Being a teenager in this generation means you are held to so many standards and expectations, especially on social media. I’m constantly struggling trying to fit in while also not standing out.

    A lot of us would rather hide behind a screen instead of talking to people face to face. This can lead to miscommunications and break down relationships. 

     One of the biggest problems is that you can’t interpret someone’s tone by reading words on a screen. It’s like when someone compliments you but they have a rude tone; it sounds insincere. Or how you can tell when you’re in trouble by the way your parents call your name. Tone makes the world of a difference.      

     Have you ever realized how we pay attention to body language and express how we feel through physical cues? This is also taken away when you communicate over the phone. For example, I have gotten into many arguments because of the lack of social cues and misinterpreting tone. I’ve made my friends think I’m mad at them because they misunderstood my use of a period. It came out sassy and sounded rude. They didn’t know I wasn’t upset because they couldn’t see my body language or hear my tone of voice. 

     After talking about the problem in person, I realized that it was just a huge misapprehension and the message was actually intended to be inviting, not excluding. 

     COVID-19 has played a huge role in the way we talk and interact with each other. The Frontiers in Human Dynamics, a research team whose’ goal is to make science open to the public, has put out a survey to see how people have started relying on social media using it more during COVID. The results showed about a 50-70 percent increase in social media use during the pandemic.

    Technology has taken away many aspects of our social health and made it difficult to get back to acting the way we did before. Since COVID, I’ve struggled to communicate how I feel in person without getting super anxious and backing out. I can see how much being isolated at home for almost a year has impacted my social anxiety and the way I think. 

     According to Pew Research Center, about a third (35%) of Americans said socializing and going out is not a priority to them anymore. COVID has strongly affected my way of communication after losing so much in person contact with my peers. 

     A problem found in communicating online is how some people are super confident and say whatever they want, but in person they don’t act the same. I’ve had countless times where people have been incredibly rude while texting but act like nothing happened the next time I see them in person. 

     One time a friend was texting me, being so inconsiderate of how I felt and not thinking about how their words were affecting me. Then they started blaming me for a situation and pretending like they played no part in our argument. At school, they acted like nothing had happened the night before. I felt so unimportant and unheard. Although it can be hard to talk to people face to face about serious subjects, it is so much more beneficial to see their point of view.    

     So many social aspects are taken away when you are talking over the phone instead of face to face. There have been many studies to show how tone and body language play the biggest role in interpreting what people are saying. Therefore, if you question what someone means over text, just ask them.