郭曉陽

Its no surprise that the widespread use of social media for communicating ideas， personal and professional stories and experiences has had a profound effect on the overall way people communicate today. But not all are bad.

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.

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.

Information overload

Many people tend to binge on social media， spending hours and hours scrolling through 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 its hard to stop the cycle.

Young people read news

Social media has made reading the news cool again. According to Wibbitz1， 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 someones 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.

Boredom in conversation

Heres 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 dont 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.

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 havent 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.

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 ones own life which leads to feelings of negativity about ones ‘real life.

Inside perspective of afar

One of the positive effects of social media is the ability to get an intimate view of other cultures and places. With social media users are able to see what others are doing around the world. People are exposed to travel ideas， new cultures， and ways of life unlike before.

Broadcasting live

Broadcasting live started as a fun， innocent idea to share lifes moments， but its transformed to become a large part of political movements， sharing some dark aspects of todays society. The option to post live videos has created an important platform for serious issues that need to be spoken about.

Personalized digital messages

People can now completely change their own faces with selfie filters， or draw pictures to send to friends， and more. Creativity soars， which is a great thing， but people can start to spend too much time personalizing picture messages.

Communication style

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.

Abbreviations

The abbreviated style of communicating that became popular when text messaging started in the 00s 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 “textese” and negative effects on literacy skills such as writing skills and reading accuracy. Other studies show that using “textese” has no effect on spelling ability， or correct grammar use.

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.

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.

Viral messages

That quick and easy “share” button on so many social media platforms has led to the phenomenon of “going viral.” Messages， videos， and other content can be easily shared between platforms with millions of people in a matter of days.

廣泛使用社交媒體交流思想，分享生活、職場中的故事和經歷，毫無意外地對當下人們的總體溝通方式產生了深遠影響。但這些影響并非都是不好的方面。

社交媒體對交流的影響

目前有約30億人使用社交媒體，也就是說全世界人口的40%使用社交媒體進行交流。

11%的成年人稱周末更喜歡待在家里刷臉書，而不愿出門。交流受到諸多方面的影響，例如個人表達、我們對他人的期望，以及企業(yè)與客戶的溝通方式等。

信息過載

許多人常常沉迷社交媒體，花費大量時間瀏覽網(wǎng)站。這最終可能導致其總渴望更多使用互聯(lián)網(wǎng)及社交媒體。得到越多，渴望越多，如此循環(huán)，難以停息。

年輕人看新聞

社交媒體使看新聞重新成為時尚。根據(jù)Wibbitz網(wǎng)站的統(tǒng)計，23%的年輕用戶從社交媒體獲取新聞資訊，高達61%的年輕用戶從臉書獲取政治新聞。人們在社交媒體上分享看到的有趣資訊，還能關注各種新聞源主頁。

全面了解

通過照片墻、色拉布、臉書的“故事”功能，人們可以全面了解別人生活中的大小事情或活動。我們不再只是看到一道家常菜的照片，而是能目睹烹飪的整個過程。

這樣，人們思考發(fā)布內容時的心態(tài)便起了變化。如果發(fā)布的“故事”24小時后就會刪除，發(fā)帖的顧慮就少了很多。

厭倦交談

這是社交媒體對交流的一個負面影響。對于現(xiàn)實的面對面交談，我們開始感到厭倦。人們如此渴求使用社交媒體，渴求只有社交媒體才能給予的即時生動反饋，結果，人們在現(xiàn)實的交談中經常感到無聊，只能訴諸手機。這會導致有益的交談數(shù)量減少，質量下滑。

對非語言、情緒及社交提示的反應

對于非語言、情緒或社交提示的當面反應在發(fā)生變化，因為人們在網(wǎng)上無須對此類交流做出回應。這類提示只有在當面交流時才能收到，因此根據(jù)此類提示體會及感受他人需求的能力都會下降。

緊迫感

誰都不必花幾小時以上的時間等待一條回復，于是人們開始在交談中也抱有這樣的期望。人們懷著一種強烈的緊迫感，如果幾個小時沒有得到家人、朋友或伴侶的回應，他們往往會焦躁不安。

分享的需求

社交媒體在用戶中創(chuàng)造了一種氛圍，就是無論他們在做什么，從餐廳點菜，到看演唱會，再到讀書，都必須分享出來。這可以說是社交媒體好的一面，因為人們更多地接觸到他們原本可能接觸不到的事物，例如新的讀物。但這也會成為社交媒體壞的一面，因為會促使人們沉迷于把自身生活中發(fā)生的一切事情都發(fā)布到網(wǎng)上，并在原本的基礎上加以美化。

自我評價

當人們看到別人在社交媒體呈現(xiàn)出精彩人生時，往往會產生負面的自我形象，進而開始貶低自己的生活方式。除此之外，還會感覺有必要背離事實，把自己的生活描繪成一副積極、“快樂”的樣貌，導致對“真實的”生活產生負面情緒。

透徹觀察世界

社交媒體的一個正面影響是能夠透徹觀察其他文化和地區(qū)。通過社交媒體，用戶可以目睹全世界人民的生活。人們可以接觸到與以往迥然不同的旅游理念、全新文化及生活方式。

直播

直播的初衷有趣且單純，是為了分享生活片段，但業(yè)已轉變成為政治活動的一個重要組成部分，用于分享當下社會的一些陰暗面。實時視頻發(fā)布功能為探討嚴肅議題創(chuàng)造了一個重要的平臺。

自定義數(shù)字信息

人們現(xiàn)在可以使用自拍濾鏡徹底改變自己的相貌，或繪制圖像發(fā)送給好友，如此等等。創(chuàng)造力飆升是件好事，但自定義圖像信息可能會花費人們太多時間。

交流方式

概要式書寫

從21世紀頭10年限定文本字符數(shù)開始，到如今推文的140個字符，信息不斷變短，愈發(fā)精簡。其他交流方式也順應了概要式書寫，例如工作備忘錄縮短了，學生與教授間的學術交流減少了，廣告中的信息也變短了。

縮寫

21世紀前10年短信興起，縮寫式交流流行開來，現(xiàn)已延伸至網(wǎng)上對話。這種交流風格還滲透到不使用縮寫的傳統(tǒng)交流方式中，如口語、電子郵件，乃至學術寫作。

這引起了部分學者的擔憂，他們舉研究為例來證明“短信文法”會對寫作技巧及閱讀準確度等讀寫技能產生負面影響。其他研究則表明，使用“短信文法”不會影響拼寫能力或正確使用語法。

不經思考的互動

社交媒體及網(wǎng)上互動在信息發(fā)送者與接收者之間樹起了一道屏障。這類互動不再是面對面的，人們感覺自己可以隨意說話，而不承擔任何后果，因此可能導致部分對話未經思索脫口而出。

動圖與表情符號

利用表情符號闡明文字信息或使用動圖作為回復，這種交流方式的推行看似有趣且無害，但也會影響我們構思恰當書面回復的能力，結果人們會忍不住使用表情圖或搞笑動圖回復，而不是開動腦筋，從頭構思一段書面回答。

病毒式傳播

眾多社交媒體平臺設有快速簡單的“分享”按鍵，因此催生出了“病毒式傳播”現(xiàn)象。信息、視頻及其他內容可以在幾天內輕松橫跨不同平臺，分享給數(shù)以百萬計的人。

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者）