Communication on Social Media: ‘Amen’ and ‘Share’ as Feedback

Abstract

Language has remained an age old instrument that reveals the mindset of
humans over the years. The advent of the social media has aided in revealing more of this wishful thinking through phrases like “type amen”, to claim what we have not worked for or avoid things that are not in our power to control; and ‘share’ to avoid breaking the chain of blessings. Quite different communicative strategies are used to express such demands on social media. We collected fifty of such messages and examined communicative strategies that senders use to have their receivers either to say amen, share or carry out other acts as requested
and equally the feedback strategies in twenty of them. These messages were classified according to different categories- Prophetic promises for
breakthrough trick, Humility trick, Range trick, Type and claim tricks, Direct
and indirect Intimidation tricks, Monitoring trick, Supplication and picture
tricks. The analysis reveals that feedback in social media is very important as novel strategies are developed. This paper therefore holds that communicators create diverse options to coax receivers to type ‘amen’, ‘share’ or carry out orders even when they know that what they said will not happen. This paper uses Chaos theory to reveal the disorder that reigns in social media communication.