Do we communicate? Rebecca McAllister

Introduction • The problem that I choose to look at is are we interacting and

communicating enough or are we spending to much time on new media technologies like social media?

• The research question that my mini project addresses is ‘do we communicate?’

• Specifically looking at social networks and New media, new media is means of mass communication using digital technologies such as the Internet.

• Specifically looking at social networks and New media.• The main work that has been done that gives rise to my question

was photography this way my research project relates to finding out the truth

• “The medium is the message.” (McLuhan, Fiore and Agel, 2008)

New media• Before social media and new media, we were extremely limited

in our means to interact with others and we were limited to the people that we knew in person. There were things we had to deal with that these days we just don’t do, for example actually calling for a friend instead of texting them you're outside, waiting for a letter in the mail, waiting a week to get your pictures that you sent off to be developed etc.

• New media has a lot of disadvantages to it, for instance we spend a lot of our time on social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter etc. that we don’t interact with our fellow students or work colleagues as much.

Social media • Social media has also changed the way that we interact,

mainly the way we have lost some of our social skills. Some people are completely incapable of carrying on a normal conversation or interacting with people in person because of the dependency of social media.

• Social networks are becoming one of the dominant ways we communicate for example Snapchat or facebook. People are more obsessed with checking their phones every 2 minutes rather than engaging in meaningful conversation with their friends or family.

• “Today as yesterday, the media filter our experience and shape our understandings of the world” (Shoemaker and Reese, n.d.)

• “reported using Facebook approximately 30 minutes throughout the day as part of their daily routine” (Pempek, Yermolayeve, &Calvert, 2009, p.227)

Literature review • “online social interactions fundamentally differ from face-to-

face interactions in offlince social networks. Online social networking typically offers opertunitties for expresion that are less restrictive. Users may disclose a levels quite diffrent than in thier face-to-face conversations.” (Noor Al-Deen and Hendricks, 2011)

Methodology • I will be using an experimental approach to solving the

question of ‘do we communicate?’• The method I will be using for my first mini project will be

photography.• I constructed this artefact by photographing students in the

university for 4 days, I photographed students in groups and by themselves so I could then observe the photos to answer my question ‘do we communicate?’

• I used photography approach so I could then observe the data collected from my photographs to judge if people spend to much time on new media/social media.

Studio practice • The rationale behind this was to see if students communicate

to each other depending who there with or what they are doing, I choose to sit in the same spot so I could compare and see if there is a reason to why we are on their phones, this way I could analysis students without them knowing therefore know it wasn’t set up so then I could then collect the data and compare which would answer my question.

Process of production

Photoshop

My mini project

Day two

Day Three

Day Four

Results• Overall as you can see from the images people get distracted by new

media technologies a lot.• My aim was to find out if we are we interacting and communicating

enough or are we spending to much time on new media technologies like social media? Answering the question ‘do we communicate?’

• I feel like I completed this and you can see from my images I collected that we don’t communicate a lot and even when we are in groups or with people

• There was only 3 out of 9 groups that were shown that none of them were using their phones, in the rest at least one person was using their phones.

• It was shown that we use our phones more when we are alone as nearly everyone that was pictured alone was seen using there phone.

Conclusion • Further research: • when were face to face with peers why do we feel the need to look at our

phones and go on social media? does this mean are we really face to face?• Why do we feel the need use our phones more when we are on our own? • Look at my results it is clear that we detracted by new media social

networks and our phones a lot, we Could go on to look at for further research what sort of social media is distracting us the most and why, why are we so addicted to the likes on facebook and why when we get up is our phones the first thing we look at?

• “In Sum, scholers treat facebook as a channel of cunnication for social interaction rather than a place for users to make important connections and for those relationships to form overriding patterns worthy of study.” (Noor Al-Deen and Hendricks, 2011)

Bibliography • McLuhan, M., Fiore, Q. and Agel, J. (2008). The medium is the

massage. 1st ed. London: Penguin.• Shoemaker, P. and Reese, S. (n.d.). Mediating the message in

the 21st century. • Millennial CEO. (2016). How Social Media Has Changed How

We Communicate. [online] Available at: http://millennialceo.com/social-media-changed-communicate/ [Accessed 18 Nov. 2016].

• Noor Al-Deen, H. and Hendricks, J. (2011). Social media. 1st ed. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Lexington Books.