• Question: Why do people talk differently in Social Media than in real life?

    Asked by anon-234310 to Liam, Jack on 9 Nov 2019. This question was also asked by anon-234280, anon-234394.
    • Photo: Jack Joyce

      Jack Joyce answered on 9 Nov 2019:

      People talk in ways that fit with the place they’re talking in. When you go to see the doctor, you expect the doctor to ask you what’s wrong and you’re expected to give an answer, but when you’re on social media those expectations are different — you’re expected to talk about your life, arrange events etc. and maintain relationships with family/friends. You wouldn’t talk to your doctor the same way that you’d talk to your friend!

      But that doesn’t mean that people talk very differently! because they don’t — on social media people usually talk one at a time, maybe they’ll ‘correct’ something they’ve said before, and they’ll complain, tell stories, congratulate etc. and we do all these things in face-to-face interaction too.

    • Photo: Liam Wignall

      Liam Wignall answered on 9 Nov 2019:

      To add to Jack’s point – we also have the opportunity to think about what we say on social media. There are delays in the conversation (this is called asynchronous communication). You can check your message/posts before you send them, edit it, or delete it all and start again (maybe sending a gif rather than a message!) We can’t edit ourselves in the same way face to face (or through synchronisation communication).
      On social media, we also consider who else will see what we write. When we tweet, it’s not just a small group of friends who will see the tweet – it could be anybody! We might think about this when we decide what to post online.

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