Critical Reflection: Exploring Social Media and Group Communication

This reflective journal delves into the evolving understanding of social media and its influence on group communication. Initially viewing social media with some skepticism, particularly regarding its impact on face-to-face interactions, the author's perspective shifts through research and personal experience. The reflection explores both the negative aspects, such as mental health impacts and the potential for addiction, and the positive aspects, including its role in business and marketing. The concept of 'masspersonal communication' is examined in the context of social media groups. The author concludes with a more nuanced appreciation for social media's potential for creativity and innovation, while also acknowledging the risks associated with its misuse. The reflection ends with a focus on future research directions, particularly concerning the sustainability of social media and its effectiveness for entrepreneurial endeavors, highlighting the importance of understanding user behavior and patterns for successful online marketing and group communication strategies. Desklib provides students with access to this and other solved assignments and past papers.

Running head: REFLECTION ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND GROUP COMMUNICATION
REFLECTION ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND GROUP COMMUNICATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1
REFLECTION ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND GROUP COMMUNICATION
Things I heard about Social Media and Group Communication
The broadcast media with global news channels like the CNN and BBC and so on,
dominated media, as we have known it during the late 1990s and early 2000s. When I gained full
control of my conscience, I knew that I could make friends across the globe without even having
to go there. The media to me was all about the ability to receive information as well as respond
to it. The new phenomenon is called the Social Media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat
and LinkedIn amongst others are the faces of his new type of media.
I wanted to know more about it, its inception and its rise to dominance and hence I
decided to do a research on the Social Media. The Social Media, as I have known, has been
instrumental in diminishing the value of group communication. I say this because I have been
through the phase when once I used to visit my relative of friends’ place and totally enjoy that.
Gradually as I grew up, the Social Media rose to prominence and the essence of group
communication was lost. Group communication involved face-to-face interaction between more
than two people but the ‘face-to-face’ factor is no longer required for having a group
communication. The advent of messenger apps like the WhatsApp and the already mentioned
Snpachat and Facebook became the platform for communicating with your group. Moreover, the
‘emojis’ and ‘smileys’ and the recent addition of ‘Giphy or GIFs’ were provided to convey our
different emotions like laughter, anger, sadness, happiness and so on (Pohl, Domin and Rohs,
2017). The Social Media generation, as I like to refer to my generation, is quite happy and
satisfied with this kind of emotional exchange, as I have observed. Many scholars too have
similar views like mine. According to Raghavendra et al. (2016), the youth today finds the Social
Media exhilarating and amazing because it has helped them connect with more friends. On the
other hand, I also researched the studies on the impact of the Social media on the health of the

2
REFLECTION ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND GROUP COMMUNICATION
younger generation and found an article by Richards, Caldwell and Go (2015). The authors
conducted a study on the impact of the Social Media on children and younger people’s health
where it was revealed that the highest impact of this platform is on the mental health of children
and younger people. The Social Media had an impact on the self-esteem and body image of the
younger people and children (Campbell, 2018). I have observed and even experienced that a
simple ‘like’ and ‘comment’ on your profile picture or any uploaded photo could have a great
impact on children or younger people’s psyche. Apart from that, those who feel inferior about
their looks in the real life or feel hesitant to speak on an issue, take help of the Social Media
platform to be what they desire and could not be in real life. These things often have a
detrimental effect on children and younger people and even lead to depression and ultimately
suicide.
What I think about it now
With my gradual progress in the research of the Social Media and Group
Communication, I have come to learn new things about it. The most important being the positive
aspects of Social Media especially in business. As a representative of the youth of this
generation, I too had similar feelings and experiences as described in the above-section. I was
also somewhat addicted to the Social Media and stopped interacting with family and friends in
the real world rather connected to them virtually. Group communication to me was creating a
WhatsApp or Facebook ‘group’ and chat with friends (Shen, Cheung and Lee, 2013). After
undertaking the course, I realized the need to understand the functioning of this media and its
influence as well. My views on the Social Media then started to incline towards negative aspects
as more and more news of incidents related to it came to my knowledge but that too has changed
gradually. Now I feel that the platform has a lot to offer than just wastage of time and life. To

3
REFLECTION ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND GROUP COMMUNICATION
begin with, the social networking sites have been instrumental in bringing the customer and the
seller in a single platform where both could benefit. I feel that the positives of the Social Media
should be explored and utilized more.
I am a very creative individual and have an interest in startups. I believe the Social Media
could provide me a platform from where I could reach out to investors and express my ideas. I
have done extensive studies on the use of the social networking sites by giants in the field of
business from almost every industry. The emergence of e-commerce has also received the boom
it wanted from the Social Media. Many startups like Amazon Inc., Flipkart, Alibaba and so on,
have benefitted greatly from the Social Media. I therefore have gained more confidence that the
Social Media would help me achieve my goal.
I shall also speak about the Group Communication concept, which is intrinsically
associated to the Social Media. We all know that Social Media is increasingly an omnipresent
channel of communication that is used largely to form and maintain groups. The groups created
in the Social Media are obviously different from the ones we form in the real world because the
Social Media groups might have members whom we have never met before while in real life, we
form groups with the ones we are acquainted. Carr and Hayes (2015) use the term ‘masspersonal
communication’ to demonstrate the nature of group communication in the Social Media.
According to the authors, masspersonal communication is the sending and receiving of
interpersonal messages in a platform where others also have access to these messages. Group
communication occurring in the ‘comments’ section in Facebook or on the ‘retweet’ section in
Twitter are examples of masspersonal communication. It is an important part of group-
communication within the sphere of the Social Media.

4
REFLECTION ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND GROUP COMMUNICATION
In the end, I want to convey that the Social Media has characteristics that could either
build or destroy a business or an individual unless we know how to use it. I have realized and
now appreciate the importance of the new media in the field of creativity and innovation
especially. I have learnt that the mishaps that are linked to the obsession with the etiquettes of the
Social Media can be averted by spreading awareness about its usefulness but in a way that the
youth can understand.
The questions I have and the directions in which I go from here
With the new insights into the phenomenon called the Social Media and its influence on
Group communication, I think have received most answers to my queries regarding it. Prior to
taking up this course, I had only surface level idea about the effects and influences of the Social
Media on the lives of the people. I was only concerned about my satisfaction about this platform.
After conducting a thorough study on this topic, almost all my questions have been answered.
However, I still do have some questions regarding the sustainability of this new media and the
extent to which it could continue providing support to people like me. I am trying to assert that
as an aspiring entrepreneur, I want to know if the Social Media would prove to be an effective
medium for me because there are many people who are still unknown or untouched from this
phenomenon. Further, I am also aware of the risks associated with the media’s use like hacking,
cyber bullying and so on.
I can but confidently say that my previous notions built upon by the influence of the
negative information regarding the Social Media have changed significantly after taking up this
study. In addition, I have realized the actual function of group communication and its benefits in
the new media platform. From the startup point of view, group communication within the Social

5
REFLECTION ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND GROUP COMMUNICATION
Media platform allows the entrepreneur to interact with like-minded people and pass the first
stage of marketing, which is the most crucial stage in starting up a company. I have understood
that marketing is best done when you can connect directly with your customer and market your
product or service directly without the involvement of a third party.
My next step after this would be to study further about the different Social Media sites
separately so that I could have a clearer view about each platform. In doing so, I will have to
start with the most popular site and the first site with which I had my first interaction –
Facebook. I am aware that it is going to be a challenging task to study about Facebook but I am
ready to take the challenge. After this, I plan to research on the user’s behavior and pattern on
using social sites. In this way, I will be able to gain advanced knowledge about how to promote
and market a product or service on Social networking sites and how to utilize the true benefits of
Group Communication on this platform.

6
REFLECTION ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND GROUP COMMUNICATION
References:
Campbell, D., 2018. Facebook And Twitter 'Harm Young People's Mental Health'. [online] the
Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/may/19/popular-social-
media-sites-harm-young-peoples-mental-health> [Accessed 2 June 2018].
Carr, C.T. and Hayes, R.A., 2015. Social media: Defining, developing, and divining. Atlantic
Journal of Communication, 23(1), pp.46-65.
Pohl, H., Domin, C. and Rohs, M., 2017. Beyond Just Text: Semantic Emoji Similarity Modeling
to Support Expressive Communication👫👫😃. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human
Interaction (TOCHI), 24(1), p.6.
Raghavendra, P., Newman, L., Grace, E., Wood, D., and Hutchinson, C. 2016. ‘it's helped me
connect with more friends’: Impact of social media training on the social networks of rural youth
with disabilities. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 60(7), pp. 723.
Richards, D., Caldwell, P. and Go, H., 2015. Impact of social media on the health of children and
young people. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 51(12), pp.1152-1157.
Shen, X.L., Cheung, C.M. and Lee, M.K., 2013. Perceived critical mass and collective intention
in social media-supported small group communication. International Journal of Information
Management, 33(5), pp.707-715.