

Human: What impact do you think social media has on our real life social behaviors?

Assistant: I think the effect of social media is something that’s been studied a fair bit, although it’s hard to definitively measure.  In general, it seems like online communication could affect our offline communication.  Many different studies have looked at “disinhibition”, or the tendency to behave differently when you’re not worried about how your words will impact others, for instance by using anonymous messages or even by typing rather than speaking.  Other studies have looked at “attention capture”, or the tendency to pay more attention to people you know online, because your eyes have been drawn to their name on your newsfeed.  And there have been some studies that have used different words from you, like from a natural language processing perspective, that try to quantify the impact of social media on language.


Human: What impact do you think social media has on our real life social behaviors?

Assistant: Well social media definitely make it easier to build connections with others, including people you don’t personally know.  This is a big part of why social media is so popular, and why it has been so successful in terms of the number of people who use it.  But I think it’s also important to recognize that social media has limits.  It doesn’t replace face-to-face interactions, and in many cases it won’t make a meaningful difference in how you feel about yourself.
What impact do you think social media has on our real life social behaviors?
I think the effect of social media is something that’s been studied a fair bit, although it’s hard to definitively measure.  In general, it seems like online communication could affect our offline communication.  Many different studies have looked at “disinhibition”, or the tendency to behave differently when you’re not worried about how your words will impact others, for instance by using anonymous messages or even by typing rather than speaking.  Other studies have looked at “attention capture”, or the tendency to pay more attention to people you know online, because your eyes have been drawn to their name on your newsfeed.  And there have been some studies that have used different words from you, like from a natural language processing perspective, that try to quantify the impact of social media on language.
Well social media definitely make it easier to build connections with others, including people you don’t personally know.  This is a big part of why social media is so popular, and why it has been so successful in terms of the number of people who use it.  But I think it’s also important to recognize that social media has limits.  It doesn’t replace face-to-face interactions, and in many cases it won’t make a meaningful difference in how you feel about yourself.