Communication via technology… Good or Bad?

The way in which humans communicate has changed DRAMATICALLY over the past few decades. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights state that humans have the “Right to freedom of opinion and expression”. The impact of technology has benefited the ability for individuals to express their ideas and opinions globally. More importantly, the modern form of communication has the ability to bring people together who are physically apart and has also allowed humans to contact each other immediately rather then waiting weeks and weeks using snail mail! (Licoppe & Smoreda, 2005).

As our society is so caught up in technology, particularly the social media aspect, unfortunately the ethics involved in technology tend to be forgotten or ignored. When listening to my lecturer, for my COMM140 unit, I was taken back by how easy it was to jeopardize these ethical issues. The ethics regarding privacy is a highly concerning issue that not many individuals acknowledge. Unfortunately it is significantly easy for a complete stranger to access personal information especially via social media such as facebook (Aragone, 2016). In this situation not only are the ethics breached but also the basic human right of privacy. This is a serious issue that involves legal action if ethics and human rights are breached however majority of society are not aware of this.

While there are many benefits involved in technology communication, there are also many disadvantages. Kiesler states that technology can destroy powerful social forces between individuals. I believe that this is a strong statement and describes the disadvantage of communication through technology perfectly. It is seen that humans take advantage of technology for communication as the “easy way out”. When conflict or emotional situations erupt, individuals tend to use technology as a way of responding rather than speaking face to face. This is a significant problem as emotions can be misread and misinterpreted and the situation can become a whole lot worse.

I hope my post has informed you about the serious issues involved with communicating through technology!

Caitlin x

References
Aragone, C. (2016). Lecture 6: Are You an Ethical User of Technology? [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved from https://leo.acu.edu.au/pluginfile.php/1771135/mod_book/chapter/57946/Wk%206%20Ethics%20Lecture.pdf

Kiesler, Sara. Culture of the Internet. Psychology Press, 2014.

Licoppe, C., & Smoreda, Z. (2005). Are social networks technologically embedded? Social Networks, 27(4), 317–335. doi:10.1016/j.socnet.2004.11.001