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Essays on Instant Messaging

Instant messaging is a form of communication that has become increasingly popular in recent years. It allows people to send messages, images, and video quickly and easily over the internet. It has become an important part of modern life for many people due to its convenience and immediacy.Instant messaging offers a way for users to stay connected with friends, family members, and colleagues at any time of the day or night. This makes it particularly useful for those who don’t have the time or ability to talk on the phone or visit in person frequently. As well as making it easier to keep in touch with others without having to make long-distance calls or travel long distances, instant messaging also ensures that conversations are private since only two people can be involved at one time.Another advantage of using instant messaging is that it enables users to communicate with multiple individuals simultaneously through group chat rooms. Group chats allow several users from all around the world (depending on their location) to connect by sharing ideas instantly and engaging in meaningful discussions regardless of physical proximity. This makes it ideal for work teams, school projects, and even social activities such as club meetings or parties where everyone needs access to information quickly but may not have enough time for personal conversations between each other. The disadvantage of using this type of communication technology is that messages can be sent too quickly which might lead some people feeling overwhelmed if they receive too many notifications at once; however this problem can usually be avoided by setting specific times when you are available online so your contacts know when you will respond more promptly. Additionally because there is no face-to-face contact present during instant message exchanges it can sometimes lead to misunderstandings regarding tone and intention behind particular messages sent back-and-forth unless these are clarified properly before continuing further dialogue with one another — something which requires patience, understanding, and empathy between both parties involved in order for things not get awkward. In conclusion: Instant Messaging provides an easy way for us all to stay connected with our loved ones throughout our busy lives by enabling instantaneous communication across different parts of the globe – although care should always be taken when interpreting what someone has written.

A Guide Doing an oral history interview is a fantastic way to learn about the past. From a screen historical perspective, it gives you unique and valuable insight into the way the movies have changed. And it gives you a fun, “real-world” opportunity to compare the movie-going of yesteryear with the experience we know today. […]

Text messaging Pop culture is defined as commercial culture of popular taste. These are some of the categories music, fashion, movies, and trends or fads. One of the biggest trends among young adults today is text messaging and IMing. Young adults generally don’t leave home without their cell phones. Texting is a way for young […]

Organizational success hinges on effective communication. Communication plays a vital role in organizations as it helps convey the vision and strategies to employees, promoting collaboration and shared purpose. Understanding worker feelings is crucial for employers to address unsatisfactory work conditions and foster a supportive environment. The workplace has experienced substantial transformations thanks to technological advancements, […]

For the past 48 hours, I have eliminated all the use of media except for emergencies, work, and anything to do with school. In general, “media” refers to various means of communication. For example, television, radio, the internet, books, and the newspaper are different types of media. The term can also be used as a […]

1. Opening Comments The emergence of web technology has driven the growth in the use of digital communication tools. Modern facilities such as instant messaging and wikis present both positive and negative impacts across various industries, notably in business. Nowadays, business dealings and trade operations are conducted online, providing unparalleled ease and efficiency. The effects, […]

E-mail is private and goes from one user to another. Instant messaging (such as AIM or ICQ) Is similar to email, but allows two or more people to chat to each other much faster. Some governments think the Internet is a bad thing, and block all or part of it. For example, the Chinese government […]

Can this question be answered in one sentence or Is It necessary to explore this more In depth? The famous linguist David Crystal has tried to deal with this question In the book The English language. He investigates the effect of the Internet more In detail In Language and the Internet, where he explores a […]

Understanding Instant Messaging in the Workplace

Jason Ariel Rajendran 15 ,
Hanif Baharin 15 &
Fazillah Mohmad Kamal 16
Conference paper

2149 Accesses

1 Citations

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNIP,volume 11870))

In the workplace, effective communication plays a vital role. Many work tasks require communication which includes planning, organizing, motivating and controlling. Communication establishes relationship between superiors and their subordinates, and it determines the quality of relationship between colleagues. Currently, computer mediated communication such as Instant Messaging (IM) is used in complimentary to or as a replacement of e-mails to complete tasks. This paper discusses how IM has evolved and being adapted at work. Reviews conducted from previous studies show the impact and how people practice IM in workplaces to create a better communication and relationship in areas such as education, health care, business and others. Research shows that communication through IM applications can support or improve the quality of communication, work task and the relationship between colleagues. Based on the current trend of IM usage is the workplace, the paper proposes a qualitative method to study WhatsApp mobile application usage in the workplace. This approach will be used to observe how IM is adapted in WhatsApp group conversation in the workplace. The goal of this proposed study is to observe the use of WhatsApp at work using the existing framework, develop an IM usage model at the workplace and test and validate the IM model to make it more workplace-friendly that encourages to full implementation as a medium of communication in the workplace.

Instant messaging
Mobile instant messaging
Social messaging
Workplace communication

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Acknowledgement

This research was conducted under the support and funding from the Malaysian Ministry of Education’s Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) no: FRGS/1/2017/ICT04/UKM/02/3.

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Jason Ariel Rajendran & Hanif Baharin

Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010, Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia

Fazillah Mohmad Kamal

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Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

Alan F. Smeaton

National Central University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan

Timothy K. Shih

Carlos III University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Sergio Velastin

Toyo University, Tokyo, Japan

Tada Terutoshi

Nazlena Mohamad Ali

Mohammad Nazir Ahmad

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Rajendran, J.A., Baharin, H., Mohmad Kamal, F. (2019). Understanding Instant Messaging in the Workplace. In: Badioze Zaman, H., et al. Advances in Visual Informatics. IVIC 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11870. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34032-2_57

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Home — Essay Samples — Information Science and Technology — Text Messaging — Instant Messaging In A Business Performance

Instant Messaging in a Business Performance

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Communication in Instant Messengers Essay

The present research provides really interesting insights into the nature of human communication through such digital resources as instant messengers. Some note that face-to-face communication is richer due to non-verbal communication, and digital communication is deprived of this possibility. However, it is clear that digital communication can be as rich as face-to-face communication. Emoticons and stickers make communication more emotionally loaded. It is quite expected that women use more emoticons and stickers as they are more emotional, and they want to share their emotions or express their attitude towards news, concepts, or remarks. It is also clear that men are more concerned about sharing information. Just like in face-to-face communication, they are not as emotional as women are.

It is quite interesting to discover the change in communication patterns of a male when he is speaking with a female. Thus, when speaking with a female, a male uses more emoticons and stickers. It is also clear that people use additional resources (emoticons, stickers, pictures, and so on) and the choice of these resources depends on users’ characters and mood. It is also possible to add that these resources are equivalent to non-verbal tools in non-verbal communication. It is necessary to add that the present research also helped me acquire some skills in applying different research methods.

The research is based on the observation that lasted for a month and unveiled peculiarities of people communication, but it can be improved. However, the number of participants is insufficient. Four participants of both sexes took part in the research. The next step will be an analysis of data obtained through the observation of at least 100 participants. This number of samples can be relevant as it is important to make sure that people having different characters take part in the research. The next step can be observing the way people of different ages use instant messaging. At this point, it is necessary to add that it is essential to use a mixed research method with a focus on qualitative data. It is important to see the difference between the communication patterns of people of different ages and characters. However, it is also important to understand why people have such patterns. It can also be interesting to compare the way two people communicate face-to-face and using an instant messenger. It is possible to assume that digital and face-to-face communication of a person has certain similarities.

It can also be interesting to look into cultural differences in communication patterns. It is possible to observe the way people pertaining to different cultures communicate. At that, it is possible to compare the way; for example, Americans and Chinese people use instant messaging. It can also be interesting to observe the way intercultural communication occurs. It is clear that people having similar cultural backgrounds have similar codes, but there are high chances that for people pertaining to different cultures, certain emoticons and patterns can mean different things.

Obviously, these methods will require a significant amount of time and effort. It will be necessary to analyze numerous text messages and have numerous interviews with different people (and analyze people’s answers). Nonetheless, this will be important research, as it will reveal peculiarities of people’s digital and face-to-face communication. It will also help identify the role instant messaging plays in people’s lives and can potentially play.

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Part 1. introduction: the basics of instant messaging, how im works..

Generally, instant messaging is a text-based tool that allows users to conduct conversations online by exchanging short messages in near synchronicity over the internet. Instant messaging, often abbreviated IM, allows users to know which other users are online and connected via a particular instant messaging program, (a feature known as presence), and depending on the system in use, gives details about others buddies’ availability.

IM software programs offer a number of features for users. Buddy lists, or contact lists, and away messages are the most common functions provided by all programs. Other special features include customizable backgrounds, environments, emoticons (symbols that convey the mood of an IM sender), and avatars (images created by the user as a representation of himself that are displayed while the user instant messages with others).

The most popular IM software programs such as AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, and MSN Messenger are mutually exclusive, meaning that users subscribing to a particular IM program can communicate only with instant messengers who use the same software. Contact lists, therefore, are limited to only those users who IM on the same network. In recent years, software developers have created IM programs, such as Trillian, Odigo, and Omni, that facilitate open instant messaging. Subscribers to open instant messaging programs can combine contact lists from different IM programs and communicate with all users.

Originally devised as a way for users to hold real-time conversations online, instant messaging software programs have expanded their repertoire to include file-sharing, playing games, streaming audio and video, avatar management, and sending text messages to cell phones.

Who uses IM.

Online men and women use IM in equal proportion. Just over a third of each group have IM-ed. This is consistent with previous readings of IM use among genders.

In general, younger Americans tend to be the biggest IM-ers. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of Generation Y (18-27 year olds) internet users have sent instant messages, and 20% do it on a typical day. This reading is confirmed by other patterns found in a survey the Project conducted in February 2004. Americans with less than a high school degree compared to those with more education use IM in greatest proportion (64%). Although this pattern is directly opposite typical readings about internet application adoption and education, it confirms the findings that more young Americans, including students still in college, are using instant messaging.

While employment status and salary level are factors influencing whether people use the internet or not, the February 2004 survey data reveals that among internet users, people from households with modest incomes find IM appealing. Nearly half (49%) of the internet users with a household income of less than $30,000 use IM. Again, this is probably tied to age, as young adults starting their work lives do not necessarily earn high incomes.

Frequent internet users are likely IM-ers. Forty-three percent of internet users who go online daily have instant messaged. At the same time, years of internet experience seems to have little bearing on likelihood of IM-ing. This is a break with the pattern that Project surveys show in many other internet activities. Usually, experience is a strong predictor of whether someone does something online – including buying goods, listening to music, seeking information from government web sites, and banking online.

comScore Media Metrix data show the most popular applications.

AOL is a strong presence in the IM world, with its instant message service for subscribers and its free AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and ICQ programs adding up to a dominant market presence, according to the most recent comScore data. At work places, Yahoo! Messenger is the single most popular application.

During a summer month, when most students are not at school, half of college students used IM applications.

July data on IM users and the most popular applications

There is notable variance among the users of different IM applications about the amount of time they spend online and the volume of IM-ers who use the applications on a typical day. Those who use Yahoo! Messenger spent more time during the month on IM – 423.7 minutes – than those who use other services. This might be the case because these IM users are the most likely to have an instant message application running while they are at work.

The people who use MSN Messenger are the least likely to be online and the spent the least amount of time with the application running on their computers during the month.

These figures were obtained from the May-June 2004 Tracking Survey. The remaining figures contained in this report come from the February 2004 Tracking Survey. ↩

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The spread of instant messaging at work, social mediation of cmc use, work at kme: a high-tech firm, collaborative practices in computer-mediated work environments, conclusions, acknowledgments.

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Instant Messaging for Collaboration: a Case Study of a High-Tech Firm

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Anabel Quan-Haase, Joseph Cothrel, Barry Wellman, Instant Messaging for Collaboration: a Case Study of a High-Tech Firm, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication , Volume 10, Issue 4, 1 July 2005, JCMC10413, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2005.tb00276.x

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This article examines uses of instant messaging (IM) in a high-tech firm to illustrate how knowledge workers use this new work tool to collaborate with co-workers. The objectives are 1) to identify the collaborative practices of individuals in mediated work environments by looking at uses of IM; 2) to discern what social processes are reflected in employees' use of IM; and 3) to investigate how three factors proposed by Erickson and Kellogg (2000) to support social processes—visibility, awareness and accountability—are used in an IM system. Questionnaire and interview data show that while IM leads to higher connectivity and new forms of collaboration, it also creates distance: employees use the mediated environment as a shield, distancing themselves from superiors. We use Erickson & Kellogg's ‘social translucence of technology’ framework to discuss the social consequences of working in a computer-mediated work environment.

Designing collaborative tools that will be effective for people in the workplace is an issue that lies at the heart of research in computer supported cooperative work (CSCW). While there have been significant economic investments made into developing effective work group systems, the results have been rather disappointing. Consequently, although a wide range of tools are available, many organizations continue to rely principally on email for communication in collaborative work, complemented by peer-to-peer communication and calendaring ( Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2002 ; Sillince, Macdonald, Lefang, & Frost, 1998 ). At the same time, the nature of communication is changing. Managers and professionals often communicate in fluid, multiple social networks rather than being solely embedded in a single work group ( Teigland, 2000 ). Hence, many Internet-based communication systems are open rather than confined to the work group. Moreover, it has become clear that CSCW cannot be developed or studied solely online. Successful development and deployment must take into account the social context of use, and must understand the situations in which users switch among different means of communication ( Nardi & O'Day, 1999 ).

In many organizations, employees are now collaborating via instant messaging (IM), either as a complement to email or as its replacement ( Handel & Herbsleb, 2002 ; Herbsleb, Atkins, Boyer, Handel, & Finholt, 2002 ; Poe, 2001 ). Often, the adoption of IM has been at the grassroots level, as workers carried over the habit from home or social settings. What makes IM popular among workers is that it adds speed and ease to workplace communication, and eliminates the time typically lost to “telephone tag” or wasted trips to the office of a coworker who is absent or otherwise occupied ( Handel & Herbsleb, 2002 ; Nardi, Whittaker, & Bradner, 2000 ). Because IM requires only an Internet connection and a small application loaded on a computer, it has often been under the radar of technical staff and management.

IM differs from email primarily in that its focus is on the immediate delivery of messages. To accomplish this goal, IM applications include: 1) a “pop-up” mechanism to display messages the moment they are received; 2) a visible list (“buddy list”) of other users, compiled by the user; and 3) a method for indicating when “buddies” are online and available to receive a message. IM applications also allow users to change parameters in the system in order to provide a more detailed view of their availability (e.g., in a meeting, out of the office, at lunch, away from desk). Other users are made aware of this status via automated replies from the user (e.g., “I'm out of the office now”) or by indications visible on the buddy list. They can then decide whether to contact the person later or send an email, voicemail, or other message that the recipient can respond to later.

Perhaps as a result of its use both at work and home, IM has garnered considerable media attention in the past few years ( Poe, 2001 ). However, few field studies of IM use exist. Not surprisingly, given the newness of the technology, several studies have focused on groups being introduced to IM for the first time ( Herbsleb et al., 2002 ; Isaacs, Walendowski, Whittaker, Schiano, & Kamm, 2002 ; Muller, Raven, Kogan, Millen, & Carey, 2003 ). Following a theme common to other investigations of CMC, other studies have focused on distributed groups, assuming that their need for CMC-enabled communication would be greater than that of co-located workers ( Handel & Herbsleb, 2002 ; Herbsleb et al., 2002 ; Nardi et al., 2000 ; O'Neill & Martin, 2003 ).

The technologies under study have varied. Some studies have focused on experimental or custom-built IM platforms ( Handel & Herbsleb, 2002 ; Isaacs et al., 2002 ). Only a few have looked at groups using the commercial IM products that represent the majority of IM use both inside and outside corporations today ( Muller et al., 2003 ; Nardi et al., 2000 ). Finally, existing studies have largely concerned themselves with the functions and character of IM interactions ( Handel & Herbsleb, 2002 ; Isaacs et al., 2002 ).

The Research Approach of this Article

This article examines how workers in a small, high-tech organization manage their IM use for the purpose of information exchange and collaboration. We compare the use of instant messaging to email and face-to-face (FTF)/telephone interactions. This allows us to identify the collaborative practices of individuals in mediated work environments by looking at uses of IM. Further, we analyze what social processes are reflected in employees' use of IM. Specifically, we use the social translucence of technology (STT) theory proposed by Thomas Erickson and Wendy Kellogg (2000) to evaluate the uses of IM at work and to examine new forms of collaboration.

The characteristics of the case we present differ in several ways from extant research on collaborative practices in computer-mediated work environments. First, the company under examination has employed IM extensively throughout the organization for more than three years. Hence, our research focuses on a technology that has been entrenched and embedded in the social and work processes of the organization. Second, the technology used by the organization, AOL Instant Messenger (otherwise known as AIM), was the most widely-used IM tool inside and outside the workplace, with 195 million users worldwide in 2004. Finally, while our study is similar to extant research in that it examines collaboration in computer-mediated work environments, it is different in that the focus is on the relationship between IM usage and social norms, structures, and networks, rather than on IM functions and interactions.

Many analysts see computer-mediated communication (CMC) as stimulating positive change in organizations because of its rapid diffusion, diminishing costs, and ease of use ( Jones, 1998 ; Rheingold, 2000 ). CMC can foster new forms of work by providing the opportunity for people with common interests to connect, overcoming limitations of space and time.

Yet, the positive effects of working in a cue-reduced environment are not without a cost. Studies have found that lean media were not adequate for transferring complex knowledge, whereas rich media, especially FTF, were much more adequate ( Daft, Lengel, & Trevino, 1987 ; Kiesler & Sproull, 1992 ). Similarly, Fish, Kraut, Root, and Rice (1992) found that media with low social presence were inadequate for solving complex problems or communicating socially difficult messages, where low social presence means diminished cues about the characteristics of a person (e.g., gender, age, power, and social status) and no information on a person's facial and bodily expressions. Features of the task at hand influence how communication technology is used. In addition, the cue-reduced characteristics of digital/textual communication intersect with the interpersonal and organizational salience of such attributes as power and status ( Short, Williams, & Christie, 1976 ; Sproull & Kiesler, 1991 ). Thus, the characteristics of media lead to specific choices about the use of different media.

What analysts often neglect when designing and analyzing CSCW systems is the fact that computer networks are social networks connecting people who share complex relationships among one another. Although CSCW takes place in the ether, its use is socially grounded. Therefore, analysis of IM use needs to move beyond the laboratory and into the real contexts of actual users. This is no mere rant about one research method's superiority, for as we shall show, a key reason why IM has become popular is that it provides cues about the status of interactants and their behaviors over time.

Social Translucence of Technology (STT)

The social translucence of technology (STT) framework compares computer-mediated work environments with real work environments. STT argues that when people interact in the physical world, they use social information to guide their actions. For example, Hillier (1996) recognized that one type of social information, visibility, facilitates informal interactions. His comparison of high-tech labs shows that open spaces lead to more frequent and spontaneous conversations between colleagues working on different teams, thus promoting cross-pollination of ideas and innovation. Therefore, socially translucent communication systems will be more effective if they provide social information about users ( Erickson & Kellogg, 2000 ).

According to Erickson and Kellogg (2000) , socially translucent systems have three characteristics:

Visibility : Movements and changes are used to guide interactions and exchanges.

Awareness : Knowing that others are present or available for communication. This knowledge can be used for starting communication, and it affects our communicative behaviors.

Accountability : Knowing that others know that they are there. This knowledge makes their behavior accountable. This is a relevant distinction because accountability and awareness do not co-occur in CMC as they do in offline communication.

As noted by Erickson and Kellogg (2000) , visibility is the characteristic that brings awareness and accountability into play. For example, BABBLE, a system developed at IBM, allows its users to see each other's availability and current status of activity, thus enabling and inviting spontaneous interactions ( Bradner, Kellogg, & Erickson, 1998 ). Bradner, et. al.'s study of the BABBLE system shows that visibility of employees' work activities promotes conversations, leading to higher performance. The interface and its ability to depict the social world facilitate information exchange.

Similarly, Bregman and Haythornthwaite (2003) identified visibility as a key element in online interaction. Focusing on interactions in distance learning environments, they treated visibility primarily within the context of how individuals present themselves online, and the means, methods, and opportunities they have for doing so. They found that, for distance learning students, how they were perceived—that is, how they were visible to others—was of major concern. The first step in becoming visible is to place a representation of the self into view. Speakers can become visible in a number of ways; Bregman and Haythornthwaite call this the repertoire for visibility . Speakers' decisions about the type of media used, the form of expression, the style, etc., are important components of their repertoire for visibility.

Social Networks at Work

Current theory emphasizes the value of informal social interactions for exchanging information, collaborating, and initiating spontaneous interactions ( Cross & Parker, 2004 ; Wellman, 1997 ). The STT framework suggests that systems that depict social cues facilitate information and social interactions, enhancing performance. While the STT framework makes an important contribution to the CSCW literature by examining social aspects of design, it also incorporates a number of implicit assumptions about communication in computer-mediated work environments that need examination: 1) Actors have the same roles; 2) Power relations do not influence communication; and 3) Social cues are beneficial in promoting exchanges. These assumptions are not unique to the STT framework but rather are characteristic of the CSCW literature in general.

In this article, we use a social network perspective to expand on the STT framework and examine the assumptions discussed above. Social network analysis focuses on patterns of relationships between actors, emphasizing the influence of relationships on communication ( Scott, 1991 ; Wasserman & Faust, 1994 ; Wellman & Berkowitz, 1988 ). It provides a theoretical, methodological, and substantive basis for extending CSCW research and development beyond its current individualistic approach, which treats “people as if they were socially disembodied beings without positions in social systems” ( Haythornthwaite & Wellman, 1998 , p. 1101). It points out that different types of ties link people and that each type of tie requires them to communicate differently. This makes it relevant and timely to examine the types of ties linking people and how these ties influence information exchange and collaboration in computer-mediated work environments ( Garton, Haythornthwaite, & Wellman, 1997 ).

The organization in this study, which we refer to as KME, is a software and services company in the high-technology industry. KME's products and services enable its customers to implement online collaboration among clients, employees, or partners. KME's customers include Fortune 500 companies. The company operates in a fast-changing area and thus needs to be constantly developing and fine-tuning products and services to meet customer needs and remain competitive. This is the case in both the product side of the business, where new software products need to be designed, and on the services side, where processes and practices are not yet well-established in the industry.

Data Collection

KME has 80 employees. We selected 28 employees for our sample, drawn from two groups: software development and client services. These two groups were selected because they had existed as functional groups for at least one year and the tasks accomplished within each group are interrelated and fairly homogeneous. Hence, we expected to find stable patterns of communication and technology use.

Of the 28 employees selected, 27 completed the questionnaire, yielding a 96% response rate. 16 employees from the client services group and 11 employees from the software development group participated in the study. In total, there were eight women (30%) and 19 men (70%). The duration of employment at the organization ranged from 5 to 43 months with a mean of 27 months. The education of respondents was distributed fairly evenly among high school graduates, university graduates and those with graduate degrees.

The numerical data were supplemented by in-depth interviews conducted by Quan-Haase with a sub-sample of 10 employees, and observations of daily work practices (see below). Participation in the interviews and observations was voluntary.

Each interview lasted about 45 minutes. Interviewees comprised employees from a range of positions and roles. Semi-structured interviews provided flexibility to follow important leads while covering the same set of questions in all interviews. Transcribed interviews were sent to interviewees for review and approval. To guarantee the confidentiality of interviewees, pseudonyms are used throughout our research reports.

Our analysis is principally based on questions in the interviews about the use of media. The purpose of these questions was to understand participants' personal media use and unique media profiles, including what media participants believe are appropriate for communicating with different types of communication partners and for communicating different types of messages. This approach allowed us to examine the social context of media use.

Specifically, participants were asked what type of media they use on a daily basis to communicate with colleagues inside and outside KME. They were also asked about each medium's relevance for their work, in terms of frequency of use and types of tasks performed. To obtain more detailed information on media use, we also asked participants what aspects of each medium they perceived as most useful, and why. In addition, participants were asked to report what type of medium they thought of as optimal for specific kinds of communication and information searches, and to discuss the characteristics of the medium that made it the best choice. Participants were also asked to report specific instances that were representative of their use of various media.

The interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed, and imported into NVIVO software, a text analysis package that is specifically designed for the analysis of interviews ( Richards, 1999 ). We followed Anselm Strauss' grounded theory when using NVIVO to code the interviews, developing themes through coding (1987; also see Strauss & Corbin, 1998 ). We discuss here only the themes that relate to media use and the maintenance of community.

Quan-Haase also observed full-day work practices to see how people handle CMC and how they fit CMC into their relationships and communication. Over one week, she observed all of the 10 interviewed employees, spending one full day with each of these individuals.

The one-on-one observations started at 9:00 AM and finished when the employee left the office (at approximately 4:30 PM). All FTF and online interactions were observed and recorded, including email, instant messaging, FTF, and phone exchanges. The start and end time, duration, and content of interaction were recorded. Although participants were given the opportunity to conduct private exchanges, no one did.

The analytic framework employed for the observations was a combination of grounded theory and social network analysis. Notes were taken on a daily basis and behaviors were recorded in a time diary. The notes were then coded and themes were developed in the same grounded theory manner as with interviews. Social network analysis guided the observations by focusing our attention on social relationships and their influence on the choice and use of media (for more details, see Quan-Haase & Wellman, 2004 , 2005 ).

Collaborative Practices at KME

Collaboration abounds at KME. Employees share best practices and engage in joint problem-solving. Collaboration in this technology-intensive firm takes place both FTF and via CMC. We asked participants in the questionnaire to indicate how often they used each of three media (FTF/phone, email, and IM) to communicate at each of three distances (work group, intra-organization, and extra-organization). The scale used to measure frequencies ranged from 1=“never” to 7=“daily.” For the purpose of the present analysis, the original 7-point scale was transformed into days per year: “never”= 0; “a few times a year”= 5; 1/month = 12; “1/week”= 52; “several times a week”= 130; “1/day and several times a day”= 365. Table 2 shows the mean frequency of use (standardized into days per year) of FTF and telephone, email, and IM for within group, intra-organizational, and extra-organizational communication.

Communication practices at KME: days per year and percentages of communications media

Communication within the group relies more on email and IM than on FTF, accounting for nearly three-quarters of all intra-group communications. Nevertheless, because of physical propinquity, the highest frequency of contact within the work group is FTF/phone.

Intra-organizational communication relies even more on CMC: Email and IM are each used more than twice as often as FTF and the telephone. Email is preferred even more for extra-organizational communication, accounting for about half of all such communication, with IM accounting for about one-third. Both social distance—IM is a more informal medium—and incompatible IM systems limit its use in comparison to email. Where the daily use of email extra-organizationally is one-half of intra-organizational use, the daily use of IM extra-organizationally drops to one-third of intra-organizational use. Moreover, because KME's clientele and supply chain are national and international rather than local, there is little FTF extra-organizational communication.

While we often think of CMC as primarily aiding communication at a distance by bridging time and space constraints, the primary use of email and IM at KME is for contact within the work group. About half (52%) of all IM and email (49%) communications are within the group. This high use of CMC occurs even though the employees work in the same building. The two groups occupy relatively small, densely organized, open-plan spaces on two floors of a small, three-story office building. Each group is located together on a different floor. The size and configuration of their workspaces encourage FTF and telephone contact rather than online interaction. Nevertheless, employees in this co-located setting access human sources primarily via CMC.

Informed by our findings at KME, we introduce the term local virtualities 1 to describe physically bounded places where people communicate via computer-mediated means, creating dense networks of collaboration. The fact that people are not interacting visibly in public spaces does not mean that they are isolated. They go online to send and receive emails, and they use IM to talk with colleagues. This finding is contrary to theories of network and virtual organizations that argue that CMC creates sparsely knit, boundary-spanning structures ( Monge & Contractor, 1997 , 2003 ). The fact that KME's CMC has created local networks of collaboration suggests that CMC can lead to new and unexpected forms of interaction and community that blend both local and distant communication.

Collaborative Practices in IM

In this section, we describe how employees at KME manage their IM systems on a daily basis, how IM promotes collaboration, and how new forms of collaboration emerge through the use of IM. Although email is used as much as IM for group and organizational communication at KME, in this article we focus on the less-frequently studied use of IM. Our findings are in accord with previous studies ( Nardi et al., 2000 ) that have found that employees use IM to exchange information; pose quick questions and clarifications; arrange and coordinate FTF and telephone meetings, both formal and impromptu; conduct simultaneous conversations over multiple media; and solicit immediate responses. We also found that IM speeds up the exchange of information and creates new forms of collaboration among employees.

When employees arrive at their workstations in the morning, the first thing they do is log on to the IM system. The IM system then displays the online presence of the employee to all other members of the organization who are also logged on to the system. Although KME has no explicit norms around collaboration, employees implicitly understand that those who are physically present at KME are expected to be logged on.

Employees perceive being logged on to the IM system as providing them with opportunities for communication. Even when employees are not at their desks, but at a meeting or out for lunch, they continue to be logged on to the system. In those cases, the system then changes their status from available to idle. If the employee chooses, the system also replies to incoming IMs with a customized message, such as “out of the office,”“in a meeting,” or “right back.” This information is important because it gives other employees more detailed information about each other's availability, allowing them to estimate when colleagues will be available for consultation. Availability information is particularly crucial for KME in that most projects are collaborative and the input of other employees is often central to completing a task.

Most collaboration via IM consists of asking questions about specific aspects of work. The questions often involve clarification or codified knowledge. Most of these informal collaborations take place one-on-one rather than in groups. IM is used most commonly for one-on-one exchanges in which an individual contacts another individual to discuss needed information. It is also used, to a more limited extent, for in-depth problem solving, where one person helps another make sense of a problem and think through various strategies to find a solution. In other instances, help consists of referrals to others who can provide answers or help solve problems.

Through information about colleagues' availability, opportunities for interaction open up. In the framework of social translucence, information availability provides a social affordance that makes others aware of the possibility for collaboration. One employee expressed how the system allowed them to ask others for help: “I see that they are online, I need an answer now, I need to talk to them now, I will ping them.” Furthermore, at KME, IM not only provides opportunities to collaborate; it also plays a role in the collaborative process. As one programmer reported, employees perceive IM as a principal way of connecting with each other: “I just know that if you call or send an IM, you will get a faster response than email.”

IM fundamentally affects the nature of collaboration at KME. It allows employees to ask for advice on demand. When a problem is difficult or demands expertise in another area, employees reach out to their colleagues for help. This occurs on an ongoing basis, creating a culture where most problems are solved by a network of people drawn into the problem-solving process whenever necessary. This new form of collaboration facilitated by IM is in synch with the notion of an “active social network,” in which the only relationships active at any time are those useful for the particular task at hand. It saves time and effort on the part of other colleagues, who can work on their own projects and are only asked to participate when needed. Unlike traditional stable work groups, KME employees are forever reconstituting their active ties to deal with issues at hand. Of course, such reconstitution is not random: Over time, people develop comfortable working relationships through prior collaboration and socializing. One employee described how IM is used to obtain answers quickly, on demand:

I use IM a lot. IM is great if you have one question that you just need an answer to. When you need to explain something in detail—an outline, kind of a business case for doing something, or for getting somebody to take action—email is the best.

Implicit norms at KME dictate that IM takes priority over other media. It even takes precedence over FTF, despite the more abundant media cues present in FTF. Employees know that others rely on them to respond quickly. Our observations discovered that as soon as an IM message appeared on someone's screen, they would glance over and read the message. In almost every case, they immediately responded, either with a substantive reply or with a short reply indicating that they received the message and would provide a full response later. As part of the culture at KME, people feel compelled to reply, even if it is only to say that they are in a meeting and will respond later.

The precedence of IM over other forms of communication may be a result of IM's functionality, in which a pop-up window automatically appears on the screen when an IM message is received. In this respect, IM is different from email, which requires the user to launch the program in order to read or send messages. As a result, an IM cannot be ignored as easily as an email. At KME, this difference influences message-sending as well as message-responding. Senders recognize IM as the best medium when timeliness is crucial. Email is used when the message is less urgent.

Employees use FTF/phone interactions less often, and perhaps differently, because they perceive them to be more disruptive than IM to their colleagues' work process. Unlike a FTF/phone interaction, users can choose to reply substantively at a later time, or, in rare cases, not at all—choices that could be difficult or awkward in a FTF setting. IM thus occupies a useful niche within the range of communication media available to employees: less interruptive than a face-to-face interaction or phone call, but offering a greater potential than email for obtaining an immediate response.

Collaboration at KME occurs in an “always-on” mode ( Gray et al., 2003 ; Quan-Haase & Wellman, 2000 ) because employees spent most of their time working at a networked computer. Communication occurs almost simultaneously through multiple media, rather than sequentially. For example, workers answer an IM while having a conversation. Employees do not switch between media and people to communicate, but use various media simultaneously to interact with different people.

In sum, the always-on mode allows employees to be aware of one another: 1) when someone logs on at the beginning of the day or logs out when they leave work; 2) when someone is away from their desk; and 3) when someone is busy. Communication practices at KME reflect a shift from the traditional way of working, where communication usually occurs outside the regular workflow. Because work at KME is conducted primarily online, communication occurs simultaneously with other tasks. Workers treat IM as simply another task within a multitasking work environment. However, as will be discussed below, this is not to suggest that adoption or adaptation is easy for all workers (for a more general discussion, see also Quan-Haase & Wellman, 2000 ).

Social Processes in the Use of IM

We noted earlier that IM is an important means of collaboration at KME. IM provides employees with an alternative form of asking for help, solving problems, and exchanging information. However, to understand fully the use of IM for collaboration at KME, it is important also to examine characteristics of the application and how these characteristics interact with social factors. We use a combination of the social translucence of technology (STT) framework ( Erickson & Kellogg, 2000 ) and social network analysis to describe how social processes play a role in the use of IM.

Characteristics of Actors' Relationships

Through its ability to convey some awareness of a person's availability, IM creates a sense of connectedness ( Nardi et al., 2000 ). Most participants at KME see visibility as a positive feature of the system; they feel that it is important to be able to see if colleagues and friends are online. However, many do not perceive visibility to be a positive feature in all contexts: Its value depends on the relationship, especially the closeness of the relationship, and the interdependency of tasks.

Close relationships.

If two individuals share a friendship relationship, they feel comfortable using availability information to contact each other. One KME worker describes such a relationship this way:

I enjoy communicating with him—I can say: “What is going on?” and “by the way I have this technical question.” Whereas other people I wouldn't want to IM because I don't have that kind of relationship with them. Unless it was really important, then I would, but I would be less likely to IM because I would not want to disturb them without a real excuse.

Thus, although awareness information is available to everyone on the system, it may have greater utility for those in a close relationship.

This characteristic is related to the limited capability of current IM systems to display more detailed information on availability. Although IM systems attempt to accommodate this need with icons or customized messages (e.g., “I'm on a conference call”), such messages cannot convey the many nuances of availability that exist in the workplace (e.g., “I'm available to others, but not to you”). As a result, people are not fully aware of whether it is convenient to contact another person. Clearly, eliminating one barrier (lack of awareness) does not eliminate other barriers (social, hierarchical) that may exist to the free flow of communication.

Task interdependency.

When two individuals are working on the same project, they feel comfortable asking each other questions via IM. In other words, there is a recognition that, when work tasks are interdependent, input is often required in order for individuals to be able to continue their work. IM in this case breaks down social barriers and allows individuals to ask questions and tap into each other's knowledge. Therefore, being able to monitor others' availability is useful for people working interdependently.

Sense of Community in Instant Messaging

IM supports one-to-one communication (user to user), one-to-many communication (user to multiple users), and many-to-many communication (where a user can initiate a session in which all invitees can interact with one another). Many-to-many communication can foster a sense of community among participants, since users become more aware of one another and their opinions, understandings, likes, and dislikes ( Nardi et al., 2000 ; Rheingold, 2000 ). With features such as buddy lists and presence indication, IM extends this awareness to patterns of behavior, allowing users to become more conscious of—and potentially more involved with—the dynamics of their groups and social networks.

IM's community-reinforcing potential occurs within a user-centric context ( Alvestrand, 2002 ). Only those individuals who are added to the buddy list become part of a user's community. At KME, employees typically download a buddy list consisting of all employees of the company and install that list on their computer. Hence, the system creates higher awareness of others' availability throughout the company. However, employees are free to add or delete names from their list, and to create categories to make close colleagues more visible and others less so. Our findings showed that users are usually aware only of the availability of their friends and colleagues who work on interdependent projects. Awareness is strongly influenced by social relationships among IM users, and data on presence or availability alone does not create a sense of community with others.

IM does not always create greater connectivity. KME employees also see IM as a useful tool because it creates distance between themselves and their superiors. When they have to deal with difficult decisions or discuss sensitive topics where they know that they may disagree with their superiors, they often prefer to communicate via IM rather than FTF. The reason is that IM allows them to reflect on their superior's opinions and provides them with time to think about their own reactions. IM in this case provides a barrier between communicators, albeit a barrier that has positive benefits for employees.

Organizational Control via IM

While awareness can make interactions easier and more efficient, it can also create the potential for control where users are not equal in status or power. Because of the KME norm to log on to the IM system upon arrival at the office, everyone knows who has arrived and is available for contact. People have flexible work hours, especially at higher levels in the organization, and work hours are not explicitly monitored or controlled. Nonetheless, while IM is not explicitly used for control at KME, the fact that the system provides the potential for accountability makes some employees uncomfortable.

One functional aspect of the IM system used by KME is particularly important. The user name appears in black if the person is actively typing on the keyboard, and becomes shaded once the user stops for more than a couple of minutes. (Users can configure the time interval or disable this feature altogether, although it is not clear that all employees know this or feel their superior would approve.) In this way, the system shows not only if the person is present at his or her desk, but also if they are using the keyboard. Some employees indicated that managers could use keyboard activity as an indicator of work being performed and expressed concern about this as an abridgement of their privacy or a mechanism for control. One of the managers interviewed said that the system allowed her to check who was in the office (and, by extension, who was out of the office). Accordingly, employees reported that they would log on specifically to make sure that others saw that they were at the office. Thus, the fact that the system creates visibility means that it also creates accountability and a means for monitoring.

Another form of accountability is that employees feel compelled to reply to messages because as receivers they know that the senders are aware that they have received the messages. Thus, the awareness of others' availability leads to expectations in the sender about how long it should take the recipient to reply. If a recipient does not reply promptly, he or she may be interpreted by the requestor as evidencing a lack of respect or concern for the requestor's needs.

To avoid misunderstandings, users who are unavailable to respond often activate the automatic reply feature within IM. This feature sends one of several standard messages, or a message created by the user, to indicate that the user is not available. This feature is often used to negotiate accountability:

If I know I am going to be busy or I need some time to concentrate on an issue, I turn one of the following messages on: “I am on the phone, get back right away,” or, “There is someone in the office, will email when free.” One of my colleagues uses “Of course I am not here now.”

People feel accountable to respond to the messages that they receive. In most cases, messages are replied to quickly: within one minute. Even during FTF meetings, workers monitor their computer screens and, if an important IM pops up, they reply while continuing their FTF conversation.

I just know that if you call or send an IM, you will get a faster response than email. Although sometimes I have to resend them, like “HELLO.” And they say: “I don't remember getting this.”

The downside of social translucence in IM is that a user may not always want to convey social information about him- or herself. We observed at least three situations in which workers did not want their social information to be displayed. First, employees working under time pressures often did not want their availability information displayed because this meant others could interrupt them. Second, employees often wanted to be available to a sub-group of employees, but not to all employees—at least not all the time. Third, if employees were working on a difficult problem, they did not want to be interrupted. Many problems require full attention and employees felt in these cases that IM distracted them from the task at hand.

When workers do not want their social information displayed, they sometimes engage in subversive strategies. Alice, for example, did not log on when she had a pressing deadline. Others leave their computers and IM application running 24 hours a day, to eliminate the logging on/off activity that could be used by others for control purposes. In the first case, a worker who is present appears to be absent; in the second, a worker who may be absent appears to be present. These subversive uses of technology are in accord with social constructivist views that emphasize the distinct uses of technology ( Bijker, Hughes, & Pinch, 1999 ; Markus & Keil, 1994 ). Therefore, while the system sometimes provides more social information than users may want to provide, it also provides more flexibility than is available in real physical settings. In real physical settings, one cannot easily deceive others about one's presence or absence. The IM system provides occasion for both disclosure and concealment.

Visibility information in IM is limited to a person's online status. The system does not convey information about what the user is doing, with whom the user is currently engaged, etc. While future systems could convey these types of information, it is unclear what their social consequences are and how they would be received by users, especially considering the potential overrun of privacy boundaries ( Gray et al., 2003 ).

Status Relationships and IM

A person's status within the hierarchy of the organization plays a key role in how their messages are replied to. For example, Leonard, a senior manager, received two IM requests during our interview. When a message popped up on the screen, Leonard glanced over quickly and read it. Both times he excused himself and initiated an exchange that lasted for 2-3 minutes. When asked what had happened, he replied: “I usually do not answer messages while I am engaged in a FTF meeting unless they are short questions or are urgent.” When asked who had sent the message, he said that it was from his superior. We noticed similar reactions from other interviewees. As soon as an IM message appeared on their screen, they would glance over and read the message. As part of the culture at KME, people feel compelled to reply, even if it is just to indicate that they are in a meeting and will get back to the request later. Clearly, IM often comes before FTF, despite the more abundant social cues present in FTF. With IM, the status of the communicator and the urgency of the message can be more compelling than the physical presence of someone FTF.

One worker reported that he preferred IM because it gave him social distance from his superior. This distance was afforded by the absence of social cues in IM. Although the lack of cues in CMC is often seen as inhibiting communication, here it is perceived as positive and used strategically.

Instant Messaging as a Dyadic Process

There are clear variations in how people communicate via IM, suggesting that IM use is in large part a dyadic process. Over time, people develop a good understanding of each other's media preferences and user habits. A programmer reports on her understanding of her boss's use of IM:

I know that my boss prefers to be reached over the phone because he finds IM disturbing. I prefer IM, but if I know that it is going to be a longer message I will pick up the phone and call him. With everyone else I just send an IM message. It is so easy and fast. I know they will get it right away.

People use the media that their communication partners prefer. Besides having a good understanding of individual preferences in media use, people also know the best way to reach particular people.

Local Virtualities

We have found that workers at KME rely heavily on CMC for communication both within and outside the organization. In accord with previous studies on the uses of IM at work, we found that IM is used extensively to exchange work-related messages, coordinate and arrange meetings, and inquire about colleagues' availability for discussion. This corroborates Handel and Herbsleb's (2002) finding that IM is largely used for work-related exchanges, while non-work-related exchanges are secondary.

By focusing on the use of IM in a physically co-located group, our study questions the assumption made in the literature that IM is exclusively used, and useful, for work in distributed teams. Further, we show that, at KME, IM is used as much for internal communication as for external communication. We coined the term local virtuality to describe these new forms of work, where co-located workers using IM for communication create dense networks of information exchange ( Quan-Haase & Cothrel, 2003 ).

Furthermore, our results show that IM not only creates higher connectivity and a sense of community, but in some cases also functions as a barrier. Employees use IM in part as a way to create distance between them and their superiors. This is particularly useful when difficult decisions have to be made or sensitive topics discussed.

Social Translucence as Design Principle

This case study of IM in work environments supports the framework of STT and shows how visibility, awareness, and accountability can be used to evaluate the uses of IM at work. The study finds that people use availability information to coordinate tasks, exchange information, and create social links. Furthermore, people negotiate their availability through IM by manipulating their availability status on the system. The availability of employees depends on the complexity of tasks they are currently engaged in and on how busy they are. Yet, as shown in Figure 1 , declarations of availability and responsiveness to IM messages also depend on the relative status and power of the communicators.

Social design principles in IM systems

The availability information in IM also provides a sense of connectedness, bringing people together. This is in accord with other CSCW findings showing that it is not informal communication that seems to be responsible for the success of teams, but specifically opportunities for problem-oriented and unplanned, spontaneous interactions that allow people to take advantage of the collective knowledge available in the team ( Hinds & Kiesler, 2002 ).

Far from being limited to communication within work groups, IM facilitates many “personal” online communities at KME. It is used selectively to communicate with certain peers, superiors, and subordinates. It is used to communicate with people elsewhere in the organization, and even used at times to communicate with people outside the organization. IM at KME supports what Wellman has called the turn to networked individualism : connected, shifting interactions in sparsely-knit, loosely-bounded social networks rather than focused interactions in densely-knit, tightly-bounded groups ( Wellman, 2002 ).

Information about visibility, a distinguishing feature of IM tools in comparison to other CMC systems, enhances and supports social interactions. The uses and meanings that KME employees give to visibility information depend on a number of factors, such as the status relationships among users, their task interdependencies, their past history of collaboration, and their informal socializing. Therefore, visibility information is a potentially relevant feature of the IM system at KME when analyzed in its social context.

Awareness is a key affordance of the KME IM system, and is a byproduct of visibility information. If close ties link employees, then they use visibility information to stay aware of each other's online activities. However, if workers do not know each other or do not share strong ties, visibility does not result in awareness. This reflects previous research by Handel and Herbsleb (2002) , who concluded that “the usual indication of presence … does not itself provide sufficient conversation-starting material” (p. 9). While these authors argue that further cues need to be built into IM systems to encourage spontaneous, informal exchanges, our findings suggest that social networks are the key, rather than the specific features of the IM system. Rather than adding more social cues, a more useful approach would be to use tools that provide visibility in combination with FTF meetings so that people can become acquainted with each other and establish the trust necessary to use IM to initiate conversations.

Accountability is a product of visibility information. It has variable impacts at KME. If relationships are characterized by large discrepancies between the status of the users, visibility is more likely to be used as a means for accountability. Such accountability is reflected in the behavior of both lower and higher status workers. Accountability in IM works differently for employees with lower and higher status. For lower status employees, accountability means that information requests need to be answered in a timely manner because higher status employees are aware of the fact that they are working at their desks. For higher status employees, accountability means that they can expect responses within a short time. Higher status employees can also monitor the online behavior of their employees by observing when they log on and out of the system.

Several lessons emerge from this study for the design of collaborative systems. This study has shown that visibility is a useful feature for promoting informal, ad hoc exchanges, a sense of community, and ease in collaboration. However, visibility primarily promotes these collaborative exchanges among people who share strong, trusting ties. This study has also revealed a pattern of networked individualism, consisting of shifting sets of communication partners rather than interactions among a densely knit group.

Finally, our research has shown that social translucence is a useful framework for examining existing communication systems and providing guidance in the design of new systems—in particular real-time communication systems such as IM. At the same time, the social translucence framework needs to be expanded to account for the influence of social factors such as power, social relationships, and norms within organizations.

Research underlying this article has been supported by CITO, the Centre for Urban and Community Studies, the IBM Institute of Knowledge-Based Organizations, Microsoft Research, Mitel Networks, and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The first author acknowledges assistance from the Alumni Research Awards Program, Faculty of Social Science, the University of Western Ontario. We thank the editors and an anonymous reviewer for useful comments. We especially want to thank all the employees at KME who completed the survey, and even more so, those employees who also participated in the interviews and observations.

We use the term “local virtualities” here to describe work settings where people are physically near each other (i.e., co-located) and yet use CMC to exchange information, share best practices and socialize. See Quan-Haase and Cothrel (2003) and Quan-Haase and Wellman (2004 , 2005 ) for more extensive descriptions and discussions of local virtualities at KME. The term “local virtuality” has also been used in a study of email use in rural communities ( Koskikallio, 2002 ).

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How to conclude an essay | Interactive example

How to Conclude an Essay | Interactive Example

Published on January 24, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on July 23, 2023.

The conclusion is the final paragraph of your essay . A strong conclusion aims to:

Tie together the essay’s main points
Show why your argument matters
Leave the reader with a strong impression

Your conclusion should give a sense of closure and completion to your argument, but also show what new questions or possibilities it has opened up.

This conclusion is taken from our annotated essay example , which discusses the history of the Braille system. Hover over each part to see why it’s effective.

Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.

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Step 1: return to your thesis, step 2: review your main points, step 3: show why it matters, what shouldn’t go in the conclusion, more examples of essay conclusions, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about writing an essay conclusion.

To begin your conclusion, signal that the essay is coming to an end by returning to your overall argument.

Don’t just repeat your thesis statement —instead, try to rephrase your argument in a way that shows how it has been developed since the introduction.

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Next, remind the reader of the main points that you used to support your argument.

Avoid simply summarizing each paragraph or repeating each point in order; try to bring your points together in a way that makes the connections between them clear. The conclusion is your final chance to show how all the paragraphs of your essay add up to a coherent whole.

To wrap up your conclusion, zoom out to a broader view of the topic and consider the implications of your argument. For example:

Does it contribute a new understanding of your topic?
Does it raise new questions for future study?
Does it lead to practical suggestions or predictions?
Can it be applied to different contexts?
Can it be connected to a broader debate or theme?

Whatever your essay is about, the conclusion should aim to emphasize the significance of your argument, whether that’s within your academic subject or in the wider world.

Try to end with a strong, decisive sentence, leaving the reader with a lingering sense of interest in your topic.

The easiest way to improve your conclusion is to eliminate these common mistakes.

Don’t include new evidence

Any evidence or analysis that is essential to supporting your thesis statement should appear in the main body of the essay.

The conclusion might include minor pieces of new information—for example, a sentence or two discussing broader implications, or a quotation that nicely summarizes your central point. But it shouldn’t introduce any major new sources or ideas that need further explanation to understand.

Don’t use “concluding phrases”

Avoid using obvious stock phrases to tell the reader what you’re doing:

“In conclusion…”
“To sum up…”

These phrases aren’t forbidden, but they can make your writing sound weak. By returning to your main argument, it will quickly become clear that you are concluding the essay—you shouldn’t have to spell it out.

Don’t undermine your argument

Avoid using apologetic phrases that sound uncertain or confused:

“This is just one approach among many.”
“There are good arguments on both sides of this issue.”
“There is no clear answer to this problem.”

Even if your essay has explored different points of view, your own position should be clear. There may be many possible approaches to the topic, but you want to leave the reader convinced that yours is the best one!

Argumentative
Literary analysis

This conclusion is taken from an argumentative essay about the internet’s impact on education. It acknowledges the opposing arguments while taking a clear, decisive position.

The internet has had a major positive impact on the world of education; occasional pitfalls aside, its value is evident in numerous applications. The future of teaching lies in the possibilities the internet opens up for communication, research, and interactivity. As the popularity of distance learning shows, students value the flexibility and accessibility offered by digital education, and educators should fully embrace these advantages. The internet’s dangers, real and imaginary, have been documented exhaustively by skeptics, but the internet is here to stay; it is time to focus seriously on its potential for good.

This conclusion is taken from a short expository essay that explains the invention of the printing press and its effects on European society. It focuses on giving a clear, concise overview of what was covered in the essay.

The invention of the printing press was important not only in terms of its immediate cultural and economic effects, but also in terms of its major impact on politics and religion across Europe. In the century following the invention of the printing press, the relatively stationary intellectual atmosphere of the Middle Ages gave way to the social upheavals of the Reformation and the Renaissance. A single technological innovation had contributed to the total reshaping of the continent.

This conclusion is taken from a literary analysis essay about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein . It summarizes what the essay’s analysis achieved and emphasizes its originality.

By tracing the depiction of Frankenstein through the novel’s three volumes, I have demonstrated how the narrative structure shifts our perception of the character. While the Frankenstein of the first volume is depicted as having innocent intentions, the second and third volumes—first in the creature’s accusatory voice, and then in his own voice—increasingly undermine him, causing him to appear alternately ridiculous and vindictive. Far from the one-dimensional villain he is often taken to be, the character of Frankenstein is compelling because of the dynamic narrative frame in which he is placed. In this frame, Frankenstein’s narrative self-presentation responds to the images of him we see from others’ perspectives. This conclusion sheds new light on the novel, foregrounding Shelley’s unique layering of narrative perspectives and its importance for the depiction of character.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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Your essay’s conclusion should contain:

A rephrased version of your overall thesis
A brief review of the key points you made in the main body
An indication of why your argument matters

The conclusion may also reflect on the broader implications of your argument, showing how your ideas could applied to other contexts or debates.

For a stronger conclusion paragraph, avoid including:

Important evidence or analysis that wasn’t mentioned in the main body
Generic concluding phrases (e.g. “In conclusion…”)
Weak statements that undermine your argument (e.g. “There are good points on both sides of this issue.”)

Your conclusion should leave the reader with a strong, decisive impression of your work.

The conclusion paragraph of an essay is usually shorter than the introduction . As a rule, it shouldn’t take up more than 10–15% of the text.

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ESSAY SAUCE

FOR STUDENTS : ALL THE INGREDIENTS OF A GOOD ESSAY

Essay: The Use Of Instant Messaging

Essay details and download:.

Subject area(s): Information technology essays
Reading time: 2 minutes
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Published: 22 January 2020*
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Instant Messaging is the most-used form of communication within society today. However, studies have shown that the new application, Snapchat, has rapidly been rising in numbers regarding users and every day usage. The purpose of this study was to look at the nature of Snapchat, why it’s so appealing, and what exactly is so appealing to users. Why are people choosing to use Snapchat over other IM applications (e.g., Facebook, Skype, etc.)? With research showing snapchat becoming more and more popular, it is believed that social capital ideals and on-going, rapid communication are both huge factors as to why the application is so successful. If more instant messaging applications allowed the content people shared to persist for a limited amount of time, like Snapchat, people would be more inclined to use them. Primary Question Asked: What is the nature and role of Snapchat use in facilitating social interactions and networking? This study was designed to examine: How exactly people use the app, Snapchat. What people use it for Who people use it for How often people use it What benefits they get from using it The researchers used a correlational design to test the primary hypothesis. We know this because, the researchers specifically wanted to look at first-year students only with the intention of take a closer look at a younger agre group of Snapchat users. Correlational designs have many advantages. For this study, in particular, the researchers wanted to take a close look at Snapchat users amongst a younger age group instead of a wider range which would include more variables to the study. Therefore, there is more correlation to the study and what is being studied/looked at. As we learned earlier in the semester, Corrolation does not mean causation. In explaining this further, correlational research studies can not prove that one variable caused another variable to change in any way. N = 209 (139 female 70 male) Students at the University of the West of England (UWE) Looked at the relationship between the use of Snapchat, the intensity of using the app, and its effects on social capital. Variables: Sociodemographics (the effects on social capital/social interactions) Snapchat usage (intensity) Other social media platforms (IM) In the study, the variables looked at were: Gender, Age, Sexual Orientation, Employment, Relationship, Hours of internet/day, Frequency of IM use, Snapchat intensity, Constant, Observations, etc. The researchers gave out different surveys containing questions regarding their Snapchat usage. Used small sample sizes so they could look at the data more in-depth Conducted regression diagnostics First looked at socio-demographic factors and how they control/ effect the participants’ lives Identifying: Patterns of snapchat use Snaps sent and recieved General aspects Association between intensity of use and social capital The researchers found the Snapchat was infact reported to be one of the top three instant messaging applications used most frequently. The study also shows that the app, Snapchat was used to communicate with a single person rather than a larger group, typically close friends, significant others or family. Snapchat was found to have a very positive association between the intensity of usage and social capital. “Users typically send (and recieve) a selfie…” – Lukasz Piwek & Adam Joinson Within this study, the researchers probably found limitations: Can’t control understanding whether or not the participants are being truthful For example: how is it possible to know exactly what the participants are snapchatting Privacy Provocative? Intimacy? Accuracy!!

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6.3: Text, Instant Message, and Direct Message

Texts sent over Short Message Service (SMS) have been a convenient way to connect with others since the early 2000s. At first, many skeptics didn’t think the practice would catch on. English teachers who had struggled over and over to get their students to write anything never expected that those same students would choose to write when they could just phone someone.

Those English teachers were wrong.

In fact, so many users preferred text over speech that software developers began building their own versions of text-based communication. These messaging technologies operated over the internet rather than over SMS channels. Communication apps like Slack, WhatsApp, iMessage, and WeChat offer Instant Messages (IMs) as their primary feature. Other social media apps like Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Messenger offer Direct Messages (DMs) as a side feature. Even the text function on many Smartphones now defaults to Multimedia Message Service (MMS) as a way of trying to keep up software developers. Because MMS is web-based, texts allow a rich set of communication functions such as real-time groupchats and image sharing.

Expectations around the appropriate use of texts, IMs, and DMs is subject to change as the technology and social use of that technology evolves. For instance, at the time that this is being written, IM apps like Slack are a standard communication channel in professional organizations. The expression “sliding into someone’s DMs,” on the other hand, carries a much more personal–and unprofessional–implication. For this reason, you must always consider your audience and context before choosing your words. Put careful thought into choosing the appropriate channel as part of shaping your message.

Tips for Effective Messaging:

Know your recipient. “% off 1k for Z???” might make sense to a close co-worker, but if you are texting your supervisor, it looks clearer and more respectful to type out, “What percentage discount does Zayneb get on a $1K order?”
Avoid emojis. Tiny images in texts can create an adorable, hilarious, and even economical message. However, emojis can easily be misinterpreted. Even if their meaning is clear, emojis are informal signs in communication and are better reserved for social messages or a personal audience.
Re-read before clicking “send.” Texts, IMs, and DMs are designed to get us messaging very quickly. That can be a trap. There is no tone of voice or facial expression with these channels, so the intentions behind our word choices are at a higher risk of getting lost along the way. Writing a text, IM, or DM is no different from any other writing process. Think first about what you want to say, draft it, leave it for a minute or so, then re-read it, edit it, and only then hit send. It may feel like a lot of work, but once you hit send, you can’t take it back!
Use with restraint. Texting is a tool that is easily over-used when we mix professional communication with a social technology. We may get a spike of “feel-good” dopamine in our brains when we hear the “ding!” of a message notification, but you should only use message when you need to. Be careful not to cross boundaries by messaging too often or at inappropriate times of day or night.
Unplug yourself once in awhile. Do you feel constantly connected? Do you feel lost or left out if you don’t have your cell phone and cannot connect to people, even for fifteen minutes? Fear of missing out (FOMO) is is real. It’s a more powerful cultural force than ever before. Remember, protecting your personal space and peace of mind is a crucial part of mental health.
Don’t text and drive. Research shows that the likelihood of an accident increases dramatically if the driver is texting behind the wheel (Houston Chronicle, 2009). Being in an accident while conducting company business would reflect poorly on your judgment as well as on your employer ( Business Communication for Success , 2015, 9.1) .

Key Takeaway

i. How old were you when you got your first mobile phone? ii. When did you send your first text? iii. How many texts do you send per day, on average, now? iv. How many times do you speak on the phone with the same device, on average, throughout your day? If you call (or receive calls) far less than text, why do you think that is? v. Is the first thing you look at when you wake up in the morning your smartphone notifications, and are they the last thing you look at before you go to sleep at night? If so, why? If not, why do you think it is for so many people? vi. Do you think it’s fair to say that your smartphone use can be characterized as an addiction? If so, how is it impeding you from living a more healthy and fulfilling life? Is there anything you are prepared to do about it? If not, do you see it as a problem for people around you? Do you challenge them on it? Do you find it a challenge to discipline yourself to prevent it from being an addiction in your case?

2. Identify three ways that you must change your texting and IM behaviour in professional—rather than purely social—contexts.

6.3: Text, Instant Message, and Direct Message Copyright © 2022 by John Corr; Grant Coleman; Betti Sheldrick; and Scott Bunyan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Mobile Instant Messaging In the ESL Writing Class

* * * on the internet * * *, november 2016 — volume 20, number 3.

Messaging apps such as WeChat , Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger turbocharge writing by increasing students’ motivation, their production, and the quality of their writing. What’s more, the apps are conducive to getting students actually reflecting on, and thereby learning from, their errors, in ways that traditional pedagogical methods, by their very nature, cannot. In this article I will show how writing and grammar teachers can, simply by adopting one of these, accelerate the learning process and increase students’ satisfaction with that process.

The value of mobile learning for TESL has been well documented. For example, Godwin-Jones (2011) wrote, “We know that learning becomes more real and permanent when tied to learners’ lives outside the academic environment. Mobile devices are a great way to achieve that goal,” while Zaki and Yunus (2015) wrote that “mobile learning can be integrated into academic writing by using it with several writing approaches which complement the pedagogical advantages in mobile devices.”

On the other hand, the usefulness of mobile instant messaging (mIM) is less well documented, perhaps because the wide availability of smartphones with sophisticated messaging apps is a comparatively recent phenomenon. At present that situation may be changing; instant messaging is increasingly popular, at around 2.8 billion accounts for just the top three instant messaging apps WhatsApp, WeChat and Facebook Messenger.

Of particular interest for the author is that instant messaging apps lend themselves particularly well to use in ESL. Their usefulness here has been pointed out by, among others, Andujar (2016), who wrote: “WhatsApp constitutes a powerful educational tool to encourage second language interaction among participants and its tremendous potential to activate students’ involvement remains one of the least exploited functionalities of mobile phones.”

The use of instant messaging apps specifically for ESL writing classes is an even more recent development than is their use for other forms of classroom communication such as delivering homework assignments. Perhaps one reason for this is that the medium is usually used by students outside class, for informal, non-school-related communications. Thus it is not surprising that Bouhnik and Deshen (2014) write “users also mentioned…the feeling that the application is not a formal channel for communication.” There has for example been a lot written about unacceptable use of internet abbreviations such as “AFAIK” (as far as I know) and “u” carrying over into student academic essays (Tomaszewski, 2016).

Part of the negative attitude toward using mIM apps for language learning may also derive from the fact that smartphones have a small screen, which may lead teachers to feel that an entire essay would be too long to show up clearly. The writer himself wondered about the screen-size issue but his classroom use of smartphone-based instant messaging for at least shorter essays did not elicit any protest from students, nor difficulty by the teacher in correcting/commenting.

It might also be noted here that, as McLuhan (1964) famously pointed out, “The medium is the message”; therefore, the very existence of messaging apps has altered when and how people write. They now write much more often, when earlier they would have spoken in person or on the phone. At the same time and for the same reason, writing, since it has been more and more of a “speech-substitute,” has become less formal. However, teachers will agree that academic writing must not be eclipsed by this new, more informal type of writing, and it is incumbent on the teacher to demand the required degree of formality in form and content from writing students using internet messaging apps for classwork. Fortunately, this is not difficult to do, and even do in real time when appropriate. (For longer academic essays, however, it remains useful to have the students submit them by email or attachment or in their own messaging channel, rather than the group’s, even if they have initially been viewed and corrected in the group channel. The reason for that is the greater ease of storage and retrieval and the ability for the teacher to go more into depth with comments and corrections.)

Another reason American teachers may not have adopted instant messaging in large numbers is because in the U.S.A., unlike in many other countries, apps like WhatsApp and WeChat are still not widely used, and thus their possible use for educational purposes may not even have occurred to many educators. The fact that most students in many cultures already use a messaging app many times a day means that the transition to classroom usage is painless and, not surprisingly, fun for them (the creator of WeChat recently said WeChat is not an app, it is a “lifestyle”). However, with the advent of Facebook Messenger in June of 2016 as a separate app from its parent, that relative unfamiliarity of instant messaging apps in North America may be disappearing.

iIM apps in the classroom

Teachers can start using instant messaging apps in their writing classes almost immediately. The great majority of our students now have smartphones and are already using instant messaging in their daily lives. All the teacher needs to do is to build on that base for academic purposes.

In practice that means:

A) From the setup point of view:

Get an account (WeChat, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are all excellent).
Ask those students who do not already use the teacher’s app of choice to download it.
Have the students add the teacher as a contact.
Create a ‘group’ in the app with all the students and the teacher, and optionally
download the WeChat app for PCs or Macs so that if the classroom has a large screen and internet connection the teacher can show everything on a big screen.
Create subgroups (with the teacher as a member of all subgroups) to allow small group work.

B) From the instructional side:

Start off with warm-ups: easy questions the students can answer almost conversationally, even going so far as to write “How do you feel this morning?” “How was the homework?” etc.
Respond with the teacher’s own feelings and thoughts to establish rapport.
Simultaneously suggest corrections, better formulations, reminders as to grammar, syntax, and structure, as and when errors ‘pop up’.
Have students ‘recall’ their messages in order to fix and then resubmit them, which greatly reinforces learning.
Segue into more academic writing by giving in-class assignments to be done in the app, perhaps to be roughed out in small group channels then posted in the all-group channel.
Correct students’ errors with the built-in voice-recording feature with the unexpected happy consequence, confirmed by my students, that listening to the teacher’s correction (several times if necessary) and having to think about it before making the required change to the draft, results in superior acquisition of the correct form over the traditional red-ink markup method.
Encourage students to immediately ask questions, in or out of class, by text or by voice, about anything they have not understood, thereby creating an ongoing dialog with the teacher that enriches and personalizes the learning experience. Note that texting and voice-recording have the great advantage of being both immediate, taking advantage of the student’s spike in interest or curiosity in the moment, and also repeatable after the fact in case of a student’s time constraints, or the desire to understand better by repeated reading/hearing, etc. This has the advantages of both written and spoken corrections, but rolled into one seamless app.

The key advantages of IM over traditional writing classes are several and notable. Many are mentioned by Bouhnik and Deshen (2014, p. 226), such as the ability to get to know the students in-depth, the creation of a positive atmosphere in the class, and students feeling more comfortable about approaching their teachers and each other. Other benefits have been discovered by my students and me by trial and error. Here are some we felt to be especially noteworthy.

Students and teacher see others’ writing immediately and can respond immediately, thereby changing writing assignments from a chore to a living exchange of ideas using English as the medium. It’s writing to communicate important ideas rather than writing to satisfy a homework requirement. Writing becomes an ongoing (but guided) conversation rather than a solitary activity. When students use English to communicate something meaningful or interesting to them, that’s when they really appreciate the value of learning the language. When they receive immediate feedback from the other students on their ideas, they are motivated to respond themselves. That motivation generates far more writing than one sees in the traditional class.
The teacher can signal errors and suggest corrections and/or improvements on the fly, nipping errors “in the bud” and getting students to write correctly in real time, instead of them passively viewing their errors “cold” perhaps days later after the teacher has returned homework and the student no longer remembers clearly what he/she was even writing about.
Students are strongly psychologically motivated to make their writing look good, knowing that their classmates and teacher can immediately see what they have written and can respond to it. In addition, the apps allow the student to recall any piece of writing and correct and resubmit it almost immediately. No harm, no foul!
Students can more easily help each other in real time, allowing the more proficient students to encourage those who need more assistance. In addition, students start to use their internal monitors more, seeing their own errors after they’ve made them and correcting them themselves. That self-monitoring is of course a vital step on the way to correct, cogent writing.
The ability to create subgroups allows for competition and debate–in writing–between groups of students, something easy to achieve in the traditional speaking class but difficult in the traditional writing class, particularly if the teacher wants the debate to proceed in real time with all the excitement that generates.
The line between in-class work and homework becomes fairly seamless, and that seamlessness provides a sense of continuity and of community, whether the student is in or out of the classroom. Even ill students often participate from home.

In a nutshell, messaging apps are more than just another tool in the writing teacher’s’ arsenal. They change writing from the often tiresome chore it is for many students into an activity they eagerly engage in, with the result that their writing ability improves more rapidly and with far more enthusiasm and buy-in on the students’ part.

The future looks bright for the use of mobile instant messaging apps in ESL writing classes, and using them seems well-advised, given the huge increase in the quantity of writing already being generated outside class because of those very apps. Prejudices against using a tool because it just happens to be also used for non-educational purposes are in my view unwarranted and unsupported.

In this article we have seen how writing and grammar teachers can, simply by adopting a free mobile instant messaging app, both speed up the learning process and increase students’ satisfaction with it–a veritable double whammy!

We don’t know what further tools and improvements to existing tools will come to be, but mobile instant messaging can and should be used here and now for the boost it gives to learning, motivation and personalization of the classroom experience. The medium is the message, and the message is: try the new medium!

Andujar, A. (2016). Benefits of mobile instant messaging to develop ESL writing. System 62 . Available http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0346251X16300835 .

Bouhnik, D., & Deshen, M. (2014). WhatsApp goes to school: Mobile instant messaging between teachers and students. Journal of Information Technology Education 13 , Research, 217-231. Retrieved from http://www.jite.org/documents/Vol13/JITEv13ResearchP217-231Bouhnik0601.pdf .

Godwin-Jones, R. (2011). Emerging technologies: Mobile apps for language learning. Language Learning & Technology 15 , 2 (2–11). Available http://llt.msu.edu/issues/june2011/emerging.pdf .

McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding media , Routledge, London.

Statista (2016). Most famous social network sites worldwide as of September 2016, ranked by number of active users (in millions). Available http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/ .

Tomaszewski, J. (2016). Do texting and “cyber slang” harm students’ writing skills? Education World . Available http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/arcives/texting_impacts_student-writing.shtml .

Zaki, A. A., & Yunus, M. M. (2015). Potential of Mobile Learning in Teaching of ESL Academic Writing. English Language Teaching 8 , 6 (11-19). Available http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/elt/article/view/49403/26587 .

Feb 15, 2023

6 Example Essays on Social Media | Advantages, Effects, and Outlines

Got an essay assignment about the effects of social media we got you covered check out our examples and outlines below.

Social media has become one of our society's most prominent ways of communication and information sharing in a very short time. It has changed how we communicate and has given us a platform to express our views and opinions and connect with others. It keeps us informed about the world around us. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn have brought individuals from all over the world together, breaking down geographical borders and fostering a genuinely global community.

However, social media comes with its difficulties. With the rise of misinformation, cyberbullying, and privacy problems, it's critical to utilize these platforms properly and be aware of the risks. Students in the academic world are frequently assigned essays about the impact of social media on numerous elements of our lives, such as relationships, politics, and culture. These essays necessitate a thorough comprehension of the subject matter, critical thinking, and the ability to synthesize and convey information clearly and succinctly.

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So, whether you're a student looking to better your essay writing skills or want to remain up to date on the latest social media advancements, Jenni.ai is here to help. Jenni.ai is the ideal tool for helping you write your finest essay ever, thanks to its simple design, an extensive database of example essays, and cutting-edge AI technology. So, why delay? Sign up for a free trial of Jenni.ai today and begin exploring the worlds of social networking and essay writing!

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We will provide various examples of social media essays so you may get a feel for the genre.

6 Examples of Social Media Essays

Here are 6 examples of Social Media Essays:

The Impact of Social Media on Relationships and Communication

Introduction:.

The way we share information and build relationships has evolved as a direct result of the prevalence of social media in our daily lives. The influence of social media on interpersonal connections and conversation is a hot topic. Although social media has many positive effects, such as bringing people together regardless of physical proximity and making communication quicker and more accessible, it also has a dark side that can affect interpersonal connections and dialogue.

Positive Effects:

Connecting People Across Distances

One of social media's most significant benefits is its ability to connect individuals across long distances. People can use social media platforms to interact and stay in touch with friends and family far away. People can now maintain intimate relationships with those they care about, even when physically separated.

Improved Communication Speed and Efficiency

Additionally, the proliferation of social media sites has accelerated and simplified communication. Thanks to instant messaging, users can have short, timely conversations rather than lengthy ones via email. Furthermore, social media facilitates group communication, such as with classmates or employees, by providing a unified forum for such activities.

Negative Effects:

Decreased Face-to-Face Communication

The decline in in-person interaction is one of social media's most pernicious consequences on interpersonal connections and dialogue. People's reliance on digital communication over in-person contact has increased along with the popularity of social media. Face-to-face interaction has suffered as a result, which has adverse effects on interpersonal relationships and the development of social skills.

Decreased Emotional Intimacy

Another adverse effect of social media on relationships and communication is decreased emotional intimacy. Digital communication lacks the nonverbal cues and facial expressions critical in building emotional connections with others. This can make it more difficult for people to develop close and meaningful relationships, leading to increased loneliness and isolation.

Increased Conflict and Miscommunication

Finally, social media can also lead to increased conflict and miscommunication. The anonymity and distance provided by digital communication can lead to misunderstandings and hurtful comments that might not have been made face-to-face. Additionally, social media can provide a platform for cyberbullying , which can have severe consequences for the victim's mental health and well-being.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the impact of social media on relationships and communication is a complex issue with both positive and negative effects. While social media platforms offer many benefits, such as connecting people across distances and enabling faster and more accessible communication, they also have a dark side that can negatively affect relationships and communication. It is up to individuals to use social media responsibly and to prioritize in-person communication in their relationships and interactions with others.

The Role of Social Media in the Spread of Misinformation and Fake News

Social media has revolutionized the way information is shared and disseminated. However, the ease and speed at which data can be spread on social media also make it a powerful tool for spreading misinformation and fake news. Misinformation and fake news can seriously affect public opinion, influence political decisions, and even cause harm to individuals and communities.

The Pervasiveness of Misinformation and Fake News on Social Media

Misinformation and fake news are prevalent on social media platforms, where they can spread quickly and reach a large audience. This is partly due to the way social media algorithms work, which prioritizes content likely to generate engagement, such as sensational or controversial stories. As a result, false information can spread rapidly and be widely shared before it is fact-checked or debunked.

The Influence of Social Media on Public Opinion

Social media can significantly impact public opinion, as people are likelier to believe the information they see shared by their friends and followers. This can lead to a self-reinforcing cycle, where misinformation and fake news are spread and reinforced, even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

The Challenge of Correcting Misinformation and Fake News

Correcting misinformation and fake news on social media can be a challenging task. This is partly due to the speed at which false information can spread and the difficulty of reaching the same audience exposed to the wrong information in the first place. Additionally, some individuals may be resistant to accepting correction, primarily if the incorrect information supports their beliefs or biases.

In conclusion, the function of social media in disseminating misinformation and fake news is complex and urgent. While social media has revolutionized the sharing of information, it has also made it simpler for false information to propagate and be widely believed. Individuals must be accountable for the information they share and consume, and social media firms must take measures to prevent the spread of disinformation and fake news on their platforms.

The Effects of Social Media on Mental Health and Well-Being

Social media has become an integral part of modern life, with billions of people around the world using platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to stay connected with others and access information. However, while social media has many benefits, it can also negatively affect mental health and well-being.

Comparison and Low Self-Esteem

One of the key ways that social media can affect mental health is by promoting feelings of comparison and low self-esteem. People often present a curated version of their lives on social media, highlighting their successes and hiding their struggles. This can lead others to compare themselves unfavorably, leading to feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem.

Cyberbullying and Online Harassment

Another way that social media can negatively impact mental health is through cyberbullying and online harassment. Social media provides a platform for anonymous individuals to harass and abuse others, leading to feelings of anxiety, fear, and depression.

Social Isolation

Despite its name, social media can also contribute to feelings of isolation. At the same time, people may have many online friends but need more meaningful in-person connections and support. This can lead to feelings of loneliness and depression.

Addiction and Overuse

Finally, social media can be addictive, leading to overuse and negatively impacting mental health and well-being. People may spend hours each day scrolling through their feeds, neglecting other important areas of their lives, such as work, family, and self-care.

In sum, social media has positive and negative consequences on one's psychological and emotional well-being. Realizing this, and taking measures like reducing one's social media use, reaching out to loved ones for help, and prioritizing one's well-being, are crucial. In addition, it's vital that social media giants take ownership of their platforms and actively encourage excellent mental health and well-being.

The Use of Social Media in Political Activism and Social Movements

Social media has recently become increasingly crucial in political action and social movements. Platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have given people new ways to express themselves, organize protests, and raise awareness about social and political issues.

Raising Awareness and Mobilizing Action

One of the most important uses of social media in political activity and social movements has been to raise awareness about important issues and mobilize action. Hashtags such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter, for example, have brought attention to sexual harassment and racial injustice, respectively. Similarly, social media has been used to organize protests and other political actions, allowing people to band together and express themselves on a bigger scale.

Connecting with like-minded individuals

A second method in that social media has been utilized in political activity and social movements is to unite like-minded individuals. Through social media, individuals can join online groups, share knowledge and resources, and work with others to accomplish shared objectives. This has been especially significant for geographically scattered individuals or those without access to traditional means of political organizing.

Challenges and Limitations

As a vehicle for political action and social movements, social media has faced many obstacles and restrictions despite its many advantages. For instance, the propagation of misinformation and fake news on social media can impede attempts to disseminate accurate and reliable information. In addition, social media corporations have been condemned for censorship and insufficient protection of user rights.

In conclusion, social media has emerged as a potent instrument for political activism and social movements, giving voice to previously unheard communities and galvanizing support for change. Social media presents many opportunities for communication and collaboration. Still, users and institutions must be conscious of the risks and limitations of these tools to promote their responsible and productive usage.

The Potential Privacy Concerns Raised by Social Media Use and Data Collection Practices

With billions of users each day on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, social media has ingrained itself into every aspect of our lives. While these platforms offer a straightforward method to communicate with others and exchange information, they also raise significant concerns over data collecting and privacy. This article will examine the possible privacy issues posed by social media use and data-gathering techniques.

Data Collection and Sharing

The gathering and sharing of personal data are significant privacy issues brought up by social media use. Social networking sites gather user data, including details about their relationships, hobbies, and routines. This information is made available to third-party businesses for various uses, such as marketing and advertising. This can lead to serious concerns about who has access to and uses our personal information.

Lack of Control Over Personal Information

The absence of user control over personal information is a significant privacy issue brought up by social media usage. Social media makes it challenging to limit who has access to and how data is utilized once it has been posted. Sensitive information may end up being extensively disseminated and may be used maliciously as a result.

Personalized Marketing

Social media companies utilize the information they gather about users to target them with adverts relevant to their interests and usage patterns. Although this could be useful, it might also cause consumers to worry about their privacy since they might feel that their personal information is being used without their permission. Furthermore, there are issues with the integrity of the data being used to target users and the possibility of prejudice based on individual traits.

Government Surveillance

Using social media might spark worries about government surveillance. There are significant concerns regarding privacy and free expression when governments in some nations utilize social media platforms to follow and monitor residents.

In conclusion, social media use raises significant concerns regarding data collecting and privacy. While these platforms make it easy to interact with people and exchange information, they also gather a lot of personal information, which raises questions about who may access it and how it will be used. Users should be aware of these privacy issues and take precautions to safeguard their personal information, such as exercising caution when choosing what details to disclose on social media and keeping their information sharing with other firms to a minimum.

The Ethical and Privacy Concerns Surrounding Social Media Use And Data Collection

Our use of social media to communicate with loved ones, acquire information, and even conduct business has become a crucial part of our everyday lives. The extensive use of social media does, however, raise some ethical and privacy issues that must be resolved. The influence of social media use and data collecting on user rights, the accountability of social media businesses, and the need for improved regulation are all topics that will be covered in this article.

Effect on Individual Privacy:

Social networking sites gather tons of personal data from their users, including delicate information like search history, location data, and even health data. Each user's detailed profile may be created with this data and sold to advertising or used for other reasons. Concerns regarding the privacy of personal information might arise because social media businesses can use this data to target users with customized adverts.

Additionally, individuals might need to know how much their personal information is being gathered and exploited. Data breaches or the unauthorized sharing of personal information with other parties may result in instances where sensitive information is exposed. Users should be aware of the privacy rules of social media firms and take precautions to secure their data.

Responsibility of Social Media Companies:

Social media firms should ensure that they responsibly and ethically gather and use user information. This entails establishing strong security measures to safeguard sensitive information and ensuring users are informed of what information is being collected and how it is used.

Many social media businesses, nevertheless, have come under fire for not upholding these obligations. For instance, the Cambridge Analytica incident highlighted how Facebook users' personal information was exploited for political objectives without their knowledge. This demonstrates the necessity of social media corporations being held responsible for their deeds and ensuring that they are safeguarding the security and privacy of their users.

Better Regulation Is Needed

There is a need for tighter regulation in this field, given the effect, social media has on individual privacy as well as the obligations of social media firms. The creation of laws and regulations that ensure social media companies are gathering and using user information ethically and responsibly, as well as making sure users are aware of their rights and have the ability to control the information that is being collected about them, are all part of this.

Additionally, legislation should ensure that social media businesses are held responsible for their behavior, for example, by levying fines for data breaches or the unauthorized use of personal data. This will provide social media businesses with a significant incentive to prioritize their users' privacy and security and ensure they are upholding their obligations.

In conclusion, social media has fundamentally changed how we engage and communicate with one another, but this increased convenience also raises several ethical and privacy issues. Essential concerns that need to be addressed include the effect of social media on individual privacy, the accountability of social media businesses, and the requirement for greater regulation to safeguard user rights. We can make everyone's online experience safer and more secure by looking more closely at these issues.

In conclusion, social media is a complex and multifaceted topic that has recently captured the world's attention. With its ever-growing influence on our lives, it's no surprise that it has become a popular subject for students to explore in their writing. Whether you are writing an argumentative essay on the impact of social media on privacy, a persuasive essay on the role of social media in politics, or a descriptive essay on the changes social media has brought to the way we communicate, there are countless angles to approach this subject.

However, writing a comprehensive and well-researched essay on social media can be daunting. It requires a thorough understanding of the topic and the ability to articulate your ideas clearly and concisely. This is where Jenni.ai comes in. Our AI-powered tool is designed to help students like you save time and energy and focus on what truly matters - your education. With Jenni.ai , you'll have access to a wealth of examples and receive personalized writing suggestions and feedback.

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The Use Of Online Messaging Apps Essay

The Use of Online Messaging Apps Essay

Online messaging apps are those apps which allow one to send and receive a message instantly. Popular messaging apps include Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Google Chats, WeChat and Viber. They come with multiple features like location sharing, contact sharing, photo sharing, document sharing, and video and audio calls. These messaging apps can be installed on your smartphone, tablet or laptop for free.

If we look into the current communication trends, texting has become popular among all generations. It has surpassed phone calls and is most popular among millennials. The reason might be it is free of cost and has all the features essential for communication purposes. These messaging apps help people engage in multiple conversations, and also they can form groups such as family groups, friends groups, tuition groups, office groups, etc.

How Messaging Apps Evolved?

During the 1990s, these messaging apps came to the mainstream, helping people connect in real-time. But, at that time, these apps were not so popular and were used just as messaging tools. Through these apps, we could not send links, videos, images, or locations.

But, over the years, with the advancement in technology, messaging apps have been transformed into a platform from just a messaging tool. Multiple messaging apps are easily accessible with various features like sending photos, live locations, and attaching documents, videos or links. So, online messaging apps are in great demand in the current form of communication. These apps revolutionised the entire communication process and how people communicate.

The top three messaging apps by the number of users are WhatsApp – with 2 billion users; Facebook Messenger – with 1.3 billion users; and WeChat, with 1.12 billion users.

Advantages of Online Messaging Apps

Online messaging apps come with enormous advantages. One of the main advantages of these apps is that people can connect instantly even if they don’t live in the same place. These messaging apps can be used for work and business purposes too.

Online messaging apps are one of the standard platforms for marketing purposes. Nowadays, most companies use these platforms for marketing their products, offers, etc. You might have seen that companies send messages through WhatsApp about their business. These messaging apps can be accessed free of cost.

Even inside the corporate world, office colleagues use these messaging apps to send and reply to messages. They can also conduct team meetings online without physical presence and send work reports and updates. Any team member or manager out of the office for a business trip can connect with their colleagues through these messaging apps. Managers can create team members groups so that all can share their ideas, ask for help and get regular work updates.

People can also start their online businesses through these messaging apps. They can talk to their vendors and can display their products. Online messaging apps like WhatsApp also provide a platform for money transfers.

Disadvantages of Online Messaging Apps

Along with the advantages, there are disadvantages to using online messaging apps. We can’t perfectly understand the other person’s emotional state and can’t recognise with whom we are talking. After the invention of these messaging apps, face-to-face interaction and personal experience have come down.

When we communicate through these messaging apps, there are chances of miscommunication because of typos or the inability to make the other person understand our thoughts or feelings. During a face-to-face interaction, people show some etiquette, but during an online conversation, people don’t feel the need to use the appropriate netiquette.

Conclusion of The Use Of Online Messaging Apps Essay

With the wide variety of different online messaging apps for desktops, laptops, and smartphones, people should be vigilant in protecting themselves from malicious and dangerous threats that may present themselves.

We hope you found this essay on the use of online messaging apps useful. For more such interesting CBSE Essays , check BYJU’S. You can also find study materials and resources like worksheets, solutions and question papers to prepare for the exams.

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Band 7+: Some people believe that having instant messaging apps (like WhatsApp or Viber) on our smartphones has improved our communication. Others feel that it has only damaged the way we communicate. Discuss both vies and give your own opinion.

Nowdays, due to the remarkable services of technology, developing various tools such as Viber and WhatsApp has created a huge revolution in the field of communication. While some consider this improvment as an admirable strengthening in communication. On the other hand, others contend that they only had a destructive effect on the way people communicate. I agree with the the view that mentioned apps has made communication smoother .

On the one hand, the advancement of technology has provided communication regardless of geographical location. Because by the apps developed, people can stay in touch with their loved ones just via a smartphone and internet . For example, a student who migrated to another area can easily communicate with family, friends, and colleagues by means of instant messaging apps.Moreover, instant messaging apps have revolutionized the way businesses communicate. Today, thanks to developed tools, companies can easily collaborate with remote teams through these platforms. Which has increased efficiency in the workplace, as employees can seamlessly communicate and coordinate with each other.

On the other hand, instant messaging programs lead to negative impacts such as reducing the feelings and emotions of society. Because it is clear that conducting interactions only through these platforms will reduce the need for face-to-face interactions. The same feeling of not needing to meet face-to-face reduces visits and weakens interpersonal relationships, so people may rely heavily on text-based communication, which leads to a lack of emotional connection.Moreover, the widespread use of instant messaging apps can pose a threat to the security and privacy of users. As these apps often have access to other devices, personal information such as photos and conversations can be easily exploited. There have been numerous cases in recent years where communication software has been developed to spy on users’ privacy. Thus, with the growing dependence on instant messaging platforms, there is a potential for personal information to be compromised or misused.

To put it differently, there are two opposing views regarding the emergence of paging platforms. One group believes that these platforms have brought about beneficial outcomes by enabling communication between distant individuals and enhancing business efficiency. On the other hand, another group argues that these platforms have negative consequences, such as diminishing face-to-face interactions and jeopardizing privacy. Personally, I believe that the advent of communication platforms like Viber and WhatsApp has primarily had positive effects on communication.

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In some countries girls and boys and educated in different schools rather than the same school. what are the advantages and disadvantages of this?

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The gap between the rich and the poor is increasingly wide, as rich people become richer and poor people grow poorer. What problems could this situation cause? What are the solutions to address those problems? Write at least 250 words

Nowadays, the gap between households with the low level of profit and wealthy people has increased, it may reult in rich people gowing in finances and poor ones remain in their living conditions or become even poorer. It may cause problems related to chaos among the society and should be solved if the governments take […]

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It is often argued that nowadays, people use the Internet a lot more than television. I agree with this opinion that social networks and news on the Internet, which, becoming more popular, have an effect on our generation because of its opportunities and popularity. Every day we use the Internet. It helps us to do […]

Many young people do not know how to manage their money when graduating high school. What do you think are the reasons? What can be done to teach them this important skill?

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Studies show that many criminals have a low level of education. For this reason, people believe that the best way to reduce crime is to educate people in prison so they can get a job when leave prison. Do you agree or disagree?

In many countries, criminals often have low levels of education. Some people argue that the best way to reduce crime is to educate prisoners so they can find jobs after their releases. I agree with this idea to a certain extent. Education can be highly beneficial for prisoners. It can equip them with the necessary […]

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Impact of Instant Messaging on Society
Most of the instant messenger has fundamental functions that include instant messages, file-sharing, voice conversations, sounds and streaming content. Instant messages allow two or more online parties to engage in correspondence. File-sharing allows people to share files with their peers by sending the files directly through IM windows.
Instant Messaging Essay
Instant Messaging Essay. Instant messaging is a tool used by a vast majority of Internet users. This new tools has some advantages and some disadvantages. IM is used a lot of the time in education. It's used for recruiting and admissions, student-faculty communications, library consultations, group projects, and immediate feedback, and ...
Conclusion about instant messaging in the world of business
In conclusion, instant messaging has become an essential tool for businesses worldwide, enabling efficient communication and collaboration among employees as well as with clients. It offers a quick and convenient way to exchange information, files, and feedback in real-time, regardless of location. Furthermore, instant messaging platforms ...
Instant messaging Essay
Instant messaging Essay. Instant messaging has revolutionized the way people communicate. It has become a reliable, quick, and convenient way to stay connected across the globe. This essay will explore the impact of instant messaging on communication, its effects on relationships, and its implications for our digital future.
An exploratory investigation of the use and effects of academic instant
The use of instant messaging groups for various academic purposes is a rising, but largely understudied, trend in higher education institutions. In the present study we investigate the use purposes and outcomes of three types of academic instant messaging groups or AIMGs. Formal AIMGs are created and managed by teaching staff, class AIMGs are created by students and joined by all members of a ...
Security Management: Instant Messaging Perspective
Affected: The IM worm affects Skype users running Windows. Threat Type: Worm. Description: 'A new instant-messaging pest that spreads using the chat feature in Skype has surfaced, security firm F-Secure warned. The worm, dubbed Pykse.A, is similar to threats that affect instant-messaging applications.
Instant Messaging Essay Samples
Major Uses of the Internet Essay Example. 465 words 2 pages. E-mail is private and goes from one user to another. Instant messaging (such as AIM or ICQ) Is similar to email, but allows two or more people to chat to each other much faster. Some governments think the Internet is a bad thing, and block all or part of it.
Understanding Instant Messaging in the Workplace
While messaging is commonplace today, it was only decades ago that chatting with friends and strangers online was a revolutionary. In 1961, MIT's Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS), along with other multi-user operating system helps to pioneer instant messaging by allowing up to 3 users to chat in real-time [].Internet Relay Chat (IRC) allows users to connect to networks with client ...
Instant Messaging in a Business Performance
Instant Messaging (IM), in contrast, has become of great interest to the modern community because it is a tool that successfully supports informal communication. The modern workplace is inherently collaborative, and this collaboration relies on effective communication among co-workers. According to Woodard she noted that with the introduction ...
Communication in Instant Messengers
Nonetheless, this will be important research, as it will reveal peculiarities of people's digital and face-to-face communication. It will also help identify the role instant messaging plays in people's lives and can potentially play. This essay "Communication in Instant Messengers" was written and submitted by your fellow student.
Full article: Students and instant messaging: a survey of current use
Introduction. Instant messaging (IM) is the term used to describe the technology through which 'users can set up a list of partners who will be able to receive notes that pop up on their screens the moment one of them writes and hits the send button' (Castelluccio, Citation 1999, p. 34).IM contrasts with synchronous chat in this respect, since this is usually organised through publicly ...
Part 1. Introduction: The basics of instant messaging
The Pew Internet & American Life Project Tracking Survey of May-June 2004 finds that 42% of internet users have ever instant messaged. Of these 53 million American adults, 12% use IM on a typical day. 2. Online men and women use IM in equal proportion. Just over a third of each group have IM-ed.
Instant Messaging for Collaboration: a Case Study of a High-Tech Firm
This article examines uses of instant messaging (IM) in a high-tech firm to illustrate how knowledge workers use this new work tool to collaborate with co-workers. ... Conclusions Local Virtualities. We have found that workers at KME rely heavily on CMC for communication both within and outside the organization. In accord with previous studies ...
How to Conclude an Essay
Step 1: Return to your thesis. To begin your conclusion, signal that the essay is coming to an end by returning to your overall argument. Don't just repeat your thesis statement—instead, try to rephrase your argument in a way that shows how it has been developed since the introduction.. Example: Returning to the thesis Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind ...
Essay: The Use Of Instant Messaging
This page of the essay has 568 words. Download the full version above. Instant Messaging is the most-used form of communication within society today. However, studies have shown that the new application, Snapchat, has rapidly been rising in numbers regarding users and every day usage. The purpose of this study was to look at the nature of ...
6.3: Text, Instant Message, and Direct Message
4.7.3 The Conclusion; 4.7.4 Essay Writing Tips; 4.7.5 The Thesis; 4.7.6 Model Student Essays; Chapter 5: The Writing Process IV: Editing. 5.1: Substantial Revisions. ... 6.3: Text, Instant Message, and Direct Message Texts sent over Short Message Service (SMS) have been a convenient way to connect with others since the early 2000s. At first ...
Conclusion
Conclusion. CONCLUSION. >> Conversation via instant messaging is as varied as conversation itself. Some students use it 23 hours a day while others use it 2 hours a day. There are so many ways for the average college student to use IM that it is impossible to label it as being good or bad. That would be a huge oversimplification. It is more ...
Mobile Instant Messaging In the ESL Writing Class
The use of instant messaging apps specifically for ESL writing classes is an even more recent development than is their use for other forms of classroom communication such as delivering homework assignments. Perhaps one reason for this is that the medium is usually used by students outside class, for informal, non-school-related communications.
6 Example Essays on Social Media
Thanks to instant messaging, users can have short, timely conversations rather than lengthy ones via email. Furthermore, social media facilitates group communication, such as with classmates or employees, by providing a unified forum for such activities.
The Use of Online Messaging Apps Essay
Conclusion of The Use Of Online Messaging Apps Essay. With the wide variety of different online messaging apps for desktops, laptops, and smartphones, people should be vigilant in protecting themselves from malicious and dangerous threats that may present themselves. We hope you found this essay on the use of online messaging apps useful.
Band 7: Some people believe that having instant messaging apps (like
Check out this IELTS Writing Task 2 essay written by our user on the topic: 'Some people believe that having instant messaging apps (like WhatsApp or Viber) ... The essay has a clear structure with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. It logically organizes information and ideas, and each body paragraph focuses on a central topic
Free Essay: Pros and Cons of Instant Messaging
Pros and Cons of Instant Messaging and Texting. Communication is the "exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing, or behaviour", and technology is "A body of knowledge used to create tools, develop skills, and extract or collect materials" - taken from Answers.com. In the 21st century, people have ...
Instant Messaging Essays and Research Papers
Essay Instructions: The paper examines interpersonal communication among people ages 18-25 (college aged).It should state that instant messaging has a negative effect, but concludes that it does not seem to negatively effect face-to-face communication, and may actaully enhance it due to the capabilities of IM. It should also state that the the focus is on youth rather than older generations ...