Just the other day, i was asked by my friend, for the sake of small talk, to choose between losing a foot or the internet. I said... yeah, internet hahaha. Unless the situation really hits me, i’d probably choose my foot but for now, i’m going with the internet.
Mediated communication has grown throughout the years. From the 3210 i had almost a decade ago, to all these websites i’m signed in today, technology has helped make communication more accessible than before. It is helping us communicate more effectively with a variety of portals depending on the form of communication you want to use.
I will use my most commonly used websites as examples. (Warning: forms of communication may vary from one person to another)
Facebook:
Form: Group communication
Facebook, or at least to me, is networking among people i only know personally. We may not talk in real life, but as long as we know each other, “friend accepted”. Because i am not close to everyone on my Facebook’s friends list, i don’t post very personal things other than a couple of pictures and statuses but nothing too personal. Facebook to me serves as group communication because it focuses on networking with my sphere. Aside from my general friends, i also have little groups (the one in the left side bar in the Facebook site) where only specific friends/barkada members are added. The development of these small groups are done on Facebook as we constantly update ourselves with each other and make inside jokes that develop our group as a whole. Facebook gives us glimpses of each other's lives and with it, a certain connection is made.
Twitter:
Form: Group communication
It was only recently that i opened my twitter to the public (due to a blog reason) but on most days, it’s on private and only people i know or feel comfortable with can follow me/read my tweets. In the same way, i only follow people i find interesting. In Twitter, i feel more comfortable to talk about personal things that happen to me daily, unlike Facebook, because i have a fixed number of followers that i filter ever now and then. I usually tweet about where i am or what i’m doing or feeling. This form of short messages (max of 150 letters) can mean different and more profound things. For example, at the end of the day, someone tweets “:(“, it could mean more than just someone feeling sad but a breakup perhaps? a failed test? a bad day? sickness? News has depicted Twitter to be a public form of communication because some tweet-ers tend to be opinionated and persuasive and that’s not saying i don’t become persuasive too at times. I just see Twitter to be more of a group communication because of the networking aspect and the development of relationships through people’s personal thoughts that lie in their tweets. Seeing a tweet of someone being sad would often get me to text them and ask if i can do anything to make them feel better. Also, with the people i follow and the tweets they send, i know who’re the funny ones from the ones with huge social lives (because they tweet about a going to a party all the time), to those who like Justin bieber (Beliebers) to those who study in La Salle (because they tweet about weird sounding subjects i don’t get).
Tumblr
Form: Intercultural communication
Tumblr is my place to post or reblog pictures i can relate with or find interesting. I follow different kinds of blogs from fashion to art to comedy to random blogs i like and their pictures stream through my dashboard. I can stream through them and for the pictures i like, i reblog it and put it in my own blog and they can be seen by people who follow my blog. This is actually my favorite website. I find this form of communicating very interesting because i am a very visual person and i like interpreting myself through pictures and art. You know as they say, a pictures is worth a thousand words so when one reblogs another picture, it could mean countless things. For example, someone reblogs a picture of the beach. Maybe she likes the beach? maybe she’s been to that specific beach? maybe she likes the way the picture was taken? Maybe she likes the colors? Maybe she feels dry and wants to go swimming on the beach? Maybe she fell in love in a beach? Tumblr to me is a intercultural form of communication because the people i follow vary from race to values to perspectives in love and other concepts. One blog could be heartbroken and another completely in love. All these blogs come together to share each other’s thoughts and sentiments.
Youtube
Form: Mass communication
Now this is yet another visual form of expressing one’s self - through videos. I consider this mass communication because the audience varies from one to another. If you take a look at the comment section of one video, they don’t always agree with each other. Some like the video and some don’t. I find Youtube to be the source of almost any documented or filmed short video. From music videos, to SNL skits, to trailers and promos, interviews, Youtube gives access to anything people want to watch. Not only that, people can also post their own videos for parodies, covers of songs, and sometimes to critique another video and in that way, they communicate to a large audience that may or may not agree to what they’re saying. An example would be the WHATTHEBUCKSHOW which critique anything in Hollywood. It’s quite interesting how films can be a form of communicating a certain message. Like music videos, an artist can set her music video in a forest and it could represent a bigger picture that relates to her music.
Blog:
Form: Intrapersonal communication
My blog is only read by those who i give the link to and those of which are people i talk to on a normal basis. Though i have readers, to me a blog is an intrapersonal form of communication. It’s me telling myself what i’m feeling and what i did during the day. I find it to be soothing to myself and it’s main purpose isn’t for the readers but for the writer. I write there to release my feelings and sentiments and no one can judge me for it because it’s my blog and i have the right to make my own opinion about things. I can also tell my mood by the way i write and through my writings, i discover things about myself. The change that my way of writing has gone through for the last two years have been quite significant which is relative to how mature i’ve grown, or at least that’s what i feel.
Email
Form: Organizational communication
These days, the only use for my email is for class groups (and spams) that which is used by the teacher or beadle to relay important information for class. I find this to be organizational because it’s an extended communication that go from the professor or sender to the class as a whole or certain groups in class. It is indeed goal oriented because an information sent via email could mean homework that’s due or project that’s to be done.
Whichever the mode, the internet communicates in any way you want it to.