The millennial generation, mostly people under 30, will lack the face-to-face interaction because this generation is being more exposed to the advancement of technology.

There has been an increasing amount of college students who use on-line social media as their main form of socializing with people.

The decision to communicate with social media has caused many students to become more comfortable with communicating through technology then speaking with one another interpersonally.

One of the downfalls of this is the discomfort students are having when they begin a conversation with others face-to-face.

Social networking has formed a culture where many college students are comfortable networking with friends, family members, co-workers, partners and anonymous people.

Students who spend too much time communicating through social networking build this as a habit daily.

Popular viral social networking sites include MySpace, Twitter Facebook, Tumblr and Blogspot.

Students who spend hours daily on these sites are not aware that the face-to-face interactions decline, and the importance of how we communicate decreases from them mentally and socially.

It is important that college students are aware that speaking is an important and necessary skill and something that cannot be avoided.

Students that socialize daily on social networking sites are beginning to lack body language, writing language, facial expression, speech, and hand gesture and body posture.

Many students should take the time and ask the question, “How comfortable am I with speaking with people interpersonally?”

This question is important because many students from Cal State East Bay will have jobs that will entail them to have public speaking and presentation skills that social networking does not teach them to have.

On-line communities have made it a challenge for many students to interact with one another at school, work and social organizations.

Time spent on social media allows students to exclude themselves from reality and place themselves in a lonely environment that they become attached to.

In this case, the downfall of this makes it a challenge for many students to interact in small group communication.

In some cases, students may wonder why they cannot hold an interpersonal conversation for a long period of time without there being silence. One of the reasons is social networking takes away from the exercising of speech.

College students find it relaxing and comfortable when they communicate through social networking sites.

Recently, in a Small Group Communication course the students were divided into groups of five and asked to right down contact information to reach one another if they were unavailable to meet. Most students wrote down their email address, Facebook contact and mobile device to text one another.

What makes this interesting is that each student would rather build a relationship of contact through technology rather then personal contact.

Many of us can expect that if most college students have the common interest of communicating through social media then all of us would have a common interest of doing it, and this is not true.

For students who have more of a comfort of communicating through technology, they will find themselves interacting in a group at school or work where they have to interact face-to-face, and it is important that they know the importance of how to communicate.

We can all agree that there are some advantages with social networking and technology is advancing in how we communicate. Importantly, the job force for all careers will expect excellent interpersonal communication skills.

We must realize that as academic students it is important that we are confident in how we communicate with because corporate jobs will expect that college students who hold degrees know how to.