Negative Impact of Virtual Communication on Todays Society (Essay Sample)

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Negative Impact of Virtual Communication on Today's Society
Introduction
Virtual communication is a new phenomenon that has resulted from the advancement of technology. Technology and the internet have led to the emergence of very many social websites such as Facebook, Twitter, goggle+ youtube, webcam, teleconferencing, Skype and LinkedIn. (Grosse 32).virtual communication removes the physical interactions between the sender and the receiver. Overuse of virtual communication has resulted to the various shortcomings currently experienced in relationships, organizations and the education sector (Grosse 24). The study paper analyzes the negative impacts of virtual communication in today’s society. The central aim of this analysis is to reveal the various shortcomings that result from over-reliance on virtual communication. The analysis will consider the negative effects of virtual communication on families/relationships, organizations and the effects on the education sector.
Virtual communication has become a threat to very many families/relationships, text messages, phone calls and even chats on the social sites has become the mode of communication nowadays. The personal touch associated with the interpersonal communication is no longer there. Strong families are as a result of strong interconnecting bonds between the partners. Virtual communication has broken the bond as partners are no longer talking to each other face to face.it is not a wonder to get a family where it is dinner time and the two partners are completely separate from each other, almost purposely avoiding face to face communications. If you ask them, the explanation is they had early communicated either via social media, a text message or over the phone.
Virtual communication inhibits meaningful relationships between partners. Initially love messages were very meaningful since they were delivered to face to face encounter; however, nowadays people use the text or the social sites to deliver the message. The short messages not only discredit the message, but it reduces its effect. Family issues nowadays are solved over the phones and even in the social sites, this does not in any way solve the problem, but it widens the gap between the partners and makes their relationship more vulnerable.
As seen in TED talks, Tackle depicts that says that as we expect more from technology; we start to expect less from each other. According to her, people prefer sending messages electronically rather than discussing the issues affecting them in person. The users believe the virtual communication is less personal, and it gives one more control. She points out that by using the electronic messages we never build relationships with each other but instead we build a relationship with technology (Sherry 2012). Birthday cards and Christmas cards as well made the family ties stronger; they conveyed the message of love and care, in the best method possible, nowadays the cards are no longer used instead ineffective texts and social media messages are preferred. With virtual communication it is hard to establish a meaningful relationship, recent researches show that most of the relationships that are started through virtual communication never last long.
Many people in look for partners in social media are affected morally by the many people they try to engage. They end up comparing them; later when they meet the one they thought was the right partner they get frustrated (Sherry 2012). Later after getting a married their relationships break as a result of social media addiction; this happens when the addicted partner uses most of his or her time on the internet chatting with friends, and they forget their roles in a relationship.
Virtual communication has contributed to making our society less social. Initially, people used to visit their friends to get to know how they are doing. Nowadays, however; the social sites make sure we know the happenings of everyone in our social circle. Their status updates and tweets give us all the information that would have made us wants to meet them. People used to come together as families, but with mobile phones presence, a phone call after a period of one year without meeting a person is nowadays thought to take care of all that (Sherry 2012).
Virtual communication in organizations
Communication is fundamental to any form of organization, and the management must ensure there is always a mutual understanding between the employees and the management as well as, among the employees themselves. Virtual communication removes the physical touch between the managers and the employees. The lack of social and emotional cues over virtual communication, platforms can result in increased instances of misinterpreting emotion and intentions (Mann et al. 688). Lack of non-verbal cues in virtual communication implies that some part of the message might get lost in the process. As a result, the receiver will miss part of the message that might be very crucial. Wrongly decoded messages especially if implemented can lead to a huge cost to an organization. Also, a text message can be decoded very differently especially if the message is long and the receiver gets it in parts. If the receivers’ phone cannot display the whole message at once, the reader might end up losing some part.
Lack of non-verbal cues also affects `expressions of our emotions since every emotion have to be made verbal and some of the non-verbal expressions happen unconsciously (Simard & Ammi 175). In face to face communication, nonverbal cues are very effective, and they reduce the ambiguity of a message. Virtual communication therefore when used in an organization, they sometimes lead to misinterpretation of information, which can cost the whole organization a lot. Lack of nonverbal cues virtual communication implies that there might be a misunderstanding. The sender thinks he or she has sent a clear message, and the receiver interprets the message but not the way sender intended it (Simard & Ammi 174). The miscommunication in an organization could be very critical especially if the receiver had already implemented the information decoded.
In teleworking, the managers engage their employees through phones and teleconferencing. The effective bond between the manager and the employees which are essential to the success of any business are hard to attain when the manager and the employees communicate virtually. The employees feel it difficult to express their views and emotions online, they end up stressed thus reduction in productivity. Emotions are crucial for functioning in the work environment. Face to face communication creates cohesiveness between the manager and the employees and among the employees themselves. Consecutively, teleworkers experience social isolation; they have reduced bond with other colleagues and they also lack the technical and emotional support needed for their effective performance (Mann et al. 688). They also established that the message conveyed through virtual communication sometimes is not decoded as required by the sender due to technical breakdowns.
Virtual communication on education
With the emergence of technology and internet, virtual communication has been largely used in learning. In online learning communication usually takes place through emails and virtual discussion forums (Tapsis & Konstantinos 64). Virtual communication takes away the access of students to their lecturer; the students can't interact with their professor directly thus it is not possible to ask questions and get help immediately.it also takes away the social bond that occurs informally in campus classrooms. Moreover, in virtual learning, students are most of the time doing assignments, project, and this separate them from the real world.
Virtual learning demands students to be online most of the times. Online learning led the students to become victims of social sites such as Facebook and Twitter; they justify their diversion from learning by saying that they are trying to kill boredom. These sites have caused them and the some potential harm (Tapsis & Konstantinos 64). As a result of the social sites students studying concentration is distracted and, as a result, they end up performing very poor in the classroom. These sites make them slee...