Essay about Technology: Mobile Phone and People

Technology, which can improve the length and quality of people’s lives, brings a vast number of benefits towards social interactions. The planet has never been more interconnected. People have more methods of communications than ever before and part of this new way of connecting makes it easy for us to socialize. Although some critics believe technology has made it easier than ever to communicate with people, the truth is that it has made people more isolated which affects social interactions.

Firstly, some critics argue that communication through technology makes users create and keep a connection with others because of social networking. In the article “the intimacy of blog”, Michael Snider argues that one may connect to different people, link to friends and build profitable relationships. Through social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, MySpace and YouTube, people can effectively share thoughts and stay connected with friends. Also, social networks offer users the opportunity to open up with others, express themselves and share their daily lives. Users are constantly updated on each other’s lives. In fact, even though social networks allow a person to communicate with a lot of people around the world, the reality behind this is that many of the friends are virtual and that keeps the users isolated from real human interaction thus totally disconnecting people from the offline world. In addition, Shankar Vedantam article “Social Isolation Growing in U.S.” says that it is true that “Americans are far more socially isolated today than they were two decades ago” (http://www.pbs.org). As long as people are isolated from real human contact, they will continue to feel lonely and use social networking to distract themselves from the loneliness. Consequently, although technology seems to be an easy way to communicate and to make friends, eventually it brings the users to a virtual world that can easily isolate them from reality.

Furthermore, one of the most effective tolls of technology is the mobile phone. The CWTA communication director Marc Choma states that the “cell phone is a way to be able to connect with people and texting is an instant form of that” (www.canada.com). Some people find text appeal becoming trendier and more addictive to cell phone users because it makes communication faster, is an effective way to communicate with friends and family. In a circumstance where phone calls are not allowed or where it is impossible to step out for a conversation on the phone, users are able to communicate in a few texts. In case of an emergency one can react appropriately without disturbing anyone. Therefore, texting is the most popular form of mobile communication. However, text appeal has an effect on interpersonal interactions because there are no actual feelings or use of emotion. When one communicates by phone, one’s communication is much more limited than it is when communicating in person. Texting excludes the use of body language, facial expressions and eye contact from a conversation. Also, the use of shortcuts and grammatical errors in this form of communication has an effect on people ability to read and write in a proper manner. Therefore, Shortcuts messages can be easily misleading or misunderstood that can cause conflicts. Additionally, communication skills must be learned through real experiences. When a person texts, and ignores face-to-face contact, they are unable to develop these skills. Thus, text appeal leads people to write more and talk less which allows for no face to face communication.
Moreover, because of technology, the ability to engage in face- to- face communication has become a problem to many social networking users. In fact, according to Jenny Uechi in “Loneliness and technology”, computers have significantly reduced the opportunities for face-to-face interaction that people once enjoyed. Instead of human contact, many now settle for social networking because it is easier for the

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Essay about Technology: Mobile Phone and People