Blurred lines in the patterns of media usage by Daphne

     Living in an era where more than half of the world’s population is highly dependent on the new media certainly blurred the boundaries between life, work, and play. Though the new media does not necessarily pose negative influences towards its users, it could bring about detrimental consequences if not controlled such as estranging relationships with our loved ones or stress due to work. Can we ever recall a time when we see a group of people seated at a table that are not engrossed with their own mobile devices (e.g. phones, tablets)? Instead of engaging in deep, fruitful conversations with the people around us, our eyes are all glued to the screens seemingly showed that we are more interested in the virtual reality than the reality itself. 

   Source: https://hornsofgreatlength.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/blog-pic.jpg?w=300

     As hurtful as it may sound, Tabachnick (2013) admitted that technology no longer serves its purpose for leisure but instead follows us everywhere like a puppy. Work has taken control over the household and parents have slowly stopped nurturing their children through physical activities and rather spoil them (especially their eyes) with mobile devices. Not only families but friends or couples also find themselves caught in their own bubble when the whole purpose of getting together is to actually interact face to face. I do admit that I am addicted to my phone but I learn to resist the urge to check it whenever I am in the company of my friends or family. But let’s face it, everyone will start checking their phones at some point and it’s contagious! So can we blame anyone for that? Frankly speaking, we are all to be blamed. 

Source:http://www.segelasinfo.com/2016/11/6-benda-wajib-bagi-anak-millennial.html

Take Facebook as an example. Since it started in 2004, Facebook has garnered over 1 billion users from all over the world and it is not showing any signs of slowing down any time soon (Oremus, 2014). Originally used for connecting people, it gradually turned into a lucrative company that also helps to promote businesses and products as well as generating news faster than televised ones and those in print. As a result, the term ‘social media’ comes to fore. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) defined social media as; “A platform whereby content and applications are no longer created and published by individuals, but instead are continuously modified by all users in a participatory and collaborative fashion” (p. 61). This means that users can create, share, and exchange information without having to meet in person. However, the term has been around earlier than assumed as Kaplan and Haenlein discovered but was not widely known at the time.

With an abundance of information that can be obtained through our fingertips, there is no denying that everyone is hooked on this current form of media. Facebook is not the only one. Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, to name a few are basically controlling our daily life with all kinds of features that encourages us to share information. 

Source: http://the-hotel-lobby.tumblr.com/image/147601400096

 Despite that, it may resort to oversharing and could lead to an invasion of privacy. No matter how much we try to protect our privacy, it is beyond our control to erase it completely from the Internet once it is widely circulated. We find ourselves using these social networking sites to showcase our life and reveal rather private moments for the whole world to see. Unfortunately, it also turns into a space for sugarcoating our life in order to hide our personal demons and true emotions. Work-wise, technology is crucial in handling tasks cheaper and faster especially for software companies where they rely on developers from all over the world (Whittle, 2015). Work can now be taken home but the struggle to maintain a good work-life balance is inevitable and also overwhelming because having to prioritize one over the other.

Source: http://freshtips.club/2016/11/06/funny-secret-plan-posted-on-facebook-fb/

Source: http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMi0xYjQzYTc5NTZkMmE0YjY2/

       I am fortunate to have been raised without technology constantly taking over my life though I was also exposed to the Internet as early as 10 years old. I enjoyed being active outdoors and having real quality time with my family. Yet nowadays, I see many families paying more attention to their phones than actually talking to each other. Personally, I find myself and the people around me picking up the habit lately but only when necessary. Therefore, it is hard to encourage “unplugging” among the family either on weekdays or weekends as we rely so much on the new media to function. However, it is possible to practice this as early as possible in order to keep a good balance between work, life, and pleasure. It is just a matter of initiative and control.  

Reference

Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media. Business Horizons, 53(1), 59-68.

Oremus, W. (2014, February 3). Facebook was born 10 years ago. Here’s what it   looked like. Future Tense. Retrieved from: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/02/03/facebook_10th_anniversary_social_network_turns_10_looks_back_at_its_history.html

Tabachnick, D. E. (2013). Technology is blurring the line between work and play. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/technology-is-blurring-the-line-between-work-and-play/article8412565/

Whittle, J. (2015, October 2). How technology blurs the lines between work and home      life. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Retrieved     from: https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/blog/how-technology-blurs-the-lines-between-work-and-home-life/

Double-edged Sword: Mainstream and Online Journalism by Zheng En and Mikha

As Siapera (2012) asserted, internet itself had threated the status of the journalism through several features; time, money, heteronomy and cultural change. But is it true that these features had become a risk for the journalists or were merely a transition to evolve into new type of journalism? Siapera (2012) added that this new media had built a new relationship between people and news as well as others’ views on politics. From here, I’d like to raise a question: When does news become politic? I think that international news has been handled politically by both traditional media and new media, thereby deteriorating harmony among countries.

 Source: http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index2193.htm

Speaking of the recent political chaos, the assassination of Kim Jong-un’s half-brother, Kim Jong-nam has been heavily discussed by both official broadcast media as well as the unofficial one (e.g. blogspot) around the world. Notably, like other international news media, Malaysian media has been playing its roles by analyzing and executing consistent follow-ups on the case as this incident happened in Malaysian airport itself. The recent follow-up of the case posted by the broadcast media (Arirang News, 2017) and online journalism official website (Choe & Paddock, 2017) is about the video posted in which the son of Kim Jong-nam notified the world that he and his family members are in the safe condition. However, doubt remains and the accuracy of information spread by the video is questioned by the expertise whether the person in the video is really his (Kim Jong-nam) son and whether this person is speaking the truth about the safety of his family and himself as their whereabouts is kept at secret.     

  Source: http://www.returnofkings.com/89090/3-reasons-for-the-downfall-of-mainstream-journalism

Blog as defined by Rettberg (2008) was invented in 1997, as some kind of log kept on the web, shown in the reverse chronological order and the content and themes will be determined by the blogger. As we have understood, because the content of the blog is fully controlled by the blogger without the authority surveillance, the blogger can post their comments and thoughts on the matters they care for. In this case, we have found a blog known as ‘Malaysians Must Know The Truth’ (Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah, 2017) had reposted several contents related to Kim Jong-nam assassination. Unlike the information published by broadcast media and printed contents, the blogger may share the information and opinions that are opposing the general feeds. Instead of blaming the North Korea for their unresponsive and denial act, the blogger had placed his concern on the ‘proactive’ actions taken by Malaysian authority which might draw more severe political chaos in future.    

       Source: https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30311/10-Amazing-Blogs-About-Blogging-to-Star Reading-NOW.aspx

In terms of similarities structure between print media and blogging, only one element discovered; the title of the news which aims to draw reader’s attention on the topics they had discussed on. However, we identified news tags as one of the differences between print or broadcast media and blogging. In print media and broadcast news, the section in which news should be allocated is arranged according to their content. For instance, the news about assassination of Kim Jong-nam will be placed in the headlines section or the international section of the newspaper. On the other hand, the blog will only be posted based on themes without separating the news types into categories because the blogger can publish any content they want. For example, Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah (2017) posted the opinions of others on Kim Jong-nam news on his blogs today, but he might shift his concern towards other news for the next day. However, with help of labels posted under the blog, readers can find the related keywords connected with the blog feeds they look for.

Source: http://izquotes.com/quote/195521

The news content is usually similar to each other in terms of the subject of discussion. In fact, convergence does happen in both broadcast news and blogging news. Convergence, as explained by Siapera (2012), represents same content written by one journalist circulated in all types of news platform including the digital news which allow the media organization to publish themselves and cutting down cost. As an example, The Star, one of the media organizations in Malaysia did publish their news article in print newspaper and distributed the news on their website as well. Blogging website also obtains convergence. Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah (2017) shared the news about Kim Jong-nam assassination using The Guardian and opinion from a journalist named Zan Azlee. On the one hand, the structure of the narrative in both print and broadcast news are rather objective with charts, the interview session with the government officers and reenacted scene of the incident. On the other hand, the fact that blogging portrays none of these elements and projects much more personalize ideas on the subject matter is supported by Siapera (2012). For instance, Ramos-Horta and Rogers (2017) proposed their views on the case of Kim Jong-nam might trigger another world war in the coming days. Besides, this case was related with the tyranny governance of the ruler that violated the rights of their citizens.   

Source: http://allnewspipeline.com/Censorship_War_Govt_Waging_On_Truth.php

When coins display two sides of the story, content of the news possess both advantage and disadvantage when it goes through the network. To define what is good and bad of online content, we need to refer the analytical view given by Siapera (2012) through several elements. Manovich (2001) identified hypertextuality as one that makes online news content appears much more flexible than print journalism in which “the user can have direct access on the database and information” through links provided as the former can extend in time and space (as cited in Siapera, 2012, p 135-136). Nevertheless, these accessible links can be vicious when misleading information is delivered publicly on the network sphere. Thus, users need to be keen while using the network and be selective on what to read especially when it is related to the sensitive topic. This makes more sense when multimediality comes into the picture in which there are a lot of accessible platforms and websites. Conversely, we notice that most of the contents in official online news such as the Star and New York Times are very much similar in reporting Kim Jong-nam’s assassination; starting with the video posted by Kim Jong-nam’s son, followed by the process of the incident, and ended up with who Kim Jong-nam is alongside with his social life.

  Source: http://www.journalismfestival.com/news/the-lack-of-trust-in-mainstream-media-and-the-rise-of socialmedia-as-publishers/

Another element is the interactivity; users are free to leave their feedbacks in the comment section regarding to the news posted in the blogging websites. Furthermore, interactivity of online content can be shown through the immediacy of news posted online by print and broadcast news which renew their content daily. This is not applicable in blogging website because blogger only posts when they are capable of doing it, thereby slowing down the rate of updates feeds. The last element will be collecting authoritoring or participatory dimension of news as defined by Siapera (2012) as posting different opinions about the news which differ from the objective views posted by the official organization. It is brilliant to have network that could support such element but user needs to have precautious and be objective while reading the opinion that might overlook the deceitful information and offend people (Siapera, 2012).   

 Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/509540145316612413

In short, people nowadays prefer online news over print media and broadcast media due to technology advancement which allow them to instantaneously grasp the information. One thing that the online content users should keep in mind is that not everything written online is true. Hence, objectivity is a must when reading the content.

References

Arirang News. (2017, March 7). Kim Jong-nam's son says his father was murdered [video file].

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNd1-K3DWlw

 

Choe, S.H & Paddock, R C. (2017, March 8) Son of Kim Jong-nam appears to surface in

Youtube video. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com

/2017/03/08/world/asia/kim-jong-nam-son-video-north-korea.html

Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah (2017). Sure we support Malaysia against N.Korea but don’t forget Najib regime created the mess – why let them politicize issue for ge14 votes? Retrieved from http://malaysiansmustknowthetruth.blogspot.my/2017/03/sure-we-support-malaysia-against-nkorea.html

Ramos-Horta, J., & Rogers, B. (2017, March 04). Kim Jong-nam's assassination is a wake-up call to the world. The Diplomat. Retrieved from http://thediplomat.com/2017/03/kim-jong-nams-assassination-is-a-wake-up-call-to-the-world/

Rettberg, J. W. (2008). Blogging: Digital media and society series. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

Siapera, E. (2012). Understanding new media. London, UK: SAGE publication.

 

The Young People and New Media by Poh Ling

New media ownership is a term to describe new media and information technologies among children and young people by considering ‘new’ media in their respective context of media in comparison with those in the olden days (Living, 2002). In the modern economy and society, we can reach the worldwide information through media including newspapers, television, radio, internet and so forth. For the purpose of having objective statement, we have collected our data analysis from different backgrounds of people; female and male, age between 20-25 years old, gadgets indicators and time indicators.

Photo Source: http://www.strategy-plus.net/blog/3186-2/

Most of the candidates are students and some are fresh graduates; which means that they have the same similarities of having laptop and smartphones. According to the data that we gathered, we found that those two gadgets are really important especially the young generations nowadays. After all, electronic gadgets are getting cheaper and lighter compared to the past. The importance of new media and their role is prevalent through the information distribution in different forms of information, communication and technology (Das, 2014). The data analysis shows that the most frequent gadgets used are smartphones and laptop - this consists of all ethnicities and gender. MP3 player and tablet only appear as preference.  

GIF Picture Source:
http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/31207/how-to-create-animated-gifs-of-prototype-mockups-like-the-ones-on-dribbble

Besides, we are also curious about the time consumption they spend in a day with the new media. We listed out 13 categories: education, entertainment, finance, food and drink, games, health and fitness, music, photo and video, productivity, shopping, social networking, sports and travel. In the educational wise, different people spend their time differently. The data analysis illustrates that the most time that they spent is as long as three (3) to four (4) hours. The next category is entertainment. While there are three of them spent their time for three (3) to four (4) hours and seven (7) to eight (8) hours respectively, none of them spent their time until nine (9) to 10 hours for entertainment. In terms of finance, there is as much as nine (9) of them who spent the very little in using new media. In search for foods and beverages through new media, students tend to mostly spend one (1) or couple of hours a day searching and ordering their food from franchise fast food (for example, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and Pizza Hut). Because the youngsters usually spend their time in their studies, they only spend less than three (3) hours in gaming during their leisure time.

As a conclusion, new media has made our life easier by delivering the latest news and information globally. Nevertheless, we should be careful in using the new media in order to avoid from misusing it.

References

Das, M. M. (2014). Role of new media communication technologies 
en route information society. Challenges and Prospects, 5(1), 20.

Livingstone, S. (2002). Young people and new media: Childhood and the changing media environment. London: Sage. 

Inequality in New Media: On Preference and Priority: A choice or fate? By Nur Syahirah

There is no doubt that the usage and ownership of information and communications technologies (ICTs) are increasing and giving significant impacts to society’s daily lives. In fact, with the advancement in ICT such as the internet, society today is not restricted to a certain time and space. However, with such advantage, the image of inequality is bound to come into picture. According to Acilar (2011), the world has recognized the notion of digital divide as the cause of evident knowledge gaps between the information-rich and the information poor that exclude certain societies in the world to be part of the steadfast growth of technology advancement. Acilar (2011) argued further that the digital divide that exists between richer and poorer countries in terms of availability of complementary assets such as skilled ICT professionals and telecommunication networks illustrate the unequal access of ICT utilization in which should be taken into a critical considerations. 

Photo Source: http://au.educationhq.com/news/35702/joining-forces-for-a-better-future/

Photo Source: http://ritchiesinuganda.blogspot.my/2012/03/helping-girls-to-achieve-at-kyebambe.html 

As enlightened by Stiakakis, Kariotellis, & Vlachopoulou (2009), digital divide leads to digital inequality in which they stated five forms of digital inequality. The five forms are the inequality to technical means in which some community has no access to proper internet connections, inequality with regards to autonomy use, inequality with regards to skills and lastly, inequality in terms of social support. Hilbert (2011) stresses that digital divide also takes into picture the aspects of age and gender with significant differences in their usage and ownership. In relation to understand digital divide further, a simple questionnaire was given out to 10 students of different age, gender and ethnicity. This was carried out in order to identify as well as analyze the similarities and differences on the three aspects mentioned earlier among the students.

The questionnaires were given to 9 female students and 1 male student from Malay, Indian, Chines, and Iban ethnicity. In totality, all 10 students own at least one new media namely, laptop, tablet, smartphone, MP3 player and game consoles. 70% of these students possess laptop and smartphone, 20% own a laptop, a tablet, a smartphone and a MP3 player whilst 10% of them own a laptop, tablet and a smartphone. A few categories were listed out in finding out how many students spend using new media on education, entertainment, finance, food & beverages, games, health & fitness, music, photo & videos, productivity, shopping, sports and for travelling. Most of the respondents spend their time on new media from 1 to 2 hours daily. In comparing the time spent among the respondents in using new media, the most time spent is on games with the usage for financials coming in second. The usage of new media on food and beverages, sports and shopping come in third. In discussing the similarities and differences in new media ownership, it is apparent that owning new media among the Malay, Chinese, Iban and Indian is nothing distinctive. In fact, each ethnicity own at least one new media and use them base on personal preferences. In comparing in terms of age, there is no significant differences in terms of the usage of new media and the age range as the results have shown that respondents use their new media in accordance to their personal priorities.

Photo Source: https://www.templatemonster.com/category/food-restaurant-woocommerce-themes/

Photo Source: https://www.techinasia.com/talk/online-shopping-catching-women-india

Photo Source: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dailymail.online

In conclusion, through the mini research that was carried out with only 10 respondents, the digital divide was not utterly distinctive. However, this does not confirm that it does not exist in the bigger picture among the global society. From the mini research, though, the conclusion that could be made is that the usage of new media is dependent on the preferences of the individuals. This could be supported by Ericsson Consumer Insight Summary Report (2015) that highlighted on how consumers trends are now involving internet in which many aspects of their daily lives are revolved around their personal online habits such as shopping, socializing, studying, traveling, listening to music, and even eating and exercising. The report also suggested that consumers are now mostly using the internet from the influences around them. This relates to the result of the mini research in a way that the respondents own and use the new media align with their personal preferences and priorities.

References

Acilar, A. (2011). Exploring the aspects of digital divide in a developing country. Issues in Informing Science and Information Techonology, 8, 231-244. http://iisit.org/Vol8/IISITv8p231-244Acilar248.pdf

Ericsson Consumer Insight Summary Report. (2015, December). 10 Hot Consumer Trends 2016. Retrieved from https://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/2015/consumerlab/ericsson-consumerlab-10-hot-consumer-trends-2016-report.pdf

Hilbert, M. (2011). Digital gender divide or technologically empowered women in developing countries? A typical case of lies, damned lies, and statistics. Women’s Studies International Forum, 34(6), 479-489. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2011.07.001

Stiakakis, E., Kariotellis, P., & Vlachopoulou, M. (2010). From the digital divide to digital inequality: A secondary research in the European Union. Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, 26, 43-54.  doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-11631-5_4

Let's Pour Out Some Different Experience on CMC by Wai Ling

Photo Source: http://archive2.cra.org/resources/crn-archive-view-detail/visions_2025_interacting_with_the_computers_all_around_us/

       Nowadays, computer mediated communication (CMC) has been long established and integrated into every single part of human social life. Within the presence of its technological advancement, CMC is extensively appealed as part and parcel of human living manner and behaviour that could fully accommodate to CMC’s functional accessibility and availability. In other words, people nowadays cannot live without indulging in the world of CMC, even for only one second. 

       One of my experiences was when I was inviting my friends to have a simple and casual gathering during my last semester break. Back then, I badly missed my secondary school friends and all of sudden, I asked them via WhatsApp as if they would be free to meet up. However, most of them replied vaguely after they had read through on it. At that moment, I felt a strong sense of awkward and ambiguity that slowly made me frustrated along the conversation. 

Photo Source: http://giphy.com/search/whatsapp 

       According to how lack social context cues theory is discussed by Siegel, Dubrovsky, Kiesler and Mcguire (1986) as well as Sproull and Kiesler (1986), Walther (2011) notes that the existence of CMC is inherently regarded as generator to resist an individual’s temperament and their normative conduct which possibly managed to regulate in the condition of face-to-face communication system (Walther, 2011). As such, I might not get what they actually wanted to tell me and this eventually led to misunderstanding. 

Photo Source: https://www.lifewire.com/using-android-widgets-3892078

       Engaging in such paradigm, it is perceived that social clues reduction came to elicit the effect of emotional disorientation, behaviour estrangement and cognitive bewilderment as the CMC users would more likely to develop characteristics and personality of anomaly, egocentricity and impulsiveness over their mode of visual interaction (Diener, Fraser, Beaman, & Kelem, 1976; Singer, Brush, & Lublin, 1965; Sproull & Kiesler, 1986). As I could not stand it anymore, I started pushing them to give me an answer by texting them again with capitalized words to show my anger and irritation.

References 

Diener, E. D., Fraser, S., Beaman, A. L., & Kelem, R. T. (1976). Effects of deindividuating

variables on stealing by Halloween Tricks-or-Treaters. Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology, 33(2), 178-183.

Siegel, J., Dubrovsky, V., Kiesler, S., & Mcguire, T. W. (1986). Group processes in computer-

            mediated communication. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes,

            37(2), 157–187.

Singer, J., Brush, C., & Lublin, S. (1965). Some aspects of deindividuation: Identification and

            conformity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1(4), 365-568.

Sproull, L., & Kiesler, S. (1986). Reducing social context cues: Electronic mail in organizational

            communication. Management Science, 32(11), 1492–1512.

Walther, J. B. (2011). Theories of computer-mediated communication and interpersonal

            relations. In M. L. Knapp, & J. A. Daly (Eds.), The handbook of interpersonal

            communication (4th ed) (pp. 443-479). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Another Experience Sharing About Computer Mediated Communication by Nur Syahirah

Photo Source: http://alternatives.ie/social-media-essential-to-building-your-online-brand/

Computer mediated communication (CMC), according to Walther (1996) is driven to develop social relationships. This is of course, pretty similar to the aim of communicating face-to-face. However, he also claims that there is a key difference between communicating through CMC such as through chats and videos, with the traditional face-to-face communication is the rate of social information exchange between one party to the other from the absence of nonverbal signals, like a nod or the questioning gesture of a slightly raised eyebrow. Sure, communicating through CMC is not as satisfying as communicating face-to-face but that is not always the case. Some do prefer communicating through CMC as compared to face-to-face conversations. 

Photo Source: http://www.makesouthbend.com/store/c2/Classes_and_Workshops.html

       I, for an instance, favor and am very much engaged in CMC simply because it is very convenient. For an example, I am able to send out messages quicker with CMC through online chatting. Also, engaging in CMC has allowed for a broader worldview as I am able to search for global news online without having to go out and purchase the newspaper. In a global society as of today, some of us, if not all, prefer to get things done efficiently. 

Photo Source: http://www.blossoming.it/portfolio-item/global-internet-report-2015/

          In fact, Giddens (1990) as cited in Sapiera (2012) stated that the global society that we are today is no longer restricted to time and space. With digital media, this is made possible. Digital media such as mobile usage has allowed society to be less dependent on time and space therefore, being able to interact with each other across the globe at any time (World Economic Forum, 2016). Therefore, as for me, CMC has eased a lot of my experiences as an alternative to my means of communication.

References

Sapiera, E. (2012). Understanding new media. London, England: SAGE Publications.

Walther, J.B. (1996). Computer-mediated Communication: Impersonal, Interpersonal, and Hyperpersonal Interaction. Communication Research, 23(3), 3-43.

World Economic Forum. (2016). Digital media and society: Implications in a hyper connected era. Retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEFUSA_DigitalMediaAndSociety_Report2016.pdf

Experience on Computer Mediated Communication by Chester Chong

Photo Source: https://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2015/06/25/14-social-media-hacks-from-the-experts/

The creation of the cyberspace as a consequence of the globalization wave and the importance of such technology are becoming much vital and necessary to humans’ daily life. One of the most significant consequences caused by the creation of the World Wide Web is the formation of social network sites (SNS). Boyd and Ellison (2007) noted that SNS is a source of connection to people around the globe which is also related to computer mediated communication (CMC). As a brief introduction of CMC, Herring (2001) defined this as text-based messages sent through electronic mediums which are made up from various forms.

      Born within the Y-generation era, I did not have much contact with the usage of such communication technology during my childhood as not all family members were using such technologies. If memory serves me right, I barely remember my elder cousins used to communicate with through ICQ and e-mails. After getting my first mobile phone, I began to use short messages service (SMS). Now, with the possession of a personal computer and smart phone, I get to know the usage of CMC in a clearer picture.

Photo Source: http://www.kompasiana.com/kasildaoci/new-media-media-masa-kini_54f8c44ea333115c378b4696

Frankly speaking, I was originally confused and interested when I was introduced with such application, and I admit that I used to be left behind. After using these communicative applications, I found out that people mostly rely on it as it is much more convenient and user-friendly. It is convenient in the sense that it is usable anywhere with cellular service, and these applications are designated for anyone from different societal layers. Yet, a question still lingers in my mind. Are these communicative technologies necessary to exist even if it lessens human interactions and slowly replaces our life with the virtual world within the network? This is because another form of societal disease has eventually emerged whereby the heavy reliance of technology becomes a form of addiction.

Photo Source: http://idigitalise.in/social_media.html

Now, I would like to relate my own experience and thought towards CMC by using the perspective of social presence theory. Based on what this theory has proposed, the uses of cues and emotions within CMC are lacked (Hiltz, Johnson & Angle, 1978 and Rice & Case, 1983 as cited in Walther, 2011). I would argue that human interaction has been interrupted with the lack of face-to-face interpersonal communication. And if associated with my situation, I would say that I was unable to get use to the usage of CMC in the past because I was trained to interact face-to-face with my family. Personally, I think that face-to-face interaction creates stronger bond and enhances relationship between both parties as they will be more considerate about how the other side feels.

What Einstein had once predicted about the day when human lives are invaded by technologies eventually becomes a fact. Computers indeed are massively replacing human interaction and shifting the ways of communication among human.            

Reference

Boyd, D. M. & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history and scholarship. Journal of Computer-mediated Communication, 13(1), 210-230.

Herring, S. C. (2001). Computer mediated discourse. In D. Tannen, D. Schiffrin & H. Hamilton (Eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 612-634). Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Inc.

Walther, J. B. (2011). Theories of computer-mediated communication and interpersonal relations. In M. L. Knapp & J. A. Daly (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Interpersonal Communication (4^th edition) (pp. 443-479). Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publication.

 

If you wish to understand more about Computer Mediated Communication (CMC), please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gumNCHoUmYY