Question

how does social media impact argument and persuasion? How much time do you spend on social media and how does it impact what you believe and think? Do you think social media just encourages name-calling and we cannot have respectful debate online?

Answer 1

Answer. Social media has emerged as a hotbed for arguments ranging from passionate and personal attacks to constructive and creative social debates on important public issues. Given its extensive reach, ease of accessibility across millions of users across the globe, it allows individuals a relatively flexible time frame to construct their thoughts and arguments in a way that can create an impact on the readers. Moroever, given the nature of the interface, it helps to ensure a relative distance form the contenders and can therefore lead to greater likelihood of extreme positions and negative attitudes being expressed more openly compared to a face to face situation.

This makes the arguments presented on the Internet more emotionally charged and they can thus lead to grave consequences for the attitudes of several other users. To this end, socila media messages yield a high degree of persuasion and can influence the opinion of people based on other user’ s explicit messages. As a regular Facebook user, I find that if I spend more time on the Facebook than on Face to face interactions with my friends, I soon begin to read other people’s opinions presented virtually with greater seriousness. Unlike a face to face situation where I become more conscious of my own thought processes as an equal participant in a debate, in he Facebook world, I tend to ASU’s men greater passivity and become a mere reader And recipient of the information. I am more likely to be less critical of other people’s stance when I spend more time on Facebook.

the persuasive message variables in social media are found to be more positively related to sympathy responses in viewers and that it reduces our inhibition for using harsh critical language. However, sites such a Facebook, Twitter etc are not only technology for hot headed unproductive arguments but they can also serve as creative tools for mobilisation of opinion polls And social debates on important issues. By allowing free access to information, they allow the users fo exchange information, build on the given facts and events based on personal but rationally assessed viewpoints about a socially pertinent situation.