How New Inventions and Technological Advancements Has Impacted Human Communication Free Essay Example

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Literature Review

In the article “Why the Modern World is Bad for Your Brain” written by neuroscientist Daniel J Levitin he argues the negative side effects of new technology by stating that ”Our brains are busier than ever before. We’re assaulted with facts, pseudo facts, jibber-jabber, and rumor, all posing as information. Trying to figure out what you need to know and what you can ignore is exhausting. At the same time, we are all doing more. Thirty years ago, travel agents made our airline and rail reservations, salespeople helped us find what we were looking for in shops, and professional typists or secretaries helped busy people with their correspondence. Now we do most of those things ourselves. We are doing the jobs of 10 different people while still trying to keep up with our lives, our children and parents, our friends, our careers, our hobbies, and our favorite TV shows” (par1) (Daniel J Levitin 2015 Why the Modern World is Bad for Your Brain Guardian news and Media. )“But there’s a fly in the ointment.

Although we think we’re doing several things at once, multitasking, this is a powerful and diabolical illusion. Earl Miller, a neuroscientist at MIT and one of the world experts on divided attention, says that our brains are “not wired to multitask well. . . . When people think they’re multitasking, they’re actually just switching from one task to another very rapidly. And every time they do, there’s a cognitive cost in doing so. ” So we’re not actually keeping a lot of balls in the air like an expert juggler; we’re more like a bad amateur plate spinner, frantically switching from one task to another, ignoring the one that is not right in front of us but worried it will come crashing down any minute. Even though we think we’re getting a lot done, ironically, multitasking makes us demonstrably less efficient. (par. 3)” (Daniel J Levitin 2015 Why the Modern World is Bad for Your Brain Guardian news and Media. )

Discussion

Communication these days is mostly done through technological gadgets such as smartphones, personal computers, smart watches etc. This has resulted negatively on a person’s physical health including vision problems, neck strain, and hearing loss among others. All this are the negative effects that can result on a person’s physical health. These days someone can do all their shopping or order anything they want from the stores in the click of a button, this result to increase in obesity as people don’t go outside to exercise as just walking from point A to point B is exercise which can go a long way to help the body maintain physical fitness. Exercise increases the amount of gray matter in the mind and assist the brain to get the creative juices flowing this has been proven scientifically. It has also been scientifically proven that most of this technological device that we use release radioactive rays which cause cancer this is according to the American Cancer Society. They argue that smartphones destroys the mental health of human beings (American Cancer Society December 4, 2014 cellular phones www. cancer. org. ) This is true as research conducted proved so.

Technology is being invented to make our life easier and in the process we end up being lazy and not only do our bodies end up being lazy but also our brains. Human beings have the cognitive ability to think and make decisions but most of the times we don’t but rely on search engines which are readily available and easily to access online. We tend to swipe a few times and search for whatever we want. There is this notion that “Google is never wrong” even on things that we know we don’t want to use our brains and think because we have Google and other search engines. Same applies to the typing keyboard which these days come with the ability to correct spelling and predict the statement you want to write, instead of a person doing the old fashion way of going to the dictionary to get the correct spelling he/she has technology which does all that. ) (Daniel J Levitin 2015 Why the Modern World is bad for Your Brain Guardian news and Media. )Constant distraction is the process of one’s attention being preoccupied or diverted by something or someone else.

Our smartphones have become so sophisticated and currently have calculators, flashlight, weather forecaster, radio, and social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snap chat among other social media sites. In a day we try to fit all this things in our schedule, as an employed worker with catching up with friends on social media, watching the latest movies, music and comedy on YouTube, replying to our emails etc. technology has become a major distraction in our day to day life activities and eats up valuable minutes in our day to day life. It is common to find students in class while a lecturer is teaching with earphones on listening to music, person crossing the road while his/her eyesight is glued on the phone screen. We tend to try to multi task so that we fit all this in our daily schedule. Multi-tasking has been scientifically proven to cause stress as it usually increases the release of the stress hormone cortisol as well as adrenaline hormone which is known to over stimulate the brain and cause mental fog or scrambled thinking. ) (Daniel J Levitin 2015 Why the Modern World is Bad for Your Brain Guardian news and Media. ) Multitasking usually creates a dopamine-addiction feedback loop, effectively rewarding the brain for losing focus and for constantly searching for external stimulation. This distraction may affect our mental health. Earl Miller, who is a neuroscientist at MIT and one of the world experts on divided attention, says that our brains are “not wired to multitask well.

When people think they’re multitasking, they’re actually just switching from one task to another very rapidly. And every time they do, there’s a cognitive cost in doing so. ” (Daniel J Levitin 2015 Why the Modern World is Bad for Your Brain Guardian news and Media. )Face to face conversation filled with facial expressions these days have become rare and have been replaced with screen conversations accompanied with emojis these fake characters which pop up by a simple touch on a screen are meant to portray emotions cannot be compared with a real face emotion.

Interactions is usually done online on social media platforms this has affected face to face meeting resulting in a lack of much needed social skills. It is also affecting our relationships with our partners, family and friends. It is common to see when family are together eating dinner instead of the good old face to face conversation you will find people glued to their Ipad or phone screen busy interacting. Technology has become like a comfort zone with people not needing to go far to interact. While walking around its common to see people glued on their phone socializing on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, whatsApp, snap chat and many more which are invented frequently as they are usually in a competition to outshine their competitors. It is common to find people who are unable to kick off a conversation when they are face to face but once safely hidden behind a phone screen or an Ipad they can successfully have a productive conversation. These face to face social interactions are vital for our mental health. ) (Daniel J Levitin 2015 Why the Modern World is Bad for Your Brain Guardian news and Media. )Technology has brought people together in terms of communication. The world currently is referred to as a global village. A person in the most remote part in Africa can be able to keep in touch with someone in Singapore which is in a different continent altogether. It has been able to bridge the gap between people and unite them. It is common for students studying far away from their friends and relatives to keep in touch with what is happening in their day to day lives. This has eased the passage of vital information which might need immediate response.

The world has become a global village as people all over the world can now interact through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc. with this social media app one can have friends from all over the world. I. e. if you go through a friend list of most people on Facebook you will find that they have friends from all over the world. Technology integrates numerous means while passing across the intended message. It has made communication to be more accessible to people all around the world. It has also allowed communication to be easier and faster. Within a phone call one can be able to talk to another person and pass across the intended message within a short time. Back in the days letters used to take weeks to arrive at the intended destination. It allows voice through calls and sound recordings, visual through video calls and recordings and also sending of pictures.

Software’s and applications needed to set up and use these modes of communications are easily available at cheaper prices or free. I. e. all a person needs to have a social media account is a working computer connected to the internet or a mobile phone connected to the internet. Communicating to the masses has now been made easier. It is easier for an organization to broadcast or send a specific message to all its customers or followers. E. g. an organization can send out a message to all its employees through an email, a product can be able to reach a new target audience through advertisement in both print and broadcast media. This is cheaper and time saving as you are able to access a large number of your intended audience through a single means. (Zachary Fenell (2018) how is Technology Used to Help Communication www. techwalla. com)Communicating to the masses through technology also is a cheaper mode of communication as well as time saving. Instead of writing a letter, going to the post office and buying postage stamps, sending and then waiting for two weeks for someone to receive it. An easier option is to write a simple text message or email which costs less time, money and leaves room for immediate feedback.

Findings

I extensively had to read articles and books so as so to come up with points to argue on both sides of the divide and to be able to see the impact technology has on communication. Technology has impacted both positively and negatively on communication as seen in the discussions above. The findings of these researches came about after thorough research by different experienced people in scientific fields. Methods used were observation, where people behaviors were observed and recorded. Questioners were also filled out by people. In the end of the research both positives and negatives aspects of technology in communication can be drawn as stated in this research paper. Just as everything in this world has its positive and negatives, technology is no different all we need to do is to try and control its negative effects so as not to ruin the societal morals further as well as harm ourselves. We need technology in our day to day lives as it has made communication easier for us.

Conclusion

In conclusion new inventions in the field of technology have impacted differently in the way we communicate with each other. We ought to shun the negative aspects as they impact negatively to our social ability, health and pick up the positives as we already showed that we can’t live without it.