âThe Secret Cause of Flame Warsâ
Social Media Perception
Our choices of social media shape our perceptions of events, issues, and people. Cultural memberships influence the content of digital and online communication. Social media have altered how we perceive time and space. People tend to feel anonymous online, even when they have a name associated with their avatar. On the internet, computer mediated conversations lack body language, voice intonation, and other important nonverbal elements. Without these features, people are compelled to fill in the gaps with assumptions about the nonverbal elements.
For some reason, people become much more sensitive when theyâre online, and they tend to blow things entirely out of proportionâfor example, taking a couple of sentences originally meant to be humorous or sarcastic entirely the wrong way. Itâs even worse if youâve had a bad day and youâve decided that âno one likes youâ (weâve all had those moments); youâre much more susceptible to misunderstanding messages. Once that happens, everything can go downhill quickly. Instead of asking for clarification (âYou were kidding, werenât you?â) or just ignoring it, many peopleâforgetting that theyâre dealing with another human being on the other endâdecide to defend themselves and tell the originator of the offending message exactly what they think of him or her. This outcome is whatâs known in the business as a flame. If both sides begin insulting each other, itâs called a flame war (kind of like fighting fire with fire). These digital battles often erupt in âpublicâ and can sometimes be very entertaining to the lurkers.â
âThe Secret Cause of Flame Warsâ to get started on this topic.
· Create a 5 â 10 slide PowerPoint Presentation with audio. Add your own audio recordings to each slide.
· Include a title slide (with your name and introduce the topic youâll be sharing in the presentation).
· Then include slides and describe a situation online where you witnessed trolling and flaming. What was the situation? How were the comments handled?
· Do you think this same situation would have happened in a face-to-face environment? Why or why not?
· How can situations like this be minimized? Please use the terms for your text about social media and nonverbal and guidelines for improving nonverbal communication found in Chapter 5 to respond to this question.