Technology and Interpersonal Relationships Research (Essay Sample)

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Technology and Interpersonal Relationships
Technology has significantly revolutionized the way people work and communicate across the globe. With the pace of its advancement not likely to slow down any soon, its impact is already evident and more evolution is yet to come in the future. For instance, unlike in the past, when long distance communication was a challenge, people can now easily talk over the radio or get in touch via the Internet, which is one of the fastest growing technologies in the world. As such, it incorporates different platforms like social media sites, which are being overly used to cheaply convey information amongst users and in real time. A closer look at such developments reveals how technology has taken its toll on interpersonal relationships and degraded face-to-face communication. This paper looks at the effect of technology, particularly the internet, on interpersonal relationships between family and friends. The analysis indicates that technology has negatively impacted the way family and friends interact and relate to one another in the contemporary world.
Apparently, the Internet is one of the major aspects of technology that have revolutionized global communication. In this regard, it has become virtually easy to conduct both verbal and written communication between individuals with minimal or no physical contact at all. In fact, the world has become so interconnected that people feel a sense of closeness regardless of the distance. Nowadays, it is common to see a group of friends seated together, but none of them seems to have time for another. Originally, before the cellphone was invented, people could interact physically and share ideas, something that promoted unity and interpersonal relationships. However, that has changed with so many people becoming addicted to the use of cellphones and other technological gadgets. Most of these innovations have taken the art of communication to a whole new level that is both beneficial and, to some extent, detrimental, particularly with regard to interpersonal relationships between family members and friends (Park and Abels). It is worth noting that the Internet presents a world of new possibilities, a pool of information, and out of the art form of communication, which means that people are interconnected in a single platform that provides all aspects of communication including voice and data. As such, people, regardless of age or gender, can share and extract information according to their needs, preferences, and interests. From a positive perspective, information has become relatively easy to access and the latter has helped to improve people’s access to information. Equally, this platform has improved the rate at which the information is relayed from one individual to another regardless of place or time. In addition, the art of dating has taken a different direction since most people prefer online dating to the “outmoded” and restrictive face-to-face encounters and trysts (Rumbough 223-229). The big concern, however, is the negative impact of this ever-changing technology.
Paul Booth, an assistant professor at DePaul Universty in Chicago, concedes that technology, in general, has indeed altered the way people communicate. He cites a few common scenarios where people would rather chat on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms than make direct calls to their social contacts. The result, as he puts it, is that the way people interact and socialize has greatly improved. According to him, “social media interactions are just but weak ties that are short-lived compared to face-to-face communication (Booth, Paul)”. As such, he reckons that “as people continue to communicate more on the Internet, less can be said about strong relationship-building through such means (Loza Coll, Mariano). From his argument, emerge three important issues regarding the outcomes of such social media interactions, i.e. trust, viability, and diversity of such relationships. Studies indicate that people communicating on social media tend to be more open towards each other than is the case with face-to-face communication. Surprisingly, most of these online interactions are between individuals who are anonymous to each other, and this raises several questions, especially concerning security issues that such communications pose. Additionally, social media users tend to interact with those of similar ideas and opinions, which, as Booth argue, “hinder diversity of opinions and views from different people (Loza Coll, Mariano).” Similar opinions have been raised from a group of researchers who believe that technology has a huge impact on the way family, friends, and other people communicate. For instance, a study, conducted at the University of Essex by Weinstein and Przybylski, showed a big difference in relationships between individuals communicating in the presence of cellphones and those communicating in the absence of cellphones (Lin).
In an experiment to determine the impact social media has had on my friends and I, a collective decision was reached whereby we all decided to go out and have a one-on-one engagement dinner. All participants were required to put their mobile phones away while our engagement was on and anyone who touched his/her phone first, would pay for any costs that would arise out of that meeting. At first, it seemed as if all was well, but soon it became clear that we were not conversing as broadly as is the case on social media. It turned out that we were not so open-minded and interactive as we could be on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram among other social media platforms. However, without our mobile phones, we realized that we eventually became more constructive in the way we presented our opinions, which eventually created some sense of seriousness and concentration. The latter appeared unique as we were overly used to conversing via the Internet whereby we could post a lot of unimportant content.
To a great extent, obsession with technology creates social isolation amongst users (Nie 420-435). As for us, it was after a long time that we finally decided to sit together and have a serious conversation. We finally realized that cellphones and other technological gadgets like computers create isolation between family and friends.Such a trend has broken important ties between family members since most people spend their time online chatting and talking with their peers and friends. In fact, it has become an addictive habit similar to drug cravings. In this regard, it creates an illusion of physical connection that in the end leads to social isolation from family members and friends. Unlike face-to-face communication, conveying information via social media creates false spiritual and mental expressions whereby people laugh, cry, and showcase other forms of feelings through mere expressions that cannot be translated to those in real life. In fact, most of them are much more deceiving than is the case with fac...