RUNNING HEADER: THE RESPONSE OF COMPLIMENTING STRANGERS IN PUBLIC PG.

The Effect Social Media has on Human Interactions with Strangers

Elizabeth Rech, Julia Bortoff
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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Ninety-three percent of college students have a Facebook account. As the prevalence

of online social networking grows so do psychologists concerns about Internet communications
effect on adolescent social development. In reviewing the literature, there were two
predominate concerns my paper addresses Some data points to adolescents who are already
socially adapt to the internet to maintain relationships and connect to new groups. This
phenomenon is known as the rich get richer hypothesis. Other research supports a social
compensation thesis, in which youth who are less socially adept use social networking websites
to selfdisclose and make new friends when they might be too shy to do so in real life. (Wilks,
2010, p. 1)
Most people today go through their daily life never communicating with strangers. Majority of
people would agree, walking up to a random stranger and starting conversation with them is
awkward. Social media may have a big impact on making people less social when it comes to
human interaction. Social networking websites (SNSs) are virtual communities in which users
create individual web profiles, display personal contact information, and post a variety of
behaviors and emotions in real time; they are tremendously popular among adolescents and
young adults. (Brockman, Christakis, Moreno, 2014, p.1)
People are more likely to accept a friend request from a stranger online than to engage
in a conversation with a stranger in person. Friend requests were accepted by 49.6% of profile
owners and acceptors tended to be male (68.3%), Caucasian (46.5%), and single (54.2%). There
were no significant demographic differences between acceptors and non-acceptors.
(Brockman, Christakis, Moreno, 2014, p.5) This experiment is being performed to test and view

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the results of starting conversation with random strangers in todays society. Before social
media, there was no way to meet people other than starting conversation in person. There was
no online websites or texting where you could meet and talk before you actually met in person.
Today, especially the majority of college students, have grown up so much around social media
that they are unable to start and hold a conversation with a stranger.

Procedures:
In this experiment, the testers, people who would start the conversations, would walk up to
random strangers and try to begin speaking to them. Many factors have been monitored during
this including the way the interaction began, first response, who started the conversation, race
and the environment. The main purpose to this experiment is to test the interaction between
strangers in todays society with all the different types of current social media.
All of the experiments would be performed in the Student Union at the University of North
Carolina at Charlotte. This location was chosen because of the well variety of people when
looking at personalities, race, and the fact that everyone was surrounded by the same
environment. This was an excellent place to perform the experiments because it was people in
the middle of doing all different things, in the middle of the day, going about their daily
activities.

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Each conversation starter walked up to ten people, to make a total of twenty people that tried
to have a conversation started with them. The first thing taken into consideration before
beginning conversation was race, gender and environment. The environment was not hard to
change considering that area was chosen purposely for the environment. To try to make the
results as clear and accurate as possible, the testers attempted to start conversation with
different races including White, Black and Asian. The target age group was between 18-20, or
early year college students. For each conversation started with a male, a conversation would
also be started with a female the same way, and vice versa. Each of the two conversation
starters used the same five ways to begin conversation, on five males and five females each.
Included in the information provided is the different ways the conversations were started, and
the outcome of the results discovered.
The first conversation starter statement used was I love Wendys baconator. It is definitely
their best entre! From beginning a conversation in this way, the outcomes showed only two
out of four, or half, of positive responses. A huge factor that stood out in the results was a very
similar response was received from both the females, as well as both the males. It shows that
during once this statement was made, males seemed to be more willing to begin and hold a
conversation, as the females didnt seem interested. The response from one white male was,
Youre exactly right, good to know Im not the only one to thinks that, and the response from
the black male was, The best feature in a girl is knowing and being able to eat good food. The
two females, one white one black, didnt even respond. The only reaction received was a small
smirk and laugh as one just looked away, and the other looked down onto her phone. Already

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by this female looking at her phone immediately, it seems as if the answer to the main question
being looked for has been answered.
The second and third conversation starters were all with students who were doing homework
in the union at the time. The second statement was Ugh, dont you just hate math? and the
third was, Math is so fun and easy to me, I dont even mind doing my math homework. A
reaction, or attempt to begin a conversation, was only shown by one out of eight students. The
only positive response received from all these conversations was from one white male, who
said that he didnt mind math at all and actually gave the tester his phone number in case help
was ever needed! This was a good example to show there is still some people who are able to
meet other people without the internet.
The fourth and final conversation starters were a little more of personal statements towards a
person. The fourth statement was, You look really nice today! while the fifth was I love that
shirt, it looks great on you! These statements received a little more of the reactions being
searched for. Three out of eight people gave a positive response. One white female said,
Thank you so much, you too girl! Youre gorgeous! One black male laughed and said, Thank
you sweetie, you look nice yourself, and the third person, a white male, said Thanks, that
made my day. You look pretty great in that shirt yourself. Of the other three females and two
males, all responses received were very short and mainly only consisted of thanks.

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Results
A huge factor shown out of all the results received was the higher rate of males willing to
interact with the women conversation starters. If the same conversations were started by men,
would the females interaction be the same? Would the men respond differently to another
man? Some of the responses from females were very short and awkward, while males tended
to engage in conversations more overall. The hypothesis was proven correct that the way
people interact with strangers in public is much more uncomfortable and awkward than the
way people do on a virtual network.
Conclusion
Gathering from this experiment, starting conversations with random strangers selected around
campus proved to be overall uncomfortable and awkward. The gender of the stranger did seem
to play a role in the response. Overall, the males would engage in conversation and have more
positive responses whereas some females would just put on an awkward front and have
nothing to say. The role of social media does seem to be making people overall less social and
interactive because they feel uncomfortable with strangers face to face.

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References
Online social networkings effect on adolescent social development, Wilks (pg. 1- 7)
Journal of interaction science - a SpringerOpen journal. Brockman, Christakis, Moreno, 2014,
(p.1-9)

Cyberpsychology, behavior, and social Networking Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCB, BCN,
Published Monthly (pg. 23-27)

Teacher comments:

Only two of references were actually cited in the paper.

Reference list is not in APA.