The Importance Of Communication Technology

The relationship between people has been changed because of the widely using of new technology. People can easily communicate with other people by using different kinds of methods. Because of the use of those methods, people have more space with others and frequently hide part of themselves on the Internet in order to show the best of them. In the essay “Small Change: Why he Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, Malcolm Gladwell states that the relationship between people can be categorized by strong ties and weak ties. For example, in the past, people communicated by the method of interpersonal hierarchies, which are considered as strong ties. However, with the development of technology, social network, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Skype, which have become very popular in the world, are regarded as weak ties. Moreover, in the essay “Alone Together”, Sherry Turkle claims that people are distant with others and get lost in the virtual world through the new technology. She points out that now people communicate with others through technology instead of directing talking to real people. Furthermore, some people suppose that sociable robots as substitutes for people. Both Gladwell and Turkle agree with the idea that technology plays an important role on people’s connection. Technology only creates inauthentic relationship because it hides identity of many disorganized people.

Social media allow persons from all over the world to remain contact and communicate with their friends, family, at the same time make new connections. As stated by Amedie, social media sites are known for allowing people to make new connections with people who share similar interests, creating new relationships, and people end up being good friends (4). In fact, people create groups that accommodate subscribers who have similar interests or life goals where they assist each other. Again, there are friends or family members who are a thousand miles away; and through the use of social sites, it is easy to often communicate with them, increasing intimacy at a reduced cost. Furthermore, social networks have encouraged the users to come up with an online persona, which establishes a personal network of friends who connect to an open worldwide community.

Today, anyone can rekindle old flames with social media or update their status to keep distant friends close at heart. Somehow, Maggie Jackson sees facilitated communication as “clashing streams of rapid-fire imagery, floating in limitless cyber-worlds” that loosen any grip on intimacy (546). It’s understandable that face to face moments are deemed an essential aspect of connectivity. Still, a digital barrier seems minute in many circumstances. Every year college students drift far from home in the pursuit of higher education. For most, leaving family behind is extremely difficult and can even hinder the way a student manages emotions. With powerful tools like Skype and instant messaging, communication isn’t so difficult. Although looking at a screen isn’t “the real thing”, it allows people to feel closer and connected. A few glances at funny pics of mom or a second to see what a friend posted about their life back home can give a feeling of comfort to those that need it. This is progress. This is proof of successful innovation. Yes, focus is briefly split into “alternative virtual universes” but the benefits of cyber-mingling far outweigh the small cost of attention (Jackson 547). Focus dispersed between real and computerized life should be seen as a positive symbol of cultural

The authors of “Assembling Social Space” argue that everyone, no matter where they live, is locally and globally connected to people who do not necessarily live near them through media and technology. Wiley states that we are all globally connected, but live in a local way (Wiley, 2015). Living in a technology-driven society, we are able to stay connected with people and have access to resources from all around the globe. The thesis is that as individuals, we are all locally connected within our environment and ultimately globally connected due to the interconnection of these two types of societies. This is important within the field of communication because it explains how individuals are able to be locally and globally connected with people from all over the world.

These relationships depend on technology to bring to them together.The digital platforms are reshaping everyday and everyone's lives also. We've been looking at the kinds of platforms that enabled us to take possessions of those things that used to be very restricted to everyone we know and to make them available to people we never met. And we concluded a very important insight, which was that as people's relationships to the things in their lives change, so do their relations with other

Eberle believes that our generation is not connected the way we should be as far as communication and personal relationships. In the text, “The Geography of Nowhere: Finding One’s self in a postmodern world”, Eberle describes how the world has changed overtime and how different time periods had an impact on the world we live in today and the way we interact with each other. One of the biggest beliefs in “The Geography of Nowhere: Finding one’s self in a postmodern world”, is that today; people’s time is too consumed with technology and not focused enough on ourselves as people. Eberle writes “In a typical 15-minute segment of television, say a newscast, one may see a story on a tornado in Indiana followed by highlights of a Detroit Tigers game, followed by a story on famine in Ethiopia immediately next to a commercial for gourmet cat food… After only a few hours of this mindless surrealism, one ceases to notice anymore that “Reality” can be experienced in any other way than rather arbitrary juxtapositions of pictures, sounds and ideas all of which in the end, blend into one another”(Eberle19).

Society today has us connected more than ever. Over one billion people are active on Facebook and other social networks. In other words, there are more Facebook users then there are people in the United States and Mexico combined. Use of technology, usually like the internet, has brought people together ranging from KONY 2012 to seeing a relative that lives hundreds of miles away. It could be argued that sharing of ideas and being entirely connected has almost been globally reached and implemented, but the result of these virtual profiles, and being globally connected is tragic: People are becoming more lonely than ever. Use of technology such as the internet has given people the opportunity to be connected, but in reality “more than 78% of

I’m eighteen years old, so thru my entire teenage years I’ve been overhearing the debate over how technology is affecting people’s ability to develop appropriate relationships. If you had asked me wjat my view was before I went to a boarding school with limited access to internet, I would have said social media is good for people; it connects them. However, after spending a year without social media, I now realize that the sites that led me to believe I was connected were false. While my friend status was high, I sat in my dark room with no ne oto actualy talk to. Robert Kuttner writes in his article ‘The Other Side of E-Mail’, of how technology “has a dark side” (243). Peggy Orenstein writes in her article ‘I Tweet, Thereofre I Am’ of how she was enjoying a beautiful day with her daughter and instead of simply enjoying the moment, she felt compelled to tweet about it (251). Living in a world filled with constant noise and desire to fit in causes a lack of real connection.

Correspondingly, our emotional ties and reactions have also changed to accommodate what we now consider interaction. Dating and relationships has been an important issue relating to technology because it can potentially have a dramatic consequence for society. Digital communication can be manipulated and changed with the traditional way of interacting. This can be theoretically be dangerous, though not necessarily damaging. There are so positive aspects in modern and advance communication. As our technology become more sophisticated and complex, our generation will adjust to it even know we are unaware of the outcome of how it will affect is. It is important to study these changes in order to have a grasp the transformations that we are unescapably going through.

As an outcome of the new technological innovations, many people have turned to more convenient and virtual means of developing relationships as opposed to tangible and more meaningful ones, and this is harmful as it can erode the possibility of contributing personal views to society in an effective way. Social media is a rather broad platform, and within it, lies a myriad of websites that would allow for individuals to communicate ideas, for example, through Twitter, Youtube, Facebook and many more alike. And while convenient communication may have its benefits, it is safe to argue that the consequences may outweigh them. For instance, the detriments of not maintaining physical relationships can be seen in Scott Brown’s Facebook Friendonomics, where the author notes that “people have become mere collectibles” due to the increasing dependence on social media as a mean of forming social relationships (2). This is significant because it evident the ways in which dependency on social media can be hindering in both, in maintaining a sense of individualism, for example because what is presented on social media might not always be accurate, and in contributing to society, because the relationships or ‘friends,’ that many people seem to have on Facebook, cannot truly be

Technology has changed how humans are able to work together to achieve common goals by systematically changing the way in which groups are formed and subsequently changing how they are able to function effectively to achieve their goals. These changes have occurred in part due to computer mediated communication’s (CMC) role in leading a societal revolution, which has made people more closely connected (and thus able to share information and coordinate group efforts more effectively) than ever before (Class 11, Slide 3). Due to these advances, many barriers which once prevented groups from achieving common goals in the past (i.e. geographical constraints and difficulty finding like-minded members etc.), have been broken down. As a result, the

Turkle argues these newer forms of communicating create an “alone together” feeling. Although communication though these sources allows for more immediate and frequent communication, producing a feeling of togetherness, in reality we are becoming more separated or alone. As a society, we are turning to technology communication and perceive it as a being together because of this frequency; however, as she states, it is an “illusion of companionship.” Communicating in this format allows for more control through editing, deleting, and reviewing a message before sending it

Text messages, iMessages, and direct messaging have made it all too simple to communicate with one another. These modern means of exchanging information have led to a drop in the amount of verbal discussions. “A generation of e-mailing, followed by an explosion in texting, has pushed the telephone conversation into serious decline” (“Texting Generation”). Though talking on the phone requires technology, a level of closeness exists, whereas in a text message, there is an absence of this. Voice calls have become “old-fashioned” in recent years, but hearing someone’s voice instead of reading a combination of letters on a tiny screen brings the intimacy factor to a whole new level. Many people in recent generations refrain from phone calls by virtue of being put on the spot and not having time to conceive an acceptable response. “Young people say they avoid voice calls because the immediacy of a phone call strips them of the control that they have over the arguably less-intimate pleasures of texting, e-mailing, Facebooking or tweeting” (“Texting Generation”). The avoidance of these immediate response ways of communication creates a divide in the community. Wrapped up in portraying themselves as a “perfect” human, people lose themselves and their values in the new virtual world, making it considerably easier for people to depict themselves in a finer way but at the same time, losing personal connection to the people in their lives. Technology continues to take place of the simple things people enjoy with one another. For example, a walk in the park on a cool, breezy day seems to be a rare thing people take pleasure in in recent times. The latest technological devices have subdued these “old” ways of finding entertainment and spending time with others. In “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury, Leonard Mead lives in

In the 21st century, distance is no longer a limitation of communication with family or friends. Social media can turn a thousand miles into a single click. In fact, today “the lines are clearly blurred” because “our online worlds [have become] an extension of our offline lives”(Pell). It is now possible to speak with “entire networks of close friends much faster than we've ever been able to before” (Brandzel). Sharing pictures of a vacation in the Bahamas, speaking with potential business partners in China, or meeting a new date in town, it’s all possible now with social media. People’s words and thoughts are limited only to the speed of light traveling around Earth.

There is a transformation happening today that is completely changing the way that we do things. The ways that we are communicating are shifting from face to face interactions to short, interactive messages. Technology seems to be making it easier to stay connected, but it is restricting our interactions with others and leading to isolation.