The impact of technology on education and communication (2)

GRADE ____________________________
WRITING ASSIGNMENT
NAME KAROL GROTOWSKI 1st YEAR, 2nd SEM.GROUP EXTRAMURALS
TOPIC
The impact of technology on education and communication.
Technology and its uses has always had a profound impact on the very world we live in, not only changing its reality and, but also influencing the people, the societies they live in and their behaviour. It developed the hunter-gatherers into explorers, the barbarians into civic thinkers and finally, became a milestone in creating the very informational society we exist in at present. The technology, granting people almost limitless access to information and communication, has become an inseparable part of the culture of 21st century and applying IT to the various organisations all around the world has been a critical factor in their successes (McClea & Yen, 2005:8). Nowadays, the wealth of a society and a country is not defined by how much physical wealth they amassed but defined by their access to information and knowledge (Norouzi et al. 1987:10). The technology usage has grown significantly in various areas of everyday life, imprinting its effect on the way people interact and behave. The rapid introduction of new technologies at the turn of the centuries and its constant development has significantly affected the way people communicate. The gift of the Internet has created a completely new form of communication, which became the cornerstone of modern collaboration. Face-to-face interaction has been superseded by the means of communication offered by digital tools such as Messenger, Skype, Whatsapp, FaceTime, Snapchat and even Tinder. These increasingly popular communicators have become almost an integral part of the lives of great many individuals and families of modern society, thus decreasing the need for direct, face-to face interaction for the benefits of screen-to-screen messaging. Fast, reliable and at the touch of a button, instant messaging also has been reinforced by the ever-present advertisements and commercials of the global leaders in mobile technology such as Samsung, Apple and many more giants in the field of communication. Their emphasize of the usefulness of their mobile applications, combined with the element of technological fun, creates the image, which in turn convinces people that electronic interaction and communication is substantially better than talking directly. This act has been reinforced by many researches, that focused on studying the effect the mobile technology on social interaction. The outcome of these researches presented that the need of face-to-face communication and body-to-body sociability has been severely decreased due to the presence of online stimuli (Coleman, J., 2000; Ling, R.S. 2004, 2012; Fortunati, L., Taipale, S., De Luca, F., 2013) However, it poses the question if the technology has only the negative impact on the human communication?
The very same technology, so drastically affecting the interactions between people, and the effect of instant messaging, has enabled humankind to communicate over great distances, at the touch of a button, effectively making the Earth a smaller place. If one wishes to talk to their relatives in Australia, one opens a laptop and with several clicks can enjoy their presence (albeit virtual) see their faces and talk to them as if they were within arm’s reach. Similarly, “touching base” with one’s friends abroad has never been so easy, owning to mobile communicators or social networking sites like Facebook. Even dating is not what it was in the past, to some dismay of many older people. One swipe of a finger or a thumb, to the right, has already created a number of relationships that turned into marriages due to Tinder or Tinder-like applications. Additionally, lightspeed communication and web browsing paved the way to businesses, relying on it for its success, blooming all over the world. Nowadays, if the business is offline, its reach is capped and is not competitive in the world of online purchases and services (Grant, E. 2016). Finally, the use of the technology applications, such as Google maps and Google Earth, made the places across the globe accessible to everyone in possession of a computer or a smartphone. Although still virtual, it made the exotic places easy to read about, look at, admire and dream of visiting. The impact of technology did change the way the people contact and communicate ith each other, and, seemingly inadvertedly, had a very meaningful side effect.
Technology also found its fertile ground in the field of education, influencing change in the teaching, learning and, as a consequence, the very nature of education process itself. The technology seeps into the classroom slowly and gradually, paying no heed to the level of literacy of the faculty, demanding them to adapt to new realities and challenges it poses. The teachers are no longer the only sources of the information. The traditional learning, closed and restric...