Background
Technology, one of mankind's greatest creations, has been around since the beginning of time, from the stone wheel to the internet and cellular phones. How is technology significant to our everyday lives? Many people think technology is encompassed in the computer and the internet. However, the truth is that people uses technology in one way or another on a daily basis. Therefore, technology is the source of people's existence. Cell phones, television, fax machines, calculators, computers etc. are just a few technological resources that guide our lives in an extensive manner. Wijaya (2006) rightly argued that, “The fact that the importance of technology in our daily basis is undeniable.” In simple words, technology has become the lifeline of the individual user.
As mentioned earlier technology has entered into all aspects of our life, we can hardly find anywhere which doesn’t have the touch of technology. Just think of an apple to eat. All we need to do is bite and eat. But today, there are special knife life seed removers which dig a hole in the center of an apple and bring out the core and the seeds. There are plenty of cheap juicer machines around to squeeze the substance of the orange, no need to chew and eat. Television has become actually an integral part of our life and has been a favorite pass time for most of us. According to WikiAnswers.com (2006) an average person spends around 20-26 hours per week watching television. Based on that, an average person is spending 43-45 days a year and almost 7 years in a 65 years life scale, watching television. Cell phone is another device without which we cannot imagine a single day in our life. We have either the phone on our ear or our fingertips on the phone, around the clock. Then there are computers, the tech giant of modern times. In collaboration with internet, computers have entered into homes and have changed the way we use to communicate and conduct in our everyday life. These devices are just a few to name. There are thousands other that are around and the number is increasing with each day.
Technology offers a lot of flexibility and as a result we're usually kept pretty up to date on what's going on in our personal and professional lives. No more worries about where a family member is when they get stuck in traffic or a flight delay. Years ago, it might have sent us worrying if there was an accident. Today we're "in the know" and this is beneficial for the most part. Yet, in some ways it has negatively impacted relationships. Sometimes complacency has set in and as a result we've become too reliant on technology. Many feel it's tragic when their computer service is down or a cell phone battery dies. "What if someone needs to reach me?" Years ago, we managed, but today this seems to be impossible.
There is no question that technology is evolving into a universal form of communication, but will it control society? Technology has indeed impacted society. And most importantly it has affected the human communication and relationship. In this era of technology and information driven processes, it is easy to see how interpersonal communication and relationships become inherently entwined with technology. We rely on technology to communicate with others; on a daily basis, we use technologies such as email, chat rooms, and instant messengers to keep in touch (Snow, 2008).
Technology's influence on interpersonal communication is changing the rules social interaction and many people fear the loss of one critical element in human communication - the human element. Generally, technology offers quick communication, and makes it possible to easily communicate with a large number of people. But the convenience of communicating with technology comes with a price. Interpersonal communication, or face-to-face communication, is diminishing. Technology's impact on interpersonal communication is multi-faceted, and should be tempered with the benefits of technology.
Now the question is why interpersonal or human communication is so important. The simplest answer is because we are all human and when we interact with each other in person; it is way more effective than doing non face-to-face methods. As we converse behind monitors and flip screens, we quickly lose the art of effective communication. The kind of interpersonal communication that can only be obtained with body language, eye contact and a firm hand shake. Researcher Baradell (2006) rightly argued that many people lack the need to conduct face-to-face conversations because it's easier to dismiss proper social behavior.
Although technology with cell phones, texting and e-mail is suppose to bring the world closer, it can push unmade friends farther and farther apart. It seems as if no one really approaches anyone to form a bond. One may ask why make new friends when the old ones are only a push-of-a-button away? The answer is as we develop over time, we have to come across a wide range of people at different levels of life and we have to get used to how to win more friends. Just think that you are sitting in the cafeteria and a beautiful girl is sitting few feet apart, lonely. You cannot text her, comment on the content of her profile, or even give her a "nudge" like the messengers. It’s pretty simple, opening your mouth and forming words for conversation seems like such a simple thing. Bailey (2008) rightly argued, “Yet compared to our digital world that has become everyday communication, verbal speaking has become strangely intimate. So much is revealed about a person when speaking face-to-face rather than hiding behind a screen or keyboard. The tone & body language reveal much more insecurity or humanness than simple words on a screen do”.
According to BlackBerry specialist Soltys (2008), “in 2007, the average cell phone user sent 188 text messages per month, which equals roughly 2,256 texts a year”. Apparently more text messages are sent by the average users than voice calls. Surely, this is interesting information. But what do text messages leave out? Communication isn't just built on words. UCLA psychology professor Mehrabian (1981) found that in an interaction, a mere 7 percent of communication is derived from words. Instead, 55 percent of meaning comes from facial and body language and 38 percent comes from vocal inflection (pp. 75-80). Since e-mail and text communication is built on words alone, misunderstandings happen. When you are trying to communicate complicated or meaningful information, we better do it face to face to make sure our message gets across.
When we have a difficult conversation, doing it over phone or sending some emails doesn’t always work. Sometimes it's easier to communicate behind the guard of the keyboard. Plus, it's dangerous. If we plan to criticize someone with constructive advice, he/she might infer a stronger tone than we intended. It's easy for an exchange to escalate out of control when we are using a method of communication where we don't consider consequences (Sasson, 2007).
Technology has produced numerous great tools for communication; there is no doubt about that. But if we put down the cell phones and walk down to our colleagues or friends, or peek over the boundary wall and say hi to our neighbors, that certainly has more appeal than a 160 character text message. The key to technology is to use it to enhance your life, not let it take over. Technology is wonderful but we need to remember to go back to the basics of real communication. Eye to eye, ear to ear, hand written letters and real hugs- they all still matter plenty.
Research Questions
In this research I aimed to observe and analyze how today technology have changed the way of our living, how we have become more and more dependent on numerous technological equipments and how this increased dependency on technology is making impression on our social communication. The research was focused on the following questions:
- What is technology and how it is changing?
- How do we use various technological equipments to improve our lifestyle?
- What defines real communication or true human communication?
- What is the status of our social communication and bond in this era of technology?
- How our dependency on machines is hindering our social communication?
- How the dependency on machines in disturbing the inter-personal communication?
- What negative impact is being created on the development of the individuals as a social being due to the increased dependency on machines?
- What do psychologists/sociologists say about this dependency on technology and its effect on human communication?
Hypothesis
Technology has brought remotes within our reach and has made our life easier. But just like the flip side of the coin, it has brought about some complexity as well. In my view, the ever increasing dependency on machines has actually a negative effect on our social life. As a social being, it is essential that we develop our inter-personal communication skill as we grow. But the current scenario with extensive use of technology is often not helping the cause. We have begun to think Google as our best friend and searching for a solution on whatever comes on our way. But we should remember Google has many things in its store but not everything. Ware still social being and we need to conduct real communication every once in a while. It’s true that social communication takes more work and time, but it is vital in developing ourselves as individuals. It is also more beneficial, when dealing with a life crisis.
I believe our ever increasing dependency on technology is actually hindering the human communication and has certainly creating obstacle as our development as a social being. Losing connections and getting too involved with technological outlets is dangerous.
Research Methodology
The research project “Dependency on technology is hindering interpersonal or human communication” is a requirement of the course Academic English - II. I chose this topic for the consideration that we are actually becoming tech freak and our social interaction is reducing with each day we pass. I aimed to draw a big picture of how people around us use various technological devices and how it impacts on their interactions.
There were two stages of the research to gather data. First, there was primary research which included a survey on selected individuals to collect sample data on how they use technology and how it is affecting their interpersonal communication. The survey was conducted through eleven easy to understand multiple choice questions to get objective answers from the samples. Then there was secondary research which includes collecting data from various secondary sources like books, journals, magazines and of course internet.
However, while conducting the research, several limitations took place both for the primary and secondary research. For the primary research, the all who took the survey was located in the city of Dhaka and doesn’t necessarily guarantee that the scenario is same all through the country. And for the secondary research, most data were collected from internet blogs which often tends to express individual peoples view only.
Data Presentation and Analysis
In this section I presented the data gathered through the survey and analyze them to find the effect of being too dependent on technology on our social communication and interaction. It should be mentioned that the target group for this survey was the general public who require communicating constantly with their friends, relatives and other associates for various purposes. There were both males and females among the persons who attended the survey. The age range was from 18-60 years and they were students, service holders, business personnel and housewives.
The first question that I asked the survey respondents was: What technological device is a must have for you in your everyday life? There were options for cell phones, computers, internet, television or others. Majority of the respondents, about 44%, agreed that cell phone is a must have device for them these days. Around 52% people think computers (34%) and internet (18%) are must have device. Only 4% think that television is the most essential technological device for them. No one chose the option ‘none of them’.
Figure: 6.1
If we analyze the data of the above graph, we can clearly see that almost all the respondents of the survey are dependent on high tech products like cell phones, computers and internets. Majority of the people use cell phones but the combined number of computer and internet users exceeds cell phone users. This also indicates that Bangladeshis are getting highly dependent on electronic devices. It is also notable that no one thinks that there can be any other option which could substitute the cell phone, computers, internet or televisions.
Next they were asked, do they think their life would have been same without the use of these devices. There were four options available and 57% people found that the use of the technological devices is actually making very significant differences in the way they live and communicate. 36% people opted that they are making at least some significant differences and which was noteworthy. Only 1% people opted that it’s not making any difference and rests are indifferent about the effect of technology on their life.
Figure: 6.2
The first noticeable factor about the above chart is that almost no one denied that technology has brought changes in the way they live and communicate with the rest of the society. This also provided ground for my hypothesis that dependency on technology is increasing. Majority of the people’s opinion reflected that even though we are a developing country, our lives are highly influenced by numerous technological devices. It also indicates that people living in the capital city of Bangladesh tends to be more aware of using technology in their daily life.
The question that was followed after was how often do they see their relatives and friends in person? The aim of this question was to find out how people are actually interacting with their friends and relatives in person, without the use of any medium in between. Almost two third of the people used to see their friends/relatives only on social occasions and parties. 27% people used to visit their friends/relatives frequently. About 9% people agreed that they see them only when they visit them and 1% people do not like their friends or relatives at all.
Figure: 6.3
The most notable factor about the above graph is that very large number of people is seeing friends and relatives only on occasions. This could be the result of two things, either they are just too busy with their occupation or there are other means of communication available, like cell phones and emails, which keeps them in touch with friends and relatives even without seeing them in person. This also indicated that our social communication is eventually reducing and people care only about formality. Almost 9% people do not visit their friends and relatives at all- it also indicates peoples increasing indifference about social communications.
Then they were asked what medium they use mostly to communicate with their friends and relatives. The motive of this question was to find out whether people depend on technological devices or on personal communications to communicate with friends and relatives. 76% people were found to use cell phones as their mean of communicating with friends and relatives. Combined 9% people use internet to keep in touch with friends and relatives. 15% people still use the face-to-face or in person communication procedure.
Figure: 6.4
The most significant factor about the above graph is the huge number of cell phone use as the medium of communication. The reason behind this could be the high availability of cell phones and very cheap call rates. Also, it’s noteworthy that despite the global tendency of communicating through internet, relatively smaller number of people use internet for communication. However, still combined 85% people use non face-to-face medium to communicate which also points to the reduced amount of real human communication.
The next question of the survey was whether people think the high availability of communication has actually brought their friends and relatives closer to their life or not. The question was aimed to find how sensitive people are about communication in real life. 41% opted that technology has brought them closer to their friends and relatives. Same number of people (almost 27%) opted that they think it’s slightly better these days or there is no significant difference. 5% people think they are actually getting further away from friends and relatives.
Figure: 6.5
The majority of the people said that they are closer to their friends and relatives these days. But a combined 54% people still thinks that it has not made too significant changes in the state of intimacy with their friends and relatives. This indicates that high availability of communication devices like cell phone and internet could be the possible reason for this. It also indicates non face-to-face communication is dominating.
Do you think the social bond was stronger when the communication was not so advanced? This was the next question asked in the survey. It was asked to see what people think about the state of the social bond of humans in this era or technology. Majority 42% people agreed that the social bond was stronger when there was not abundant use of technology. 29% people believe there are practically no changes from those days to today. Around 29% people believe the social bond is actually stronger these days.
Figure: 6.6
The most significant factor about the response of this question is that despite the abundant use of technology, most people still believes that there is some drawback of technology which has caused us to have a weaker bond of interaction in the society. The above fact also supports my hypothesis of disturbed human communication in the era of technology dependence. It is also notable that people who think of having stronger bonds in these days cannot exceed the number of people who don’t see any change from those days to today.
The question that followed was whether people think that the extensive use of technology has actually hampering the interpersonal communication development or not. There were four options available for this question. Almost 50% people agreed in combined that this extensive use of technology is actually hampering the interpersonal communication seriously or at least to some extent. 39% of the respondent thinks that this has actually no effect on our social interactions and rest 11% people are not entirely sure about the effect.
Figure: 6.7
If we combine the number of people who thinks the current scenario of extensive technology use is causing serious or at least some hamper in our interpersonal communication development, it would reflect almost half of the people think it has some negative effect. It actually supports my hypothesis and proves technology actually has some negative effect on our interpersonal communication development. However, still there are almost 38% people who do not think as me and they observe no negative effect of using technology in mass scale.
The following question of the survey was whether people believe human communication is better or not. This was aimed to measure people’s opinion on whether they prioritize human communication over other means of communication. There were four options available for this question. 23% people believe that human communication should be the way for our social communication. Additionally, 51% people think direct human communication is more effective than other means. In contrast to that, about 23% people believe it is not more useful.
Figure: 6.8
Almost three fourth of the people agreed upon that direct human communication is better in some or many extent. It indicates people still find human communication is more effective than communication which is conducted through technology. However, almost one fourth people still believes that direct human communication cannot exceed the effectiveness of communication through various technological devices.
The second last question of the survey was what do people think is the disadvantage of using technology. The aim of the question was to get an idea about people’s awareness on the disadvantages that technology brings with its blessings. Of the four options, most people (36%) agreed that technology’s main disadvantage is losing of human spirit. Almost 34% people think reduction in privacy is the major issue. 16% people think technology has made them abundantly available to other which has reduced the appeal and the rest can’t find any disadvantage about technology.
Figure: 6.9
More than one third people think that increased dependency on technology is causing us to lose the human spirit. It’s a very noteworthy point as my hypothesis suggest that human element is missing in the human communication in this era of increasing use of technology and this opinion of the respondents actually reflects the same fact. Another interesting point is peoples concern about losing privacy, caused mostly because of devices like cell phones.
The last question that was asked to the respondents of the survey was what people think about our increasing dependency on technology and the effect on our social communication. It was a more direct question regarding the hypothesis and the answers were designed to get a precise view on people’s thought. 45% people think that the effect of technology dependency is hazardous on human communication. However, almost 40% people think we are actually getting more benefited through this. Almost 11% people are not sure about the effect.
Figure: 6.10
Majority of the people believes that dependency on technology actually has a negative side effect and it is causing real human communication to be hindered. This aspect of the survey actually responds positively to my hypothesis. However, large number of peoples thought about this dependency on technology being more beneficial also indicates that large significant number of people is fine with this despite the reduction of interaction in social communication.
Summary of Research Findings
As we communicate remotely more and more, perhaps our skills in face-to-face negotiations and communications are weakened. The whole research begs the question: do we lose some of our innate sensitivity as we get more and more dependent on technology? If we analyze the data gathered through the responses of the survey in the primary research, we can note that people in our country is also getting dependent on technology. However, this increasing dependency on technology has actually backfired on some aspects, particularly in the field of human communication. It has brought people closer but at the same time it has caused to lose the touch of human elements in our communication. The secondary research also analyzed peoples experience from all over the world and most of them agreed that such dependency on technology is doing more bad than good in real human communications.
The research also reflects that the advance of technology and its application within the society has had a negative effect upon interpersonal communication. The dependency on technological devices has made simple communication obsolete in the mind of many. Through technology our contact with others is limited by its very nature. Technology cannot really replace more traditional means of communication, but should only supplement them.
The whole world is getting on the apex of innovation. But while walking in this highway, we are beginning to forget our very own root- the human bond. This is the bond that forms family, relatives, friends, society, country and the world of human. But technology- what was supposed to be the savior of mankind is acting as a destructor of the very root of human, the social bond and communication. Considering all these facts and factors, my hypothesis of hampered human communication due to the dependency on technology actually proves to be true.
Conclusion
Many would argue that communication is at an all time high with the development of the many technologies that surround us. Cell phones, email, IMs, texting; all these things serve to enable us to contact anyone we choose at any moment of the night or day. And yet, families are more estranged from each other than ever. How can this be when the communication system is so advanced? Technology has given us much, there is no denying that. But it has also robbed us of some things that at one time were very precious and should still be today. There is merit in missing someone; in being far away and out of touch for a time. It makes that face to face time so much more special. There is much to say because it hasn't already been said fifteen times that day. There is joy in the little things shared. There is a sweet expectation when we have not heard the voice of that one that we love for awhile. There is an excitement to being together just for the mere fact of being apart. Going too far in one direction or the other isn't the way to go. Instead, let's use moderation. Let's keep the incredible technology that makes our lives so much easier and do away with technological practices which discourage human contact. As in all other relationships, we need to treat each other with respect and compassion. Avoidance of personal contact is neither respectful nor compassionate. Let's use technology wisely and stop using it to hide from each other or to increase profits at the expense of human beings.
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