SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS IMPACT ON INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Abstract

Today is more affordable than any time before to arrange for an intercultural communication. This is because Internet with its social media and its potential to bring learners into direct contact with the target culture, allow learners not only gain access to authentic publications from the target culture but they can also take part in online chat rooms, discussion boards and videoconferences, i.e., learners will develop intercultural competence. Becoming interculturally competent will allow the learner capture and understand, in interaction with people from foreign cultures, their specific concepts in perception, thinking, feeling and acting. This article is, therefore, about the impact of social media -which make available a context where people across the world can communicate, exchange messages, share knowledge and interact with each other despite the distance that separates them- on intercultural communication. The impact is constantly increasing, since social media has taken a big role in our social interactions where we no longer have to speak to people to know what they are doing, while a mouse-click can do the job instead.