Writing Homework Help

SOCIAL MEDIA’S INFLUENCE ON RELATIONSHIPS

Purpose:   In 1961, Marshall McLuhan wrote that the medium is the message. By this, McLuhan meant that the medium by which communication occurs, such as the telephone, the television, or handwriting, is more influential in shaping one’s understanding of a message than the content of the message itself. McLuhan concluded that the same message content communicated over different media, such as television, radio, and printed material, would be interpreted differently by message receivers.

Remember that during the early 1960s, when McLuhan explained the relationship between media and their effects on understanding, television itself was a new medium whose effects were not fully understood. McLuhan believed that understanding the effects of a medium and the public’s ability to adapt to a new medium or technology took 20 years.

We are now facing new communication and, particularly, social media technologies whose effects we do not yet know. You have likely already felt the impact of increasing communication technologies in your own life.

And with the advent of Covid-19 we have been introduced to even more technology, namely “zooming”. 

Directions: 

Answer the following questions regarding social media.  If you do not use much social media, you can still answer how not using it affects your relationships.

Questions

1. How have your relationships developed differently via use of social media, such as Facebook/Snapchat, Instagram, and even zoom? What are the benefits of social media tools for relationship management? What are the drawbacks?
2. What impact does social media have on self-disclosure? How does increased or decreased self-disclosure impact your relationships with those on social media?
3. Given that social media is largely image-driven, what impact does social media have on your perception of the way that others live their lives? Do you perceive others as relating to you in the same way as before? Or do you believe others’ lives are very different than yours?  How has zooming affected your education, social life and family life?