Essay Example about Interpersonal Communication and Social Media

Mediated communication has an impact on people's interpersonal relationships (Adler, & Proctor II, 2015). There are several similarities and differences between mediated communication and face to face communication. Electronic communication has both a positive and negative impact on people's relationships. Mediated communication is not only valuable in personal relationships but also between the employer and employees. This is contrary to the negative impact anticipated when the telephone was introduced in the 1870s. This was a similar case for computers where some people believed that computer-mediated communication would impair interpersonal communication.

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Both mediated communication and face to face communication are meant to achieve the same goals. The goal for both is to satisfy identity, social, physical and practical needs (Adler, & Proctor II, 2015). Secondly, the process of communicating is similar. The fundamental process involves communicators, as well as sending the message through the communication channels. The principles used in both types of communication are similar. Just like the face to face communication, in the mediated communication sending an unintentional message can occur. A sender can hit the "reply all" button and send a message to a recipient they did not intend to. One of the significant challenges of mediated communication is that there is a lack of no verbal cues. The ability to interpret the message is therefore sometimes impaired.

One of the benefits of mediated communication is that it helps people to find partners and start relationships (Adler, & Proctor II, 2015). They also create a sense of identity and benefits users who are shy when communicating through the face to face model of communication. Mediated communication is the best model of communication for the partners who are in a long distance relationship. However, it has its cons because it is difficult to fulfill the communication, information as well as social needs. Another drawback of mediated communication is that all the relationships are not sustainable. The circle of friends is large as compared to the face to face communication. When one starts depending on social networking they experience problems at school or work.

Gender and age influence the use of mediated communication. Female social media users use more warm words as compared to their male counterparts (Adler, & Proctor II, 2015). Those who were born in the 1990s find it easy to use mediated communication as compared to their counterparts who were born the ear which was dominated by the use of telegrams and floppy disks. Communicating effectively through social media can be challenging; hence the need to apply strategies that foster communication. One of these strategies is respecting each other despite the distance. Secondly, it is important to ensure that the tone is friendly and that the bystanders are respected. It is also important to protect yourself and ensure that one is sensitive to what he/she posts.

Chapter Three

Communication and Identity: Creating and Presenting

Self-concept and self-esteem are related to interpersonal communication. Self-concept refers to who one thinks he/she is (Adler, & Proctor II, 2015). This perception determines how we relate to each other.

On the other hand, self-esteem refers to the evaluation of self-worth. Self-esteem impacts relationship because people who dislike themselves tend thinking that other people dislike them. On the other hand, those who have high self-esteem are always positive and expect other people to appreciate them.

Self-fulfilling prophecies impact individuals' self-concept which in turn impacts communication (Adler, & Proctor II, 2015). People mostly judge themselves depending on how others value them. This is so especially in children who believe they are who those they trust say they are. Ego busters and ego booster, therefore, impact the way one perceives himself or herself. The social comparison also affects self-concept. If one thinks that they are unattractive or have a negative aspect, then they will not make any efforts to perceive themselves differently. If for example, someone keeps saying that they are failures they are likely to fail. If on the other hand there self-concept is boosted they are likely to improve.

Perceived self is a reflection of how one sees himself or herself when they are honestly examining themselves (Adler, & Proctor II, 2015). On the other hand, presenting self is the way one wants others to perceive him/her. These two play a role in the management of one impression. To manage the impression on tries to conceal the characteristics that he or he believes will portray a bad impression in public. People tend to behave differently when they are sure that nobody is watching them. In such a scenario their real characteristics are evident.

Impressions management in face to face communication is different from mediated communication (Adler, & Proctor II, 2015). In face to face communication impression is managed through verbal and nonverbal behaviors. Professionals wore the uniform; for example, creates an impression that they are special. On the other hand, the online impression can be managed in asynchronous forms by editing the messages until it creates the right impression. To create a positive impression in online communication one can choose not to respond to messages that they feel like responding unpleasantly.

In interpersonal relationship self-consent is critical, and the Johari Window tools describe how people should carry out self-disclosure. People disclose their personal information for various reasons which range from social influence, management of the impression among others (Adler, & Proctor II, 2015). However, there is danger in self-disclosure because the communicator is likely to be rejected or create a negative impression. Self-disclosure can also lead to a loss of influence. The four alternatives to self-disclosure are lying, silence, hinting or equivocating.

Chapter Four

Perception: What you see is What You Get

The perception process starts with the selection of the impressions that one will pay attention to (Adler, & Proctor II, 2015). One factor that influences attention is intensity. Aspects such as loudness, largeness, and brightness make something to stand out. A repetitive stimulus also is selected at the expense of one which is rarely experienced. The second step of perception is organizing which involves arranging the information. This occurs in communication whereby when listening to someone some words stand up either because they are spoken by someone familiar or because they are words that you hear frequently. Perceptual schema is used in classifying people, and the way we behave towards that person depends on the perception we have against them. Stereotyping takes place in perception whereby we develop a general impression about a particular group of people.

The next perception step is interpretation whereby meaning is attached to communication whether it is verbal or nonverbal (Adler, & Proctor II, 2015). Negotiation step of perception influences the way one perceives an individual. If for example, you perceive someone you just met as attractive the next action will be to ask for friends' opinion. If they think the person is not attractive, then the perception immediately changes. Factors such as information accessibility, physiological influences and health, hunger and biological cycle influence the perception process. Cultural differences also play in the perceptual process.

Pillow method is used to increase the cognitive complexity thereby helping in making more informed insights (Adler, & Proctor II, 2015). Just like a pillow has five sides an issue should be evaluated using five positions which are I am right you are wrong, You're right I'm wrong, both right both wrong position, the issue isn't as important as it seems and there is truth in all our perspectives. Additionally, it is important to check our perception we have others instead of assuming that what we think about them is true. Perception checking involves describing the behavior of others, two or more plausible interpretations and consulting on what a certain behavior means.

Chapter Five

Emotions, Feeling, Thinking, and Communicating

Feelings and emotions impact how one interacts with others because feeling shapes communication and vice versa (Adler, & Proctor II, 2015). Emotional intelligence helps in the effective management of personal emotions and ensuring that one is sensitive to the emotions of others. There are four components of emotions namely physiological, nonverbal reactions, cognitive interpretations, and verbal expression. When one is in fear, for example, he or she will experience physiological changes such as high heart rate. When someone is nervous, he or she may start shaking or shaking. Sometimes however the physiological behavior and emotional behavior can be misinterpreted hence the need for reappraisal. Reappraisal means rethinking events in a manner that alters the emotions. Emotions are also conveyed through verbal communication.

Expressing emotions

People are not always ready to express their feelings or emotions because of personality reasons (Adler, & Proctor II, 2015). Extroverts or example are more optimistic and may be reluctant towards expressing their emotions. Culture, gender, social conventions, and social media also influence emotions expression. People convey emotions more on the social media that they do on face to face communications. To better express the feelings one should first recognize them. Secondly, they should be rich in suitable vocabulary for expressing emotions. It is also important to express various emotions to be in a position of distinguishing different emotions.

Chapter Six

Language: Barrier and Bridge

Language is symbolic, and each symbol can have distinct meanings which lead to confusion (Adler, & Proctor II, 2015). The differences in meanings of words and symbols mean that people generate the meanings. Semantic rules, however, help us in avoiding the misunderstandings by assigning a meaning that is agreeable to all. In language, equivocation is common whereby an individual uses a word(s) ambiguously. This approach is very effective when avoiding self-disclosure, but in terms of understanding, it leads to different interpretations. In other cases of misunderstanding, we rely on pragmatic rules rather than the semantic and syntactic problems. The pragmatic rule requires coordination for the meaning to be agreed upon. It is like a game where for a team to win all the players have to be applying similar rules.

Apart from helping in communication language provides a sense of identity through names (Adler, & Proctor II, 2015). Names shape people's perceptions of others. Early studies claimed that people with unusual names suffered both psychological and emotional disturbance. The language also plays a role in affiliation whereby people who speak a particular language are attracted to each other. Factors such as fact-opinion confusion, fact-inference confusion as well as emotive language lead to communication conflicts. Men and women speak differently with the context of their communication differing. Other factors such as occupation, gender roles, social philosophy and the perception towards solving a problem also impact the way people use language.

Chapter Seven

Nonverbal Communication: Messages beyond Words

Nonverbal communication occurs both in face to face communication and mediated communication through various keyboard characters (Adler, & Proctor II, 2015). Nonverbal commun...