This article shows the issue of a modern society – change in people’s relations. Yes, technologies have its own advantages. For example, thanks to progress in technologies, today I can talk with my family and friends, who are in another part of the world, without no issues. Decades ago, it could have been much harder. The value of virtual communication is that it allows people who live far from each other to keep in touch, it facilitates and helps people with disabilities and people with disabilities.
In addition, it makes life easier on vacation, away from the office or at home, all this creates a certain convenience in communication. Yes, virtual communication is more primitive because it is more accessible and easier. It does not require any expenses, unlike, for example, talking on a mobile phone. No need to spend any money or time to get to the meeting place. At the same time, you can exchange recordings, photos, send music messages or videos.
However, according to the article below, there is a huge downside behind all that stuff.
So, the article provides the information suggesting that people nowadays are just glued to their devices. Certainly, author includes the information that we do it think about advantages. Yes, we can talk with our loved ones through the phone all day and night. However, the main disadvantage is that people forget about the real conversations in person, while the real meetings that can bring more feelings than the virtual talk. But people may think that it is better to just like a photo in Instagram.
That is what author tells about the issue – the more we are inside this virtual life, the harder it is to be connected in the real life. Nevertheless, at the same time, the author does not fully blame the technologies – it is the people who are responsible for the things happening. For example, mass media has been advocating and supporting the selfishness, or mercantilism, for a long while that people today think that is wrong to care about someone more than the other person. Therefore, people become selfish and at the same time isolated in some part, thanks to mass media and technologies. In the end, author suggests that people should not fear making first steps in relationships between people and stop feeling embarrassed because of that.
However, I do think a bit differently. Here are questions: does spending time on social network every day help you feel more connected with people and with the world at large? Or is it distracting from close personal contacts that you can only find in offline mode? For example, if the last in your case, then you can try to introduce daily restrictions in order to communicate more with others. If the first, then you can double the use of these platforms to maintain their connections. There are other ways to use the Internet to our own advantage: for example, there are lots of meetups, groups and social clubs – all this suggests that we have more than ever resources to search and communicate with like-minded people.
Nevertheless, I need to admit that live communication is much better than virtual. While communicating on the internet, we are learning how to truly communicate: select words, expressions, show emotions, and reduce literacy (after all, the internet uses its own ‘language’, slang, and sometimes it is not written correctly correctly). Such “communication” can be very time-consuming, and often after that net communication there will be a feeling of emptiness. I know this from my own experience.
Of course, it is not in dispute that communication on the internet is very convenient when people at a far distance from each other or have not seen each other for a long time. You can send a message and get an answer right away, or even make a video call and see online someone you love! Also, in the modern world we are always in a hurry, there is not enough time to meet friends.
However, very often children and adolescents communicate with those whom they can see and talk in person without any problems or with those whom they see every day, or with strangers in general. Such virtual communication is very exciting, but often does not bring any benefit. Also, without it, there is a feeling of detachment from all, loneliness and, therefore, we become dependent on being online.
Unfortunately, this addiction is the scourge of our time. You will not get rid of it, because progress in technology is only moving forward, almost every person already has the access to the net. I think the main thing that we should do is to try to dose the amount of time spent on virtual communication and not to forget about real communication with friends and relatives.