Technology and Communication

A lot has been said about how technology has affected our ability to communicate. Yes, it is true that we can now talk with people from different parts of the globe, but how we communicate with each other through this medium is changing at a rapid pace. Previously, we could only make a phone call from a land-line or send an e-mail from our desktop computers, but now we can do all that and more with our smart-phones. The ability to take communication with us is profound. Equally profound is our ability to access information on-the-go. We can find out about what is happening across the world as quickly as it happens. For example, information of events made news during the 2011 Iranian Protests despite total government censorship as protesters leaked information via social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook. Many also took footage from their cell phones and were able to upload them on YouTube for the world to view.

Texting for example has effected the English to such an extent that the Oxford Dictionary now includes texting abbreviations such as 'LOL' (laughing out loud). Do these inclusions now make these words proper for formal usage? Probably not, but teachers still encounter them in their students' essays.

As with almost everything, there are positive and negative outcomes of these changes. Increased communication and access to information has allowed us to become better informed, but at the same time it also detracting us from what's around us. Consider the fact that every year thousands are injured or die by being involved in a car accident while talking on their phones or texting or that hundreds of people get hit while crossing the street listening to their iPods. We are succumbing to our own devices--literally--and it is quickly proving to be dangerous.

Are we helpless to stop it?

(Derrick)