I think that in regards to technology, there will always be a split right in between where some support it and others completely object it (just like our generation says… “Let the haters keep on hating”). In my opinion, I believe that technology has had a good impact on social interaction. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, technology has allowed for time to cease and not be an obstacle when trying communicating with someone who is of great distance from you. Also, many tools that technology provides has allowed for an expansion in every day communication and has brought all of society together by being able to connect/communicate more frequently with ease. People will debate that communication tools like the cell phone pose a threat to everyday face-to-face interactions because it is much easier to call or send a text message than having to go through the trouble of possibly traveling somewhere to meet up with a person. This may seem as though we have become lazier and less social due to our preference in having to do little work as to communicating in person, and in some way it is true and false.
Technology has only furthered communication and embraced in a complete different way. You are still having a conversation, just the medium is different. I know of a lot of people, myself once included, that are very shy when it comes to having a face-to-face interaction with other people. Technology has allowed for them to be able to fully express themselves without the embarrassment or pressure of saying the correct things in front of a person. Just like technology makes time cease in terms of delivering messages across the world, it also gives a person time to elaborate on what they are going to say before actually saying it. We have all had our moments where we are talking with a person face-to-face and we say something without even thinking, thus regretting it afterwards. Well technology not only eliminates any barriers towards communication like physical embarrassment or shyness, but it also gives you the opportunity to analyze what you are about to tell the other person and prevent any further complications.
The negative aspects of technology use for communication are that it requires more work than we actually do in face-to-face interactions. Facial expressions when communicating allow you to determine the intentions and meanings behind the words. Through a text message however, all you receive are a bunch of words that are expressionless. You may receive a message that is being sarcastic and may think that the person who sent it to you is being mean to you. If you would have been in a face-to-face conversation with that individual and they told u the same thing they sent you through text, the tone in which they said the words would have allowed you to determine that the person was just being sarcastic or joking around. I have gotten into situations where I send a text message to a friend and they misinterpret what I am actually trying to say. I guess that having just words in front of you without any help from a person’s tone of voice can deceive you into taking on millions of different interpretations. Yes, this does make your mind work harder but then again, do to this you may be communicating the wrong thing to a friend and the consequences may be something terrible like the termination of a friendship.
Online dating or finding that special person online is very common nowadays. I don’t know about other people, but I believe it is something that people who are using dating sites, Craigslist, online gaming, virtual worlds, etc. in order to meet other people with similar interest should be on the lookout for. If it is easy to get fed with many lies about a certain person you just meet at a café through face-to-face interactions, imagine how easily and more people can use technology to lie about their identity and intentions. I have always been very careful about meeting guys on Facebook or any other social networking site if it is the first time I have ever heard of those individuals in my life. I’m not completely opposed to the idea of possibly finding your soul mate online because it is just another medium to get to know people, but people should be as alert as they are in the real world than they are in a virtual one.
Creating virtual relationships doesn’t mean it is displacing and ignoring everyday relationships because they are the same relationships but created and maintained through a different medium. Just because the beginning of communication started through face-to-face interactions, it doesn’t mean it was not meant to evolve just like we evolved also. If it would have been the complete reverse and we would have begun communicating through another form rather than face-to-face interaction, and finally came to see that the new form of communication was in person, people would be complaining about this new form of communication and how it is displacing the conventional way. Like I mentioned, people will continue to be pessimistic about anything that is new and unknown. Conservatives also will continue to favor the conventional ways of doing things, while the liberals will support innovations. That is just how our society works.
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