The Point: Spring 2018

As an NBC
employee,
Covington has seen
the positive and
negative impact
social media has
on movements.
Associate Professor of the Department
of Communication Studies, offers insight
regarding the faults in online conversations
and proposes solutions for a more effective
and healthy generation of communicators.
“The rules of communication have not
changed, and the ways in which effective
communication is engaged in has not
changed. Yet here we are, banging that
drum,” Qualls said. “It is a lot easier to
yell and talk past one another than it is
to figure out how to make it better.”
Throughout years of internet use, social
media platforms have risen and fallen in
significance. However, one common thread
runs throughout—people can be venomous
on the internet in anonymity. Qualls
comments on the lack of self-censorship
and “shout to the wind” mentality that
many online platforms contain.
“Online communication is not different
than other forms of communication,”
Qualls said. “We communicate to respond,
not to listen. We don’t communicate
to share information; we don’t
communicate to build relationship.”
Christians are not exempt from this
online conversation trend. Qualls
goes on to speak about the original
intent behind communication.
“Communication was intended from
the moment God spoke the world
into existence and created man in his
own image. It was not because God
was lonely and needed something to
do,” Qualls said. “It is that he desired
that relationship. And he spoke it.
He spoke it over the creation and
over humanity, and he breathed his
breath into it. That hasn’t changed.”
Qualls explains that conversation seems
to no longer be about relationship.
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