Problem
In 1961 Marshall McLuhan wrote that "the medium is the message." By this McLuhan meant that the medium by which communication occurs, such as the telephone, the television, or handwriting, is more influential in shaping one's understanding of a message than the content of the message itself. McLuhan concluded that the same message content communicated over different media, such as television, radio, and printed material, would be interpreted differently by message receivers.
Remember that during the early 1960s, when McLuhan explained the relationship between media and their effects on understanding, television itself was a new medium whose effects were not fully understood. McLuhan believed that understanding the full effects of a medium, and the public's ability to adapt to a new medium or technology, took twenty years.
We are now facing new kinds of communication and, particularly, social media technologies whose effects we do not yet know. You have likely already felt the impact of increasing communication technologies in your own life. Answer the following questions:
A. How have your relationships developed differently via use of social media, such as Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter? What are the benefits of these tools and other social media tools for relationship management? What are the drawbacks?
B. How have your perceptions in general been influenced by social media?
C. Given that Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram are largely image-driven, what impact do these platforms have on your perception of the way that others live their lives? Do you perceive others as relating to you in the same way as before? Or do you believe others' lives are very different than yours? How do we know that our online perceptions of others' lives are accurate?
D. How might psychological influences and social influences impact the way you perceive others via social media?