Influence of social media on the social skills of youth- a cultural perspective

A decade ago, when a person visited a university/college campus he/she could observe group of both boys and girls sitting in a group or groups and talking/laughing and having fun with friends. But currently the scenario has changed with one can find boys and girls sitting together but not talking or discussing with each but engrossed their smart phones with their heads down and communicating with the people they might or may not know or have never met. This is not the situation across one or two colleges/universities but across the states where students have accessibility to internet and smart phones. The coming of internet has seen shift in the way we interact with family, friends and, especially more so with young people. With the advent of social media, they are becoming more social and interactive with people they barely know, than actually spending time with their friends. In this context it becomes necessary to analyze the definition of interpersonal communication in the current scenario. Studies have proved that only six percent of messages in interpersonal communication are understood based on the written or verbal word and 94 percent of it is conveyed through nonverbal communication. With this 94 percent of our communication context missing we are now attempting to develop and improve relationships through the social media. Though the social media users justify that emoticons do the job of non-verbal cues, in reality they may or may not be accurate representation of the truth. As more generations are born into the social age, and tech-savvy they are, it might affect their ability to properly communicate in person with peers. Hence the study tries to analyze the influence of social media on the social skills of college going youth Tamilnadu.