New vs Traditional Social Environments: Usage of Social Networks by Digital Natives for Interpersonal Communication

Social Network Sites (SNS), particularly Facebook, have become extremely popular among digital natives, especially university-level students. Moreover, they sometimes may see the SNS as the new communication platform for interpersonal communication. Interpersonal communication skill levels both in the social and e social environment of digital natives are measured in order to figure out whether there is any statistically significant difference between two environments in terms of sending clear messages, listening, giving and getting feedback, and handling emotional interactions. Based on the Social Information Processing and Uses and Gratifications Theories, this study explores attitudes of English speaking tertiary students who study at the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies at the Eastern Mediterranean University in North Cyprus in 2018. Interpersonal Communication Skills Inventory has been used to find out the IPCS scores of students in order to have an idea about the IPCS profiles of the students both in “social” and “e-social” environments. This study also aims to explore whether there is a difference between the four dimensions (sending clear messages, listening, giving and getting feedback, and handling emotional interactions) of interpersonal communication skills (IPCS) on social and e-social environments. The results of this study indicate that tertiary students need to improve their IPCS in both environments. Also, there is merely statistically significant difference between sending clear messages section on social and e-social environments. Keywords: Social Information Processing Theory, Uses and Gratifications Theory, Social Network Sites, Facebook, Interpersonal Communication Skills