Communication in Social Media
There are various modes through which we communicate with each other.
These modes took the form of handwritten messages, typewritten messages,
short telegrams, computer-encoded texts, as well as landline telephone
conversations and audio/video-recorded messages.
Because each mode of communication is distinct from the other, the ways in which we
craft our messages differ.
There is a greater tendency for us to write a longer, more visually detailed
message if we encode it using a computer.
If we handwrite the same message or deliver it through an audio-recording, the
message will not be the same.
Today, with the rapid rise and spread of internet connectivity, the old forms of
communication have given way to new forms that make communication easier
and faster.
Pinoys top social media user, according to study by Miguel R. Camus (2017)
Philippines
o Filipinos spend more time on social media sites than anyone else in the
world, going online roughly four hours and 17 minutes a day, according to
a report released on Tuesday.
o Filipinos spend most of their online time on sites such as Facebook,
Snapchat and Twitter said the report called Digital in 2007 and prepared
by social media platform Hootsuite and United Kingdom-based
consultancy We Are Social Ltd. on Tuesday.
United States
o Brazilians and Argentinians followed closely behind spending 3 hours and
43 minutes and 3 hours and 32 minutes on social media
o The United States where many of these social media players were
founded is among the bottom half with Americans spending an average of
just 2 hours and 6 seconds per day. The least active were the Japanese
who log on an average of just 40 minutes daily.
Asia Pacific
o The Philippines’ social media usage was in stark contrast to its internet
speed. Fixed-broadband speed here is among the slowest in Asia-Pacific
while mobile connections are among the fastest, according to the most
recent Akamai report.
o They appeared to be in a relationship between poor fixed-broadband
speech and time spent on social media.
o The Philippines, Brazil and Argentina have an average fixed-line
broadband speech of 4.2 megabits per second (mbps), 5.5 mbps and 5
mbps, respectively.
o The fastest was South Korea with 26.3 mbps and its citizens just spend
about 1 hours and 11 minutes a day on social media.
Internet Use on the Rise
According to the report, the Philippines’ internet and social media users grew by
over 25 percent, up 14 million and 12 million
Mobile was also a fast-growing platform accounting for 38 percent of all web
traffic in the country, up by almost a third over 2016, the report showed.
The Philippines, so far, had a social media penetration rate of 58 percent, higher
than the average of 47 percent in Southeast Asia.
Around the world, internet users grew by 10 percent, or an additional 354 million
people, while active social media users jumped to 21 percent or an additional
482 million.
The total internet penetration rate stood at 50 percent or 3.77 billion people, the
Digital in 2017 report showed.
“Half of the world’s population is now online, which is a testament to the speed
with which digital connectivity is helping to improve people’s lives. The increase
in internet users in developing economies is particularly encouraging,” Simon
Kemp, a global consultant at We Are Social, said in a statement.
The report compiles data from the world’s largest studies of online behavior,
conducted by organizations including GlobalWebIndex, GSMA Intelligence,
Statista and Akamai in “a comprehensive state” of social media reference.
The 2016 report has seen nearly 70,000 downloads and 2.5 million reads on
SlideShare to date.
Communication Modes
Refers to the channel through which one expresses his/her communicative
intent. It is the medium through which one conveys his/her thoughts.
Views or feelings can be communicated through face-to-face interaction, video or
audio.
The mode may also be text-based
The most common of all these modes is the face-to-face.
1. The interaction
It is an informal or casual conversation between two or more people.
People engage in social conversations to establish relationships or maintain
them.
It is one way of gaining new acquaintances or friends.
How to speak, what to speak, when to speak and to whom one is speaking are
all important considerations in building relationships.
How then do you initiate conversations?
Persons who suggested about interaction
o Dau Voire suggests: “Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters”
o Margaret J. Wheatley states: “All social change begins with a conversation”
o Diana Wheatly aptly puts it: “Meaning is made in conversation, reality is
created in communication and knowledge is generated through social
interaction. Language is the vehicle through which we create our
understanding of the world.”
2. Video
Web cameras are used so that two or more people who cannot interact face-to-
face can communicate.
If there are no technical glitches encountered, this could be a very effective mode
of communication especially for people separated by distance. For example, you
may engage in a conversation via Skype with your loved ones especially during
significant, meaningful or memorable occasions.
You are able to heart clearly the voice and see up close the face of your beloved.
Other electronic applications that allow video calls are Viber, WhatsApp, Apple
FaceTime and Facebook Messenger, among others.
In more formal settings, people can also engage in video-conferencing. While
this is a convenient communication mode for people who want to reach out to
each other despite distance, a disadvantage is the time zone difference between
countries. In this case, one of them should make the necessary adjustments to
pave the way for a successful communication.
3. Audio
It means transmitted sound. Thus, in this mode of communication, only the voice
of the speaker is heard. Ordinarily, someone’s voice is heard through the
telephone or an answering machine when the other party is not able to answer a
call.
In Skype, when a person cannot be contacted or is not online, a voice message
or voice mail can be sent. An obvious downside of this mode is not being able to
see the body language or cues of the person you are talking to.
4. Text based communication
Examples of these are e-mail, facsimile, text messaging and instant
messaging.
Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and likewise offer text-based
interaction
While text-based communication mode does not originally provide video and
audio benefits, it has a wider reach and can disseminate information to a bigger
audience quickly.
The last three modes are all virtual in nature. Those engaged in communication
are able to head and/or see each other in real time simulating the actual physical
setting.
