As we all know, communication is a meaningful practice in daily life as we have to communicate in different ways with others to build our life. Meanwhile, communication as a meaning-making practice is the core of how the social world gets constructed as meaningful.
With the development of technology, most people nowadays are more likely to communicate online through some media platforms than face-to-face communication. There is no doubt that these products of media became an increasing mediation of our communicative stream which make the original direct communication such as face-to-face communication transfer to mediated communication. In such an environment, people expect that their comments, posts and gestures can be increasingly mediated for future commentary and circulation so that they try to construct a totally new role online in a digital world.
There is a common phenomenon that people now are more willing to communicate with others online instead of in reality. For example, when families gather together and have a dinner maybe people there are staring at their phones and chatting with the friends who are just not near them. It seems like lose the face-to-face interaction. But why people do that?
Technology makes our life more accessible and convenient to even everything, it can also help us to be the person we would like to do in mind online just by creating a new account on media social platforms.
From my perspective, more and more person now pay attention to the life they showed on the Internet. To reach that, they will divide their friends, families and classmates into different groups and make the decision whether some groups can or cannot see some specific posts in order to create an image of yourself in the minds of a specific group of people. For example, I would like to show me daily life to all of my friends but when I am in a low mood and I will write some very negative posts which I will choose not to show them to my families as they will go to be overly concerned about it. It’s going to bother me honestly.
On the other hand, in social media platform there are more and more bloggers starting to post their photographs and videos online with a fixed style which they tested is the most attractive styles. In this way, they build their internet presence, own fans and even making money by making advertisements for some brands. It is really popular now in TikTok or X, people are obsessed with the feeling of being sought after to satisfy their self-esteem and to achieve what they can’t in reality.
There is no doubt in my mind that this is a double-edged sword, which may also cause people to lose themselves in reality and become addicted to the Internet, gradually lagging behind the real life. As a result, we should take into account both the online and real world in order to feel the impact of the media on the creation of an online and offline society.
Reference:
- Couldry, N. and Hepp, A. (2016). The mediated construction of reality. Cambridge, Uk ; Malden, Ma, Usa: Polity Press.
2. Haziq, S. (2019). Putting the best digital self forward in the age of Social Media. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@haziqsabreen25/putting-the-best-digital-self-forward-in-the-age-of-social-media-d3dbec422b73.
The examples you gave are very relevant. As you said, technology makes our lives easier, and we can make good friends with the identities that the digital world creates, if we are able to tell the real from the fake. But at the same time, the digital world is also dangerous because there is no guarantee that information will be passed on with absolute authenticity.
I agree with you that people are paying more attention to the digital world than the real world, and it feels like people are communicating less with each other. I also selectively post photos or other content about myself on social media, showing myself while holding back.
What you’re saying is true, I have the same situation, I have more friends online than in real life, I rarely talk to my real friends face to face, more time I use social media to communicate with people. I like to set up groups when I post, just to show the people I want to see what I post, and I think most young people have this problem these days, This makes the relationship between people in reality more and more weak. We need to strike a balance and realize that relationships in the virtual world should not completely replace those in the real world. It’s also important to maintain relationships with friends in real life.