Social Media - Week 5 Journal Entry

Required readings for this week were limited to two chapters in our textbook Personal Connections in the Digital Age.  Considering these chapters discussed interpersonal connections and relationship development, I found this week's reading appealing.  A large portion of text centered round the use of social cues (online and offline) to create interpersonal connections and develop relationships.  While some argue that the absence of visual and audio cues within some forms of online communication negatively affect relationships, others believe that these omissions offer freedom from potential biases and actually enrich communication.  I reside somewhere in the middle of these perspectives.  While I do believe visual and audio cues are a vital component of relationship building, I believe online communication can be fulfilling and rewarding.  I consider communication to be possible anywhere in any format; some environments and formats just require a little more creativity and ingenuity. 

In addition to the quality of online communication, the trustworthiness of online communication was also discussed.  Our discussion board question this week asked whether we believed that the lack of social cues within online communication encouraged people to be untruthful when communicating online.  While many peers acknowledged the reality of untruthfulness within online communication, many believed people were as truthful online as they were offline, and most believed that truth would eventually reveal itself regardless of the environment.  Like my peers, I believe people behave and conduct themselves basically the same both online and offline.  As one mentioned, many social media sites have taken precautions against untruthfulness making deception online more difficult to execute.  Another mentioned how time consuming deception is and stated that most people online do not have the time to maintain deception. While most of us were in agreement regarding a connection between online deception and a lack of social cues, several insightful comments and validations of this connection were given and I enjoyed this week's group discussion. 

In closing, I thought this cartoon was funny and appropriate, liars offline are liars online...


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