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Preface

It is never easy to live a year in a foreign city that is 8,000 miles away from home, especially for a 10-year-old.

Following his father’s sabbatical leave to Asia, Skyler, 10, left his American school to attend, reluctantly, his 5th grade year in Guangzhou, China. This was the biggest challenge he has had so far. He was old enough to know that living there for a year could be quite different from visiting it for a couple of days. Unsurprisingly, Skyler’s initial adjustment to his Guangzhou school was a disaster due to language barriers, cultural shocks, a different pedagogy, and “endless” homework, even on holidays.

The most unbearable, above all, was the detachment from his American friends, causing him a kind of “social pain.” Social pain can be as bad as physical pain, if not worse. This is well supported by a growing body of evidence from studies by neuroscientists and psychologists (Almehmadi et al., 2013; Stafford & Bell, 2012; Viale, 2011). By analyzing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results, Matthew Lieberman (2013), a professor of psychology and biobehavioral sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that both physical and social pains were linked to the same brain region. Looking at MRI scans from two studies side by side, one on physical pain and the other on social pain, Lieberman and colleagues could detect little difference between them. Next time he felt down, he said he might reach for Tylenol (Lieberman, 2013).

Skyler did not need Tylenol to relieve social pain. He felt better as soon as he made new friends. The pain was completely gone after he returned home one year later. Recalling the experience, he said the most scaring part was being there without “old” friends. His experience clearly exemplifies the importance of staying social. We all are essentially social beings that are driven by deep motivations to be connected with others (Lieberman, 2013). The mutual influence is critical to one’s well-being.

This helps explain why social media have become such an integral part of modern life, transforming the world in almost every aspect, in particular, communication and business. The popularity of social media, to many, might be plausibly attributed to the influx of new media technologies. The vital driving force behind it, however, is nothing but the trait of people being socially wired. This is consistent with the ample evidence from psychologists, who have discovered that the desire to form and maintain interpersonal attachments – the need to belong – is a fundamental human motivation (Baumeister & Leary, 1995).

Fundamentally, our minds are hardwired to be social.

Nowadays, social media are an essential multifunctional platform for us to obtain information and knowledge, share thoughts and ideas, and, simply, communicate with one another. As we live much of our lives on social media, the knowledge of online tools is not just something “nice to have,” but a capability we need to survive and excel in this social media era. At an individual level, social media know-how contributes to one’s success in the twenty-first century, while at the societal level, the know-how adds up to “a more thoughtful society” (Rheingold, 2012, p. 2).

In other words, what you do not know may be too much to afford. However, a good knowledge concerning how social media work, especially the mechanism of social media use, does not happen to us automatically. Social media have brought about new ways of communication humans did not experience before. This is not to say that they have totally replaced the old ways. We may not be completely wired to social media, but there is no doubt that social media are playing a critical role in our daily lives.

This book is thus designed to explore the power of social media, how social media evolve and change the human mind and behavior, how they affect information processing, the media industry and business marketing, as well as interpersonal and group communication. In other words, it is about how people live and work through, with, and around social media in various communication and business contexts.

Each chapter will center on an important topic with the power to change the ways you see and use social media, – for example, how social media evolve and affect people’s information processing, the media industry and business marketing, in particular interpersonal and group communication powered by social media. After reading the chapters in this book, the reader should have an in-depth understanding on how social media are transforming humanity, communication, and business.

This book, however, is not about the wonders of social media, even though it explores social media and their social implications. Nor does it use particular forms of social media as the focal point, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok. Otherwise the book would be instantly outdated, as social media, like it or not, never stop evolving. Hence, this book focuses on two areas – an in-depth understanding of the social media mechanism and its impact on human communication and how people may make the best use of social media in the areas of communication and business.

The first half of the book provides a multidisciplinary examination of the social media mechanism by drawing on the latest research findings in communication studies, information sciences, neurosciences, psychology and sociology. The impact of social media on information processing, social networking, cognition, media industry, and business marketing will be thoroughly discussed in this part. A solid knowledge of the social media mechanism should serve readers well in making the best use of them no matter how social media might evolve, or what new platforms could emerge in the future.

The second half of the book is devoted to research-based strategies regarding how to use social media productively in communication and business settings. Designed as a principal textbook for undergraduate and graduate-level courses in schools of communications and business, this book constitutes original research findings in all its chapters, including those from the author and his colleagues. Specifically, this book has the following major features:

1 The Underlying Mechanism. This is not just another “how-to” book concerning social media use or their marketing potential. Rather, it provides an in-depth understanding of the mechanism underlying social media and their implications in various communication settings. This approach should help readers to make the best use of social media tools while recognizing the individual, group, and cultural differences involved. The latter often plays a pivotal role in global communication and business practices.

2 A Multidisciplinary Approach. The book employs a multidisciplinary approach to study social media and their impacts by drawing on the latest research findings in communication studies, neuroscience, information science, and psychology. The approach should be able to empower those who have an interest in doing more research in this stream. Though this part is mainly designed for graduate students and researchers, it provides answers to anyone who likes to explore “why so” in using social media tools.

3 Theory Highlights. Over a dozen of theories in the areas of communication, psychology, and sociology will be introduced. The goal is to enable readers to be acquainted with the theoretical frameworks researchers frequently employ in their social media studies. After reading the theory highlights, readers should have a good grasp of what each of the theories is about. The highlights also serve as a springboard for anyone who would like to explore more theories of interest in studying the impact of social media.

Most of the content in this book is based on the author’s research and teaching in social media at a US university in recent years. The author has designed and taught several social media courses for undergraduate and graduate students at The Pennsylvania State University and Hong Kong Baptist University. The four courses are: “Social Media for Social Change,” “Social Media Research: Trends and Theories,” “Social Media Communication,” and “Social Media Marketing,” all of which had never been taught at the two universities before, and were well received by the students who majored in communication, psychology, business, and information science and technology.

In addition to college students, this book should be a tremendous source for researchers, educators, journalists, small business owners, librarians, and practitioners in media management, advertising, public relations, and business marketing. This book, however, does not have all of the answers for social media. It is understandable that some readers wish for a book that provides all of the answers and dictates their learning about social media. Most readers still want to search out materials and answers of their own. In the latter case, the current book serves as a critical source for starting a journey to a better understanding of digital media technology and how it transforms social interaction. As media theorist Neil Postman said, “Technology doesn’t just add something, it changes everything,” though new technology can never substitute for human values (Hendrickson, 2000).

This book thus aims to provide its readers with an in-depth understanding of the social media mechanism, on which they may develop strategies in connecting with others and cope with the communication challenges in a networked society. The information benefits are manifold, including not only staying away from social pain, but also joining hands to change the world. If you care about the impact of social media – what social media usage reveals about us, what it is delivering and we fantasize it can supply, this book is for you.

References

1 Almehmadi, A., Bourque, M., & El-Khatib, K. (2013). A Tweet of the mind: Automated emotion detection for social media using brainwave pattern analysis. The 2013 International Conference on Social Computing, Alexandria, VA.

2 Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497–529. https://doi.org/.10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497

3 Hendrickson, L. (2000). Communications technology and personal identity formation. Educational Technology & Society, 3(3), 27–38. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/jeductechsoci.3.3.27.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A5ae5dcab75c12af810fa8ce76b5be48e.

4 Lieberman, M. D. (2013). Social: Why our brains are wired to connect. Crown Publishers.

5 Rheingold, H. (2012). Net smart: How to thrive online. The MIT Press.

6 Stafford, T., & Bell, V. (2012). Brain network: Social media and the cognitive scientist. TRENDS in Cognitive Science, 16(10), 489–490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2012.08.001.

7 Viale, R. (2011). Brain reading social action. International Review of Economics, 58(3), 319–366. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12232-011-0130-0.