Communication and Technology

With the sudden rise in the popularity of social media, smart phones and other technologies, it is more important than ever to study how new media is changing the way that people communicate. Technology has a profound effect on the way that we speak, write and even how we think, and by understanding how technology affects communication, we can see how interpersonal skills will change in the first half of the 21st century and how our culture will adapt to these changes. The articles in this category discuss new communication-based studies and research. We will consider rising trends in social media and offer insight to research to show how new media affects communication on both a macro and a micro scale.

Social Media Message Management

June 18, 2012 Vance Miller 0

Just like it has changed our social interactions, social media has found its way into almost all aspects of business, from marketing to hiring. Many businesses are using social media as an online reputation management tool and have systems in place to monitor the web for any mention of their name or brand.

The Disembodied Body Language of Email

May 17, 2012 Jeffrey Ventrella 0

With computer-mediated communication, reading and writing have become a tango. Text is ephemeral, disposable, spontaneous – much like real-time natural language. In fact, texting occurs at near-conversation rates. How does this alter our experience of the written word? When text communication approaches this rate of exchange, something new kicks in: emotions and fleeting thoughts get mingled with the generation of words.

Facebook Addiction Symptoms are Found by New Study

May 9, 2012 coms 2

A new study gives potentially important information about social media use and why addiction to websites like Facebook is on the rise worldwide. According to Dr. Cecilie Schou Andreassen of the University of Bergen in Norway, social media addiction is a distinct type of Internet addiction that has grown significantly over the past several years. Andreassen’s research provides a first-ever look at the demographics of the average addicted Facebook user.

Popular U.S. News Sites by State: Who’s Reading What and Where

April 26, 2012 coms 0

A new graphic compiled by Hilary Mason and Anna Smith of Bit.ly and Forbes Magazine’s Jon Bruner shows the popularity of different online news sites across the United States. The team looked for unusually popular linked articles and compiled click-through information to create a color-coded map of the United States that shows the online news reporting preference of each state.

When Is Sex On the Mind?

April 23, 2012 coms 0

It’s been said that every seven seconds men think about sex, but what time of day do they think about it most, are they the only ones thinking about it, and what causes them to think about it? Oh, and as for love, why do we so often get the two confused?

Can Twitter Accurately Show Public Moods?

April 19, 2012 coms 0

A study from the University of Bristol’s Intelligent Systems Laboratory indicates that posts from Twitter users can serve as an accurate indicator of overall public opinion. Researchers monitored keywords in random tweets from July of 2009 to January of 2012, tracking 140-character messages from nearly 10 million users to monitor public moods in the UK.