Learned risks and experienced rewards: Exploring the potential sources of students' attitudes toward social media and face-to-face communication

The main purpose of this study was to examine various potential influences (including mass media reporting, instructors/teachers, and personal experience) of students' attitudes toward both social media and face-to-face (FtF) communication. Such questions emerged from recent debates over the role of technology in the college classroom that commonly center on the comparison of FtF and computer-mediated communication (CMC). Of the 545 college students surveyed online, mass media and instructors/teachers emerge as primary sources of information about negative elements of social media, while friends and personal experience are primary sources about the benefits of CMC. Most all sources examined provide positive information about FtF benefits, and none were sources of negative elements of FtF interaction. These findings are discussed in terms of how educators and others might recognize the impact of how they frame and discuss social media in and out of their classrooms.