Social Networking Taking Over Communication Skills

Social networking is taking over the world. Before Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and many other social networking sites came out, we as a society would gather for block parties and get together with friends that we had not seen for awhile more. Now, we feel more connected to those people through social networking sites, such as the ones listed above. It is not a bad thing that we have the advantage to instantly talk with them more often, but that does put an effect on us getting together with them more often. The fact that we have the advantage at the tip of our fingertips to keep in touch with friends and loved ones is amazing how far we have come with technology, but we need to make sure it does not put a damper on our communication skills.
It is so easy to just post a quick memo on someone’s Facebook wall or send them a message when you need to let them know something or you have a question for them, instead of calling them. In a message or post you are more likely to just get to the point and ask what you want instead of like on the phone. On the phone it is very easy to rack up an hour conversation with someone, when you called to ask one simple question. I feel that on social networking sites, people sometimes do not communicate as much as they did before all these sites came out.
There is a flip side, though I believe too. Such sites as Facebook and others is not always a bad thing. They do let people find long lost friends and relatives and keep in touch with them, which is a great thing. I am guilty of using social networking sites more often than calling people as much. An example would be telling someone happy birthday. I used to call people to tell them that, now I just write it and maybe a little message on their wall. Social networking is great to use as long as it is used in moderation.

Webcams Influence in Communication

Have you ever thought about how the world’s communication skills and ways are changing ever so quickly, everyday?! Webcams are just one way to make communicating easier and more effective with the live video picture. They already have classes via webcams in some schools, called itv classrooms. I have never taken a class like this, but know people who have and I would think it would be hard for me to concentrate in a class like this.
Skype is used by so many people today to keep in touch with loved ones and to also meet new people. It is a great way to keep in touch with people who live across the country or even world. I have friends who are overseas for the guard and being able to see and talk with them just makes the whole situation a little better. Talking with my sister and 2 year old niece who just live in St. Paul, MN is very nice, because even though the cities is not that far away I do not get there every weekend and my little niece is constantly growing and learning new things. The only problem I have with communicating over webcams is that after having access to communicate like that with people who live far from us, will it effect how much we really get to see them? For instance, I get to see my 2 year old little niece on the webcam; I could easily just keep pushing off going to visit because I can constantly see her and talk to her whenever on the webcam.
Another interesting fact about webcams I found was more and more people are doing job interviews on them. Inovahire.com is just one of many sites that offer this. They offer recorded interviews, in which you can prerecord yourself answering the questions they give you ahead of time and send it to whatever company you are applying to. There are also, live interviews, in which you meet at a certain time with someone from the company who will conduct a live interview with you via webcam.