Communication Murdered By The Internet?

With emails and instant messaging programs such as MSN, the world has been brought closer together. But what has the whole internet frenzy done for the growth of communication? Yes, the internet certainly has made communication faster and easier, but has it taken more than it has given?

Communication is defined as "the process whereby humans collectively create and regulate social reality" by Sarah Trenholm and Arthur Jensen (2007) in their book Interpersonal Communication. Communication through the internet completely destroys the entire authenticity of communication, missing out on the whole “communication experience.” While users of the Internet are technically still speaking the same language and viewing identical material, only the first step in the communication process is being accomplished. (Ridolfi, 2000)

Facial expressions, hand gestures, tone of voice and many other factors contribute to the whole experience. These essential details are pushed aside as the internet is substituted as a medium of self expression. The internet, having multimodal functions such as hyperlinks, audio/visual aids and emoticons entice users in communicating through the internet, forcing internet users to be contented with communication of a lower class. (Walsh, 2006).

Multi-linear and multi-directional view points are favoured among many internet users due to its simplicity, allowing users to multitask. (Walsh, 2006) Through this, internet users can not only converse to various people at the same time through different approaches of the internet such as email and instant messaging, but accomplish other things while on the computer.
The internet creates a wall for many to hide behind. Some people develop split personalities when they communicate on the internet and in real life situations. This results many to be so comfortable behind that wall that they limit themselves when it comes to real life situations.

These people aren’t able to communicate and express their thoughts verbally and are afraid to cross that line. Due to a person’s blunt communications skills, a person may be able to communicate his or her thoughts with the assistance of the internet but fail so accomplish so in real life. (Cohen, 2002) For instance, a person would easily be able to talk to a person of the opposite sex or a complete stranger online but fail to do so in real life. The internet pampers many people by swindling the whole communication process.

Atrocious grammar and spelling has also been the product of the dependency of internet communication. Abbreviations, internet slang’s, and loosened grammar rules have affected languages ever so greatly. Will these repercussions of internet communications ever be battled, or will our leaders of tomorrow be intoxicated by second degree communication?

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References

Cohen J, 2002, Fearlessly Communicationg and Talking with Confidence, viewed 23rd October 2007, <http://www.earthlingcommunication.com/blog/fearlessly-communicating-and-talking-with-confidence.php>

Ridolfi K, 2000, Column Renaissance, Global Village of The Damned, viewed 22nd October 2007, <http://www.earthlingcommunication.com/blog/fearlessly-communicating-and-talking-with-confidence.php>

Sarah T and Arthur J, 2007, Interpersonal Communication, Oxford University Press; Fifth Edition

Walsh M 2006, ‘“Textual shift”: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts’, Australian journal of language and literacy, Vol. 29, No. 1