The Rise of New Media and Technology Aids in Communication PDF

The Rise of New Media and Technology Aids in Communication Prepared by LI Faculty Think About This… How do you think technology has changed how we communicate today? Learning Objectives At the end of the lesson, you are expected to achieve the following: 1. Identify the...

The Rise of New Media and Technology Aids in Communication Prepared by LI Faculty Think About This… How do you think technology has changed how we communicate today? Learning Objectives At the end of the lesson, you are expected to achieve the following: 1. Identify the proper strategies in communication using social media and other advancements in technology. 2. Evaluate language in new media and adopt an awareness of proper use of language in these media platforms. 3. Develop an appreciation on the importance of proper communication planning. Social Media Use Social media has undoubtedly altered the world operates. The rapid and vast adoption of new media platforms have changed the way people relate and communicate with each other in the social, economic, and political arenas. Continuation… Though there are minor social media platforms available since the 90s, the social media that we know today – the one with millions of active and interactive users - started with MySpace in 2004, when it reached a million active users. Since then, other sites started mushrooming, and people began getting hooked to these new media. Some media platforms have been so popular that the number of users rise at such an exponential rate. TikTok, for example, became such a craze in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people were mostly at home and thus have “nothing to do” because of the worldwide call to “Stay Home”. It was launched in 2016, and had half a billion users by 2018. This number even got higher in mid-2020, with over 800 million active users within that time span. However, not all social media platforms last. For example, in 2008, Hi5, MySpace, and Friendster were close competitors to the social media giant, Facebook. In 2012, all three had virtually disappeared as shown by very poor performance of market shares. Interestingly, the social media platforms that survived did so because of their continuous evolution and response to the needs and interests of its users. For example, Twitter used to disallow the uploading of videos or images, but because of the high demand and the stiff competition, this feature was allowed in 2011. Today, more than half of the content that can be seen in Twitter includes photos and videos. The exponential rise in the use of social media can be partly attributed to the emergence of technologies that enable modern communication (that is, FAST, CONVENIENT, INTERACTIVE communication). These include computers, laptops, and smart phones, among others. In addition, the rise of social media is a unique manifestation of how quickly and drastically patterns of social behaviors change. Some Interesting Statistics on Social Media Use Here are a few interesting statistics on social media use. All data are extracted from statista.com as of July 2020. Global digital population Active internet users – 4.57 billion Unique mobile internet users – 4.17 billion Active social media users – 3.96 billion Active mobile social media users – 3.91 billion Some Interesting Statistics on Social Media Use Most popular social networks worldwide, 1. Facebook (2.6 2. Youtube (2.0 3. WhatsApp (2.0 ranked by number billion) billion) billion) of active users 4. Facebook 5. Weixin/ Wechat 6. Instagram (1.1 7. TikTok (800 Messenger (1.3 (1.2 billion) billion) million) billion)  Most popular social networks worldwide, ranked by reach/ active usage penetration 1. Facebook (63%) Some Interesting 2. Youtube (61%) Statistics on 3. WhatsApp (48%) Social Media Use 4. Facebook Messenger (38%) 5. Instagram (36%) 6. Twitter (23%) 7. Snapchat (13%)  Countries with most number of Facebook users 1. India (290 million) 2. United States (190 million) Some Interesting 3. Indonesia (140 million) Statistics on 4. Brazil (130 million) Social Media Use 5. Mexico (89 million) 6. Philippines (76 million) 7. Vietnam (64 million) 8. Thailand (50 million) 9. Egypt (42 million) 10. Bangladesh (38 million) Responsible Use of Social Media Social media has grown in popularity over the years, with hundreds of options for sharing your thoughts, photos, and videos and for interacting with friends and family. The more it grows, the more we discover about the do's and don'ts of social media. The same rules apply to all social media playgrounds, regardless of which site is your favorite. There are some practices for engaging in responsible social media use and best practices for social site etiquette. We all have a social responsibility. We all have friendships and professional relationships that can either be helped or hindered by our social media presence. Imagine you post inappropriate selfies of your weekend activities on Instagram. Have you considered what your boss will think? What if you say something spiteful after a fight with a friend and then realize they saw it before you could delete it? You may have just lost a friendship over social media silliness. You are 100 percent responsible for everything that appears on your social media accounts, from your status updates and comments to pictures, videos, and links you share You may not agree with everything or everyone you encounter on social media networks, but treat each person with dignity and respect. The Golden Rule of treating others how you want to be treated is a good practice. Do not turn to social media as a way to harass, demean, or bully someone else. Sitting in front of a computer screen does not give you license to embarrass, intimidate, or spread hurtful rumors about others. Regardless of your privacy settings, keep in mind that anything can possibly be seen by anyone at any time, even by that person that you did not want to see it. Pause before you post, think before you click. Whether you're concerned with maintaining good friendships or future job prospects, be responsible in what you post and how it could affect your reputation. Many employers now check up on job candidates' social media accounts for evidence of bad behavior. Something to Ponder on Social media have become a very powerful communication tool and platform in the new era of technology and globalization. In the early beginnings of social media, the usual reaction would be, “I have ideas or feelings and I can share these to the world through social media as a platform.” Today, however, most millennials would claim, “I have access to social media, so I have to have an idea. I have to have a feeling or emotion that I can share with the world.”  This attitude has led to the proliferation of fabricated or exaggerated emotions, with the hope of getting many ‘likes’ or receiving many ‘comments’, which have become the norm for social acceptance. What can you say about this? Consider this article in reacting to this phenomenon: While is it true that we have real friends whom we can rely on in the real world, there is that ubiquitous itch that we have to post something, with the hope of ‘friends’ liking it, sharing it, or commenting on it. A hundred likes and a few comments would suffice; couple these with shares and threads and it would be ecstatic, even if those who supposedly liked or commented on it remain detached to how we actually feel. Social media give us friends who will tell us who we are based on how we project ourselves in that virtual environment. The technology that is supposed to help us connect and communicate with people by showing the ‘real us’ is the very technology that prompts us to give others a false impression of who we really are. Is this the purpose of social media? Are we using this powerful platform appropriately? (an excerpt from the article “Refusing to be Alone Together” by Tejada, K. 2017) ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND THE NEW MEDIA Question: Does the language we use dictate the language of new media, or do new media shape the language that we use? Let me rephrase that: Are we using new media, or are new media using us? What is new media? New media refer to highly interactive digital technology. These are very easily processed, stored, transformed, retrieved, hyper-linked, searched for, and accessed. Generally, these can be classified as: Blogs Social media Online newspaper Virtual reality Computer games  Netspeak Language in new Computer-mediated discourse media is sometimes Digital discourse referred to as Computer-mediated Electronic discourse communication e-communication (CMC), though it may also be called Digitally mediated communication any of the following: Keyboard-to-screen communication The Internet is the largest area of language development we have seen in our lifetimes. Crystal (2011) said that only two things are certain: it is not going to go away, and it is going to get larger. Hence, we must be prepared for its inevitable expansion. Digital discourse illuminates social and cultural processes, which is under the domain of sociocultural linguistics.  This type of discourse The primary or computer-mediated concern is not with communication can be abstract, grammatical described as: linguistics, but Vernacular rather the Interpersonal everyday functions and uses Spontaneous of language. Dialogical CMC is Vernacular, Acronyms (Lol, yolo, fomo, bae) which means it uses language that is common to people Initialisms (atm, rotfl, brb, btw, hbd, idk, jk, af, nvm, tmi, tldr, ftw, g!) regardless of age, social class, gender, or race. Examples: Emoticons/ Emojis Expressive Punctuations o Hello? VS Hello?!? o No. VS No? VS No!!! o