Splicetoday

Digital
Jul 24, 2008, 01:13PM

Online And Out Of Touch

New research concludes that people are much more willing to express their opinions on the Internet than they are in face-to-face encounters. Often, those who struggle to communicate in the real world are more likely to use abusive, irrational language when communicating online. Is the Internet making our social lives worse?

People today are more willing to express their opinion over the Internet and less likely to do so in person, according to communication research done by Shirley S. Ho and Douglas M. McLeod of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Their study found that "fear of isolation, communication apprehension, future opinion congruency and communication setting significantly predict willingness to speak out."

While communicating through the Internet is a great tool, communicating in person is crucial to developing one's ability to communicate effectively and intelligently.

McLeod and Ho's study said that people are extremely apprehensive to expressing their opinion in person because of social anxiety. This social anxiety is a large reason that people prefer blogging instead of a face-to-face communication.

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