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Marine Papazyan
Professor Lewis
English 113A
December 12, 2015
Tweeting, Instagramming, Snapchatting, Communicating?
Is social media helping communication or dragging it through the ground? While
some people strictly argue that social media has impacted communication on a whole other level,
others feel social media sites such as Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat has completely destroyed
communication. Social media has grown dramatically in the last decade; nowadays people from
all over the world use Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat on a daily basis. According to
statista.com there are 400 million Instagram users, 307 million Twitter users, and 100 million
snapchat users. There are a millions of ways to communicate online but what about
communicating the old fashion way: face to face. Although, social media sites have its perks
when with others, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat are completely destroying face to
face communication because talking on social media is much easier and some say that it is much
easier to express your feelings.
As mentioned earlier, Instagram has about 400 million monthly active users; it is
one of the most popular social media apps today. Many people, including myself, use Instagram
for inspiration, celebrity news, fashion, food, stalking (in a harmless way), and communicating
with people all over the world. Instagram gives me a chance to communicate with my relatives in
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Armenia and France; it does the same for other trying to contact their loved ones from all over.
I can take a look at my relatives photos and see the places theyre going, the things they

are doing, and how much theyve grown from the last time Ive seen them. Instagram also has a
direct message where you can message to anyone from anywhere; its quick and easy. I cant
help but wonder is Instagram the best way of communicating with people?

Instagram has many ways to connect but is missing the most important way which is
having a face to face connection. According to telegraph.co.uk, teenagers feel more confident
talking or expressing their feelings through social media. The site did a survey on social media
communication and 75% of students said that, their relationships with their families got closer
because of their phones and 69% said that the first thing and last thing they do during the day is
check their phones which has all of their social media apps in there. Since people, mostly
teenagers, feel more comfortable talking on social media they start doing to more often and
that sooner becomes a habit. Not only is it more comfortable to talk on but its also much easier
rather than meeting face to face. Instagram isnt the only social media site that we depend on for
our communication.
It is safe to say that Twitter is one of the most popular social media sites we have,
ranking with 307 million users,in which, keeps growing by the minute. People use Twitter for
various reasons such as tweeting, discovering, posting pictures and videos. Just like Instagram,
people from all over the globe use Twitter to communicate with friends and family. For some shy
people, Twitter is a site where they can be themselves and express their interests rather than
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interacting with others. For instance, I have this one friend who is very shy and has social
anxiety when it comes to face to face conversations but twitter helps him express himself and his
interests. (Shalom 1) Although survey results suggest that socially anxious individuals may use
computer mediated communication (CMC) differently from others and feel differently about

CMC relative to face to face (FTF) communication, little is known about their actual experience
during CMC.Although relevant for all CMC users, distinct aspects of CMC may have special
importance for individuals with high social anxiety who experience difficulties with traditional
modes of interaction, such as face to face and telephone contact. Social media has its perks of
communicating with others when it comes to extremely shy people.
We see that social media is good for reserved people but what about the rest of us?
From what I have witnessed, there are much less people shy than there are bold and outgoing
people. According to procon.org, social media causes people to spend less time interacting face
to face. (98) USC Annenberg School study found that the percentage of people reporting less
face-to-face time with family in their homes rose from 8% in 2000 to 34% in 2011. (99) 32%
reported using social media or texting during meals (47% of 18-34 year olds) instead of talking
with family and friends. Since this is the case, most individuals do communicate on Twitter
more often because it seems much easier and more comforting to just use Twitter for
communication. Since Twitter has many ways of communicating: tweeting, sharing blogs,
posting pictures and videos most people find it useless to have a face to face interaction but little
do they know that some things might just be better communicating face to face. People use
Twitter to talk about anything including secrets or serious matters which sometimes can come
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out the wrong way and many conflicts start off that way. Twitter isnt the only social media site
that destroyed face to face communication.

Snapchat is the most recent social media site that came out on February 2013,
during this year it hit 307 million users. Snapchat focuses mostly on videos and pictures and also
includes sending messages. The way Snapchat plays a big part of communications

is that it gives people a chance to record or snap pictures of the things they are doing or how they
feel about a certain thing. I use Snapchat on a daily bases to see what all my friends and old
classmates are doing with their lives instead of talking face to face with each and every single
one of them. (Smith) Average number of photos shared on snapchat every second is 8,796
photos. Since many people share so many photos and videos on snapchat there is no point
saying, hi, how are you because youll already know the answer to it. Most of my classmates
are off to college and since they are so far away Snapchat gives me a chance to see how they are
doing with the photos and videos that they post.
Snapchat has some good qualities of communication with people that are not close
to you as youd like them to be, but that shouldnt be an excuse use snapchat for communication
to people that are closer than others. Face to face interactions should not be through camera but
in person. For example, if a good friend or family member doesnt live too far away and you
havent seen them in a while it would be much more fun to interact with them in person rather
than just snapping pictures or sending videos of you. Recently, a good friend of mine that I
havent seen for many years and we started reminiscing about the good old times. Having
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face to face interactions not only let you be more intimate with one another but also you can
see the the other persons facial expression because it is a huge part of how the other person
feels. If we can just destroy the habit of talking on any social media site all the time and focusing
more on face to face communications, or relationships with our loved ones would grow
massively.
Social media has many perks for communicating with people, however, we tend to
overuse it for communication in many different forms, in which, destroys face to face

communication. The three main social media sites we have today are Instagram, Twitter, and
Snapchat with millions of users each site has. Each site has multiple ways of communicating
with each other so most people either get lazy and think its more easier to communicate with
social media. Without face to face communication some relationships come to an an end because
of the lack of interaction. Some things might come out the wrong way when using social media
to communicate and somethings are better said in person. Im not saying that social media is all
bad for communication but you should have limits on how often you communicate through
Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. By meeting face to face you can also show that you care about
the relationship you have because you put in the time and effort to meet up instead of just
communicating through social media. We must remember that no matter how many time we talk
during the day though Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat nothing beats face to face
communication.

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Citation:

1.) Shalom, Jonathan G., Social Anxiety And Physiological Arousal During Computer Mediated
Vs. face to face communication. Computers in human behavior 44. (2015). Academic search
premier. Web. 29 Nov. 2015 (CSUNs database)
2.) Procon.org, Are Social Media Sites Good For Our Society? Web. 24 March. 2015
3.) Statista.com, Instagram monthly active users Web. September. 2015