Social discourse is communication with a social purpose or aspect. Experts use it for research in various fields. Technology, such as social media, is changing social discourse and raising concerns about personal information. Other forms of social discourse include politics and community events. The impact of technology on language is also a major issue.
Social discourse is verbal or textual communication involving a social element. The definition of speech is very broad. The word “speech” refers to almost all of the many ways humans communicate with each other. A type of social discourse is a communication that has a social purpose, or some kind of distinctly social aspect.
Within the general category of social discourse, experts in various fields use more specific types of related discourse to do research that applies to those fields. Linguists look to social communication or speech to pursue technical research on language. Others in anthropology, sociology, or other social sciences may use this type of discourse to understand elements of psychology or human behavior.
As technology broadens the spectrum of all kinds of discourse, the emergence of computers, the Internet, and various software programs called social media, is leading some academics and others to take a fresh look at how technology shapes social discourse in particular. A very prominent example is the use of Facebook®, which in the early 2010s became an extremely common element of social communication and discourse for many Westerners and others around the world.
Facebook® as a form of social media, allows for all kinds of social discourse that weren’t possible before the creation of this web presence. For example, users can “like” items on a Facebook® page with the click of a button. This new form detaches that speech from speech or writing, making it instead a simple binary action.
The use of new technologies is leading researchers to examine how social discourse might be combined with advertising, the collection of personal information and even the illicit use of a person’s communications. When the public learns that a specific technology is compiling personal information learned through the analysis of personal expression or socially oriented speech, there is often a concern that the information may be used in inappropriate ways. This in itself is becoming a new topic of discussion in the mass media, as well as among individuals and various organized groups.
Other forms of communication and social discourse are not related to technology. There are many examples of this, from the “town hall meeting” of modern politics, to interactive public events relating to communities, businesses, or both. Sociologists or others who want to examine social discourse have a very diverse field to choose from, and many different conclusions can be drawn about how this type of discourse affects modern life. Another major issue in modern times is how technologies such as cell phone text messaging change the words, phrases, and even grammatical constructs commonly used for social discourse.
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