Three can be no possible doubt that humankind has made a tremendous breakthrough in advancing global communication in recent years. These changes have seeped quickly into every domain and area, causing people to change their manner of interactions and explore new possibilities. Of all the ways in which technology affects communication, one may distill three key trends, which are diversification, ease of access, and speed of data processing.
The rise in the quality and extent of the multicultural dialogue is one of the most evident and notable changes that technology has brought to the communication field. The existing evidence of the intercultural discourse and the focus on diversity proves that the described effect of technology on communication has been tremendous (Gut et al., 2017). Specifically, social networking is currently one of the crucial manifestations of technology diversifying communication and expanding the bandwidth of opinions and knowledge sharing online (Gut et al., 2017). Thus, a flood of new ideas and experience sharing opportunities are the primary effects of technology on communication.
The ease of access is another doubtless change that technology has brought into the communication context. Individuals with impairments that may have prevented them from participating in communication before, such as hearing issues, nowadays have the tools that can help them receive information and produce responses without a significant effort (Alper & Goggin, 2017). Moreover, with innovative tools that have become particularly easy to handle in almost any circumstances, the conversation process can continue seamlessly without the physical presence of the participants. The outlined change has provided both improvements and certain sources of discomfort since distancing oneself from an unwanted or untimely communication has become nearly impossible. The observed change may have become one of the contributors to the increasing communication fatigue that has been gaining momentum globally (Yim, 2019).
Additionally, apart from being easily accessed, communication becomes increasingly more difficult to erase. Since data concerning any online exchange remains stored in corresponding directories for decades, every word uttered online is immediately woven into the tapestry of one’s digital interactions with the global community. The described phenomenon leads to people becoming wary of the opinions and ideas that they express online since they may be held accountable for the beliefs of which a particular community may disapprove (Ng, 2020). At the same time, the observed phenomenon has led to the identification of problems and biases within communities, informing the measures aimed at increasing diversity and promoting collaboration and tolerance.
That being said, claiming that technology produces either solely positive or negative effects on communication would imply stretching the truth. Instead, the impact of technology on communication represents mostly the emergence of new tools that can be utilized either for the benefit of the participants or to the detriment of the communication process. Therefore, in itself, the effects of technology on communication are mostly neutral, with the evident trend toward expanding the concept of communication, in general (Akram & Kumar, 2017). Consequently, it would be more legitimate to represent the effects of technology on communication as mostly neutral phenomena that can be utilized both to enhance the effectiveness of the conversation and to reduce it.
Overall, three main effects that technology has produced on communication, namely, multiculturalism, accessibility, and speed of information transfer must be listed first. The specified outcomes have determined the essential characteristics of the modern communication process and the choices that people make during conversations, including the amount and quality of information to convey. The observed changes have played an especially prominent role with the introduction of restrictions on personal communication due to the rise in pandemic rates and the global transfer to the digital communication setting. Although the effects that technology has produced on communication cannot be coded as either negative or positive unambiguously, they have clearly offered a plethora of new opportunities.
References
Akram, W., & Kumar, R. (2017). A study on positive and negative effects of social media on society. International Journal of Computer Sciences and Engineering, 5(10), 347-354.
Alper, M., & Goggin, G. (2017). Digital technology and rights in the lives of children with disabilities. New Media & Society, 19(5), 726-740.
Gut, A., Wilczewski, M., & Gorbaniuk, O. (2017). Cultural differences, stereotypes and communication needs in intercultural communication in a global multicultural environment. The employees’ perspective. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 43(1), 1-20.
Ng, E. (2020). No grand pronouncements here…: Reflections on cancel culture and digital media participation. Television & New Media, 21(6), 621-627.
Yim, M. S. (2019). An exploratory study on the role of fatigues of the relationship between interpersonal communication motives and loneliness in mobile environment. Journal of the Korea Convergence Society, 10(5), pp. 189-201.