Social Media Communication: Alienating or Connecting? Research Paper

The General Topic: The War of the Machines

The effects that technological development has on people’s lives have always been an issue for the entire humankind. Even though the notorious fear of the rise of machines has become an issue only in the late XX century, the negative effects of technology have been noticed since the invention of the wheel. Nowadays, with the recent innovations and introduction of the concept of social networks into the everyday life of ordinary people, technology seems to have integrated into people’s lives completely.

The Alienation of Social Networking

As it has been stressed, the fact that people are becoming increasingly attracted towards the realm of virtual communication, which doubtlessly affects the quality of their real-life interactions and makes the latter unnecessarily complicated. To make the matter worse, it is claimed that modern technology, especially social networks, makes people lose their communication skills and, therefore, turns the process of live interaction into an unbearably stressful process. Therefore, the question of the given research is whether technology has such negative effects on people’s communicational skills and whether social network sets people apart from each other.

Hypothesis: Taking Communication Process to a Different Level

Even though to answer the given question, it will be required to consider not only the factors that affect people’s communication skills as they use the social network but also the specifics of human psychology and the process of communication in general, which sets certain limitations for the study, it can be assumed that technology does alienate people, making them lose their communication skills. However, it must be admitted that technology also has a positive effect on the communication process, since it allows for crossing the boundaries between cities and states and bringing people from the remote parts of the Earth together. Therefore, when used responsibly, technology can become a perfect means to improve one’s communication skills; when used otherwise, the technology works against people. In the given research, the effect that technology has on the communication process can be regarded as the independent variable, since it is the scope of the research. The communication process is, in its turn, the dependent variable of the research, since its changes are related to the changes that occur to technology.

Population: To Whom It May Concern

Although the given issue primarily concerns the people whose job is related to or involves a lot of communication regularly, seeing how conversations are an integral part of an average man’s routine, it can be assumed that the given problem concerns every single person in the world. With technology in general and social networks in particular gradually increasing the number of its adepts, the entire population of the Earth may be soon under a threat of losing their ability to communicate live.

Research Method: Secondary Research and Its specifics

To pick an appropriate research method for the given paper means to consider the specifics of the problem in question and figure out which ways seem to be the best to solve it. According to the data specified above, the key peculiarity of the given research is that the problem, which is aimed at solving, concerns practically every single person on the planet. Therefore, it will be reasonable to come up with an approach that will help embrace the needs and communication patterns of every representative of the human race. Seeing how tailoring the research for its results to fit every individual is practically impossible, it can be assumed that the research based on a survey or any other method of the kind can hardly be productive. Hence, secondary analysis can be considered a better option, since it will help consider the theories that already existing and offer a viable solution.

Definition

According to the existing definition, “secondary research is defined as the summary, collation, and/or synthesis of existing data” (Bradley, Kelley & Hudson, 2010, p. 29). In other words, secondary research presupposes working with the sources that provide the sets of data, which have already been collected by the authors of the research in question. Therefore, for secondary research, it is not required to carry out an additional surveyor to conduct an opinion poll.

Reason

The primary reason for choosing secondary research as the key method of collecting the data for the given paper and analyzing this data concerns the specifics of the research. As it has been mentioned already, the process of technology altering people’s communication patterns and making them lose their conversational skills concerns every single man, starting from teenagers, who use the computer for both studying and leisure, up to businessmen, who have no other way but to resort to social networking, seeing how most of their partners are located abroad.

Advantages and disadvantages

Like any other research method, the one that has been chosen for the given research has its pros and cons. To start with, the method of secondary research seems the most reliable, since it presupposes processing data that has already been verified by another researcher or a group of researchers. Another obvious advantage of the method chosen for the paper is that it allows for embracing the entire population, in contrast to a survey, which is always limited to a particular number of people.

The method of secondary research has flaws, though, too. One of the most obvious drawbacks concerns the vagueness of the data. Indeed, as much flawed as the data acquired via a survey can be, it still allows for evaluating the current situation regarding the problem in question, while secondary research only recycles the information that might have aged already. That being said, when the sources are relatively recent (i.e., one to five years old), they can be considered credible enough.

Research plan and variables

The research is going to start with splitting the users of technology in communication into several types according to specific parameters (age, social status, etc.). Then, the positive effects of technology on the communication skills of each group are going to be specified. The definition of negative effects on the same groups will be the next step. Finally, the acquired data will be analyzed and conclusions on the effects of technology on communication are going to be provided.

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