Martin Buber

The emergence of language as a tool in communication is a living proof that man by nature aims to communicate, ‘to be is to communicate.’ Humans want to build interaction to their fellows. Human beings intend to build harmonious relationships in a society where everyone expresses one’s thoughts and feelings. The growth of Social Media, which offers so much in the world, is a concrete manifestation of this desire. It helps to maintain and establish a relation between people, it allows them to connect with a wider range of people to interact into, and divulginginformation into a wider and broader context.

The course of this thesis will tell much about the use of genuine dialogue in the so-called Social Media through the outlooks of Martin Buber. It is the goal of this study to determine the effects of Social Media through interpersonal relationship.

According to Buber, dialogue is more than talking. It is not the straightforwardness of talking to or at, rather it is communicating with or between. It is "a relation between persons that is characterized in more or less degree by the element of inclusion" (Buber 97). Inclusiveness is an acknowledgment of the other person, an event experienced between two persons, mutual respect for both views and a willingness to listen to the views of the other. These elements are the heart of dialogical relations.All the ideas, sentiments, opinions and emotions are expressed not on one’s own but with others. However, no matter how people try to communicate to these instruments by avoiding any ambiguity and confusion, it is inevitable that misunderstanding may arise in the process.

In today’s society, there has been an enormous change in communicating to other people. Technology, as a mainstream of communication, aims new possible conditions in communicating.Social Media offers more of its capabilities. It offers to establish a social relation online. Examples includeFacebook, Twitter, Skype and other networking sites. These are tools which are widely used in our contemporary society. Through Social Media as a tool reaches more people than news media (Taylor 7).

To avoid misunderstanding, dialogue needs to be defined by what it is not. Dialogue is not technical dialogue, chit-chat, loving or liking the other, equality, weakness or compromise. Technical dialogue is a byproduct of modern society. It arises out of a need to understand objectively. It is different from real dialogue because Buber states dialogue is subjective (Buber 6). Chit- chat is monologue disguised as dialogue, the need to communicate something for the sake of having their own thoughts and ideas heard, not to learn, not to influence, not to come to understanding with another (7). Dialogue does not happen just because you like or love someone. In fact, it can happen between persons who dislike each other very much as long as they can respectfully listen to understand the other's views. Equality does not equal dialogue either. Two persons with equal power can still not have the elements necessary for dialogue according to Buber. Weakness and compromise are not dialogue because acquiescing to another’s view does not mean you examined it while keeping in mind your own.

At the core of Buber’s theory is a distinction between dialogue and monologue. Dialogue is described as anI-Thou relationship. Meaning that both persons in the conversation experience the other as a person like themselves. There is a respect for the person and a genuine interest in the others view. There are differing views but the same moral status. Monologue is an I-It relationship. It is an emphasis on the objectification of the other in a conversation and non-attendance to feelings or not understanding their views. Most often an objectified relationship happens when there is a routine transaction or when the other person in the conversation is being used and is instrumental for some means. In dialogue, conversation is treated as an end to itself, in monologue it is a means to an end.

Often considered as an existential philosopher, Buber rejected the label, contrasting his emphasis on the whole person and “dialogic” inter-subjectivity with existentialist emphasis on “monologic” self-consciousness. In I and Thou, Martin Buber discusses a priori basis of the relation, presenting the I and Thou encounter as the more primordial one, both in the life of humans, as when an infant reaches for its mother, and in the life of a culture, as seen in relationships in primitive cultures. However, in the 1951 essay “Distance and Reason,” written in the midst of the Palestinian conflicts, he explains