectively, whereas face-to-face talks allow people to have intimacy with others. These two means for communication have their own traits and advantages. Thus, we should choose the favored one for contacting with others rather than seeing a typical way, no matter is a conversation through face-to-face or social media, superior to the other one.

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