Social Media and Personal Expression

Technology today, especially through the platform of social media, creates separation between the way we express ourselves through writing, public speaking, and very personal intimate conversations with other people. For example, social media speech differs from that of a professional conversation with an employer or professor. Students and professional staff rely so heavily on social media platforms to express their inner thoughts and emotion using fragmented sentences. This form of language conveys unprofessionalism as a different form of socialization in media. This creates a bridge in the way people communicate and express themselves daily in the absence of social media. Four rhetorical approaches in media today include storytelling, writing, public speaking, and building history knowledge. These radical approaches enable to speak confidently. These forms of public speaking also involves immediacy. The uncompromising of body language, eye contact, voice inflections, and silences all help to create meaningful moments using person to person relationships. This collective experience creates a person to person experience rather than a virtual connection through social media. A challenging situation that forced me to analyze and respond to diverse communities and audiences include volunteering at the Ronald Mac Donald House. Exasperating count less hours with a non profit organization has enabled me to engage and interact with people of different cultures and different backgrounds. Being able to exercise patience and interact with people who are ethnically different than I am has allowed me to embrace different cultures and diverse communities. Without knowing how to communicate outside of social media, it is possible to develop speech anxiety when speaking in front of large crowds and engage in professional settings. That is why it is very important to exercise public speaking and conversation engagement outside of social media platforms including involvements with different organization to suffice for gain of experience with people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.