Communication and Media Speaker Series

Social media has afforded a change to the structure of people's personal communities that allows for more persistent contact and pervasive awareness. In contrast to arguments that suggest new technologies are maximizing mobility to the point where people are nearly free from the constraints of time, space, and social bonds, social media are renewing many of the constraints and opportunities of an earlier, denser and more stable network of relations. As a result of the relational persistence, social ties and the contexts where they are formed are less transitory than at any time in modern history. Through the ambient, lean, asynchronous nature of social media, awareness provides for an informal watchfulness that was common in earlier communities. The result is heightened knowledge about the opinions, activities and mental state of ones' social ties. This awareness is associated with a number of beneficial outcomes, including higher awareness of social capital and social support, but it may also be associated with less desirable outcomes. This presentation focuses on a number of these outcomes, including social stress, a spiral of silence, and increased psychological distress over time.