People have tried to communicate with parents, peers and people around them since their birth. We need to communicate in order to get along with people. Communication takes place in 2 ways, online and face-to-face. Especially, online communication has become more popular because of covid-19 since 2019. The reason is that during the Covid period, no one could go out and communicate face-to-face, everyone communicated online. According to the research conducted by Marmara University, 770 million people have switched to online education during the Covid-19 pandemic. There are some similarities between online communication and face-to-face communication as well as differences.
Online and face-to-face communication are similar to each other in some ways. Firstly, the way of speaking is very important in both types of communication. I mean, people choose carefully to use of words and it is spoken without accent in a way that the speaker understands. Secondly, all types of communication keep human relationships alive. Online communication is very fast and simple while face-to-face communication allows us to meet friends or relatives who lives in a remote place. Online communication is fast and simple, for example, it allows us to meet with a friend or relative who lives in a very remote place, while face-to-face communication is also possible. In brief, online communication and face-to-face communication are similar ways.
Despite these similarities, online and face-to-face communication have some differences as well. The first difference is that face-to-face communication increases self-confidence. For example, when people contacted by social media or platforms such as discord social phobias occur because people are deprived of face-to-face communication. They become unable to establish their relationships face-to- face. The second difference is that gestures and facial expressions establish a connection between the speaker and the listener during conversation and ensure that the communication passes efficient. In other words, we do not see each other in online communication with people unless there is a video, and this does not require us to use gesture gestures, so the connection in communication disappears and loses its efficiency. Finally, our online communication depends on an internet connection, and in the absence of this internet, all our communication is interrupted. Online communication, which is not as permanent as face-to-face communication, loses its effect in any technical fault. As a result, the alternatives of both communication way are different.
To sum up, there are not only similarities but also differences between online and face-to-face communication. Actually, ways of communication change according to people and situations. Nowadays, face-to-face communication is established as much as we communicate with our distant relatives and friends through social media platforms in meetings at workplaces, in education at schools. In my view, face-to-face communication is more understandable, useful and controlled. We can’t do this control in online communication and it can have bad consequences.