RT Article
T1 The Promise and Perils of Connectedness: Living in a New Virtual World
JF Journal of interdisciplinary studies
VO 33
IS 1/2
SP 19
OP 42
A1 Clough, William R.
LA English
YR 2021
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1787376451
AB Social media facilitate and intensify communication to an unprecedented degree and humanity is adjusting to this new state of affairs. Internet connectivity enables the human desire for sociality, personal relationships, and social acceptance to a remarkable degree. But human communication evolved in a face-to-face world, where people experienced one another as well as hearing one another. Modern communication has removed the interpersonal experience factor, leaving people to interpret the messages, not of flesh-and-blood individuals but of stereotypes, beliefs about a general class of people. This essay surveys some classic understandings of communication, followed by analysis of some of the characteristics and pitfalls of social media. It concludes that social media are a huge change in human communication requiring personal and society-wide adjustments based on principles that have stood the test of time, including selfawareness, self-control, and care to take the moral and interpersonal high road in online communications.
K1 Communication
K1 Hearing
K1 Humanity
K1 Interpersonal attraction
K1 Social Media
DO 10.5840/jis2021331/22