Currently, people are living in an information technology world where communication through the use of modern technology is necessary. Everywhere people can be seen emailing, tweeting, texting, and writing blogs. It is hard to go without witnessing people using the internet or smartphone to connect with other individuals (Horst, 2006). Evidently, the use of technology is good because it provides people with faster and more efficient ways of communicating with others. However, it also harms their ability to communicate face to face by leading to less live communication.
How the Usage of Smartphones Negatively Affects Live Communication
Smartphones have over the years changed communication among people because currently, instead of people having actual face to face conversations, they prefer to text one another. It is a bad trend because the meaning of the message can be misinterpreted. People are wasting most of their using smartphones to interact with unknown people on the social media and even go to the extent of trusting them over people in real life. Negligence of real people because of the decrease in life communication often tears people apart.
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The use of smartphones, especially to access the social media negatively affects real-life communication in other ways such as affecting the kind of person that an individual becomes at the moment. Excessive use of a smartphone is linked to depression, introversion, and social anxiety which as the more negative effect on live communication. In many cases, people develop a different personality in the digital world as compared to the one that they have in the actual physical world. The situation is sociologically significant because lack of personal interaction can result in people not taking things at face value when having face-to-face interactions. In addition, it is a risk factor for mental and physical illness on people later in life and thus further having negative effects on live communication. The mental and physical illness is often caused by subjective loneliness and social isolation from the constant use of smartphones. Loneliness, in turn, is as a result of the absence of any form of positive social relations.
It is worth noting that the use of smartphones is not entirely bad in terms of encouraging antisocial behaviors. Smartphones often encourage the use of the social media which can then promote real-world communication and social activities. An increase in the number of photos that are posted on social media and the higher the number of photos used and tagged on Facebook often increases the level of confidence among people who use smartphones. It then encourages them to interact through live communication without fear.
Some people even argue that the use of smartphones is better than live communication because it allows people to express issues that they would not have said in cases where communication is face-to-face. However, it can damage the way they communicate face-to-face with other people because of the fact that they are so comfortable with texting through their smartphones and are not good with live communication.
The usage of smartphones has resulted in a reduction of live communication among people in terms of neglecting real people to concentrate on unknown people that are found on social media. It also results in mental illnesses that further affects live communication negatively. However, smartphones can also have a positive effect in terms of increasing the confidence among users to communicate which, in turn, encourage people to confidently engage in real life communication with other people.
Reference
Horst, H. A., & Miller, D. (2006). The cell phone: An anthropology of communication . New York, NY: Berg.
