How changes in technology impact on the way humans communicate.

COMM140 Task 2 - Blog Post 3 - Critical Reflection

I'll admit, I'm one of those people who dramatically state that I couldn't live without a phone. As a Defence child I use it to communicate with my friends and family across Australia and Overseas, as a uni student I use it to participate in online learning and research, as an educator I use it to access various resources to enhance my students participation and understanding. I start my day with my alarm, I end it with Netflix and use it religiously in between.

There have been many debates about whether the evolution of technology bridges the gaps in the ways in which humans communicate, or whether it builds walls between us all. In my opinion, it’s all about how you use it. Below I've outlined some positive and negative impacts of the use of technology and how we use it in our day to day lives, along with some of the ethical implications that must be taken into consideration.

Positive impacts

Accessibility and productivity - The growing functionality of cloud storage softwares increases overall worker productivity. Alongside this, the convenient accessibility of these platforms allows individuals to work on the go with the touch of a button. This increases the individual responsibility of workloads, enhancing the confidence in technology and work related duties through this independence (Shirley, 2014).

Education - Improves students use of technologies and interdisciplinary approaches in learning, through the opportunity of an interactive, integrated learning environment (Berge & Collins, 1995). In an event of a global pandemic, such as that of the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, technology has allowed for students to participate in distance learning - conducted using a wide variety of online resources in order for teachers to affectively and appropriately educate and support their student learning outside of the traditional environment (aka through a computer screen).

Connection - There is no doubt about it, the 24hr access to social media has provided individuals to stay connected. Whether its through a post, a like, a share, a comment, a call, a retweet, a reaction, you get the idea. Technology has evolved so much that a 2 week letter in the mail becomes a less than 2 second message at the press of a button through the ever growing plethora of social media platforms.

Negative impacts

Social skills and Mental health - When used in the place of, or in order to avoid, social interaction, there is an evident decline in an individual's social and interpersonal skills.

Education - the responsibility of content retention and transfer is placed upon the individual student as independence is increased and shifts from the responsibility of the teacher.

The ethical issues

Copyright, piracy, plagiarism, financial fraud, cyber bullying, hacking

References

Shirley, S. (2014) How Has Technology Affected Human Behavior? Retrieved from: https://bennisinc.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/how-has-technology-affected-human-behavior-guest-blog-by-jaguarpc/

Berge, Z. & Collins, M. (1995) Computer mediated communication and the online classroom: distance learning. Cresskill: Hampton press.