How Do We Communicate in the Modern World
Before we take a closer look on the advantages and disadvantages of online and offline communication within “How do we communicate” essay, I feel it’s fundamentally important to understand the definition of the word communication. “It’s a process of reaching mutual understanding, in which participants exchange information, news, thoughts and feelings.” It’s important to keep in mind, because communication is not just speaking, it’s a way of connecting people.
To begin with, I’d like to lay out the advantages of online communication. As humans and society develops, so does the way we connect. Social networks like Instagram has become a norm in our society and are essentially expected to be used by everyone. Before we got the internet, access to information was extremely limited, and it took us a lot of energy and effort to get the information we wanted. This is one of the greatest, and most important assets the internet gives us. Before, we had to go through the struggle of get information to people by newspapers, and it often took days before everyone was brought up to speed. Now days, it takes one tweet to make the world hold its breath. After the creation of the internet, we got access to information from all around the world about anything in a blink of an eye. The internet, as a whole, has made it easier for people to communicate, by breaching the distance barrier and creating a space without geographical limitations. We socialize with people from all across the globe. With everything somehow being at an arm’s length.
However, the internet is not only the place we get our information, it’s also a platform to share your views, opinions, and ideas. It’s also a helpful tool in everyday life, even though it might not seem so. For instance, before you go and ask a professional doctor for help, chances are, you ask Doctor Google first. The internet has also grown in areas like business. People buy more and more on the internet, not in stores. We will gradually feel, less and less the need to go outside and communicate verbally.
Though the internet has been a great asset and has led to many benefits to society, there are two sides of a coin. The ability to insult somebody while sitting in front of screen, instead of looking somebody in the eyes, creates, among other things, enormous space for cyberbullying. You are tougher in front of the screen than what you are in real life. Which brings us to my next point, you will never truly know the person sitting on the other side of that device. All communication is less spontaneous, you think before you type, but most importantly, you don’t see eye to eye. In my opinion, you can’t say that you truly know a person before you have seen them.
Another issue, which is really rarely brought to our attention is that people that frequently check their phones, lose their creativity. I imagine that the vast majority of our society does that. It’s said that a goldfish can only concentrate for nine seconds. Recent studies suggest that we are only doing eight seconds. We become more asocial as we get dragged into the virtual world. “The media we call social is anything but”, the author of this poem says. He is therefore trying to get us to “Look up”, hence the title. He attempts to show that we might miss out on the great things in life if we don’t look up from the virtual world.
As far as I am concerned, we only have one life. The question is how you want to spend it. Is it really looking down a screen? There will once come a time in our lives when it’s time to sum up our lives and our achievements. Will your achievement be changing the world or will it be winning a game that nobody will know existed by the time you leave this earth? Don’t get me wrong, I believe the internet is a major asset to society. But, I also believe in living your life, communicate, having the ability to fall madly in love with someone and leaving this earth better off, then how I found it. It is therefore with a heavy heart that I have to conclude, that the online communication our society so deeply loves is destroying the way we communicate and that there are more disadvantages than advantages with online communications.
