Yet one thing is undeniable. Social networking sites, blogs, instant messaging and e-mail are actually improving our ability to reach out to our fellow man. To quote Andrea Lunsford, a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, technology isn't killing our ability to write. It's reviving it, and pushing our literacy in bold new directions.
The 2008 US presidential election is a great showcase of modern-day communicators. Never before has an election created such an un precedented volume of interest across the four corners of the globe. As the campaign unfolded, blogs, popular networking and photo-sharing sites were abuzz with first-hand accounts, pictures and updates. Through their mobile phones and PCs, people instantly shared moments of history-in-the-making with each other.
Another example, this time closer to home. In September 2009, typhoon Ondoy brought a month's worth of rainfall to the Philippines in just a few hours, causing severe flooding. Social networking sites and services were flooded with news accounts, reports, photos and videos of Ondoy's aftermath. The stream of information soon became a hub for coordinating rescue and relief efforts for those who had access to the internet. The phone and the PC became critical communication tools for survival.
On a personal level, relationships of all types -- romantic, classmates, family, co-workers -- have been kept alive and even resurrected thanks to modern technology. For those with family members or partners far away, the PC and the phone are completely essential in staying connected. If it does seem that standards of grammar and spelling are slipping, it's probably because there are vast numbers of people writing now, who, in a pre-internet age, probably wouldn't have bothered to write at all. Surely it's better that people are writing and communicating their viewpoint, than not?
Think back to the days when we left home to go to university or work overseas. The most cost-effective means to communicate was through letters. When we did get round to write them, these often arrived weeks after they were written, resulting in long stretches of silence. But now, even my 76-year-old mum is texting and e-mailing me using the Windows phone I bought her, proving that you're too old to embrace technology!
Today people have a huge choice in how they express themselves, be it using words, photos, videos, audio clips, even emoticons. We have different networks for different needs; tracing old friends, finding videos, outreaching to potential employers, connecting with travellers. The issue then becomes how we manage all this information and not get over-burdened. You guessed it -- there are services out there that even help with that. For example, with Windows Live, you can aggregate updates from different social networks into one place, providing a streamlined, holistic view and an easy way to manage multiple contacts and the streams of information.
Of course, there has to be a balance. There are many occasions when we should leave our phones and PCs out of reach, for uninterrupted human-to-human interaction. We've all been there. You're pouring your heart out to someone when they get distracted by their beeping phone.
You're having dinner with people who have their head down looking at their phones throughout the meal.
I thoroughly advocate and encourage the discipline and etiquette of usage, yet the benefits of the phone and the PC far outweigh the annoyances.
But for the girl who announces on Facebook that she has taken an "unofficial" day off work for her employer to see, or the guy who decides to propose to his girlfriend via mobile IM - well there are just some things communication tools can't help with!
TTYL!
Adapted from Reader's Digest (April 2010)
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