proposal draft

Human interaction has changed drastically over the last decade due to short message services and Facebook. Many teenagers have lost valuable skills in personal communication, and this can affect them for the rest of their lives and careers. Eye contact and handshakes cannot be transmitted through electronic text, giving the feel of trust and interest between two speakers. Emotions can also be difficult to convey to someone miles away from you, so serious matters may unintentionally become watered-down very quickly. Years before Facebook and short messages became widely popular, personal news would be told in front of large groups of people who were chosen to know. In recent years, these announcements would be seen by everyone on a timeline and just “liked” with no real feedback.

            Facebook did manage to replicate one conversational aspect between people as would happen in the real world, groups. Real conversations take on different tones and topics within groups, such as school mates or colleagues. These groups are about as personal as Facebook gets, and these groups are used for sharing information or organizational purposes. In the professional world with people who started careers before Facebook know the value of having communication skills, because more than likely it is how they landed their job. Newer generations started adding acquaintances they recognized to improve friend lists instead of establishing physical connection with people they should be interacting with. Could this mean human communication has permanently changed the way different generations interact and develop real world skills? Has Facebook ruined the way people prefer to interact long with losing base with sharing appropriate topics with a small subset of people? 

            Demographics are a huge part of networks, and you can find almost any type of person from any area of society. Although most people using social media are from newer generations, this does not mean older generations are having an easy time maintaining vital relationships and the ability to properly judge what is appropriate to post.  Often time’s news of a newborn child is now shared with a simple witty photo by parents, and users show congratulations with likes or favorites. Before Facebook, the same parents might have addressed it over some sort of large gathering. New changes in someone’s life is now coming from an isolated source instead of being a firsthand source, and this is challenging a way that has been in effect since humans first learned to communicate.