"It has become exceedingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity (Albert Einstein N.D).”

Today’s day people of all ages communicate through their many electronic devices, whether it’s their cellphone and texting, emails from their computers or any of the other many means of communicating online. You can see the effects of excessive communication through technology affect people’s social skills and cause some anxiety issues with people.

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Online Messaging is probably the most that can affect people’s social skills. When online you are protected by the screen in front of you and could be halfway across the world to whoever you’re talking to. People can say whatever they want, something they probably wouldn’t say in person.

“Today our world has become so polluted with the Internet in every single avenue of life; we fail to even notice it anymore. We have instead grown accustomed to seeing less of each other, and instead commenting on posts and blogs (Tate 2011).”

Dis

advanta

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ess

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gSome disadvantages that can be found from using online means of messaging is:

• Lack of face to face communication• Easier to misunderstand • Cyberbullying• Once something is out there you can’t

take it back“Unfortunately, this feature of online socialization cheats people of the opportunity to learn how to resolve conflicts in the world outside the Internet and it could retard or cripple one's social skills developments (Cosmato N.D).”

Advantages of Online Messaging

Some advantages to this technology are:

• Convenient to use• Can contact people worldwide• Faster to get a message across than

a letter• Don’t have to be close by to send

one• And many more

Image from:http://blog.nus.edu.s

g/itsocietyandme/

Social Issuses

Nick Klopper discusses some of the issues he’s learned, “Dr. Engelberg discovered that people who spent a lot of time online scored lower on scales of emotional untelligence and social skills. It is a shame that the people who most need to learn how to interact with others are the ones spending the most time on their computers alone.Intuitively, that makes sense: if people find it difficult to interact with others, they are less inclined to participate in social interaction. Instead, they spend their time in solitary activities, such as surfing the web.But in doing so, these people have no chance to improve their communication skills. They‘ve entered a downhill slide, where they spend more and more time online and become more and more lonesome, but never feel comfortable communicating with others.(Klopper N.D.)”

Text Messaging

Text messaging has also caused problems with social issues in people. Much similar to messaging people online texts can have the same detachment from reality and in some cases make it hard for people to hold actual conversations face to face.

The P

roble

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gSome problems that can come from text messaging or other instant messaging devices are:• Lack of attention to surroundings

and people around• Having lengthy text

conversations rather than in person talks

• No need for face to face social skills

• Too attached to cellphones“Texting on a daily basis makes it easy to avoid speaking with people on the phone. We nowadays tend to minimize face time and even minimize our phone conversations. By doing so, our communication skills suffer- we start to lose our conversation etiquette. Personal conversations also suffer, becoming less natural and choppy, resembling our text messaging conversations (Hausler N.D.).”

The A

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Positives that can come from text messaging or other instant messaging technology are:• Able to contact people easier • Can call someone (or text) for

help• Some phones have apps that can

help with daily things (GPS, yellowpages, etc)

• And more to help people

Image from:http://gettingsmart.com/cms/blog/2011/11/the-power-of-texting-a-changing-communication-medium-in-changing-times/

Social Issuses?

“The tendency --- and preference --- for Americans to communicate with other people through the formal and impersonal method of text messages and phone calls has inhibited their social skills, conversation skills and their ability to relate and communicate with each other in person. Because personal social interaction with humans who are present is vital to the human condition, the lack of social interaction caused by excessive cell phone use is a damaging sociological effect of cell phones (Brian Heuberger N.D.).”

Medical Some meddical issues from Dr. Rosen’s study Couts found: “• Teenagers and young adults who are persistently logged on to Facebook are more often to show psychological disorders, like mania, paranoia, aggressive tendencies , antisocial behavior and increased alcohol use. These teens also more often displayed narcissistic tendencies.• Kids who used technology, like the Internet and video games, on a regular basis   have more stomach aches, sleeping problems, anxiety and depression.• Rosen and his team found that most students were only able to maintain focus on their studies for two or three minutes before distracting themselves with technology, like text messages, mobile apps or the Web.• Rosen also revealed that the average teenager sends approximately 2,000 text messages per month, a massive amount of information processing that has been founded to be related to problems with sleep and concentration, as well as physical stress (Couts 2011).”

Image from:http://www.krogerlaw.com/blog/2012/07/medical-quiz-famous-doctors-and-nurses/

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D, Yamalis PhD, Evans, L PhD and Gallagher, R PhD share some interestong facts, “How much are kids using media?• The total amount of media use by youth

ages 8 to 18 averages 6-plus hours a day—more than any other activity.

• The amount of use has increased significantly, up from 4-plus hours in the last five years.

• Eighty percent of adolescents possess at least one form of media access.

• There is extensive multi-tasking associated with media use (instant messaging while doing homework and listening to music on an mp3 player, for example).

Conti

nued

• From 2004 to 2009, television and video use averaged three to five hours per day, peaking between the ages of 11 and 14, a crucial period for kids' social development.

• Fifty-four percent of teens send text messages, and one third of teens send more than 100 text messages per day.

• One third talk face-to-face with friends, around the same percentage that talk on cell phones (38 percent) and land lines (30 percent).

• Twenty-four percent communicate with friends via instant messages.

• Twenty-five percent contact friends via social networking (D, Yamalis PhD, Evans, L PhD and Gallagher, R PhD , N.D.) “

Conclusion

So in conclusion while electronic communication can be helpful technology it can also cause all sorts of problems. This technology can cause problems but if you only if you let it control your life. Social skills are only noticeably affected when there is an excessive amount of texting and online messaging being done. Social skills start to decrease when there is a lack of of face to face where people can’t learn the proper ways to interact and communicate with one another. If you don’t interact with people you won’t be able to keep conversations or proper etiquette and so on.

References

Cosmato, D. (N.D.). Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking. http://socialnetworking.lovetoknow.com/Advantages_and_Disadvantages_of_Social_Networking. Last accessed: Tuesday December 4, 2012. Couts, A. (2011). Facebook may cause serious mental health problems in kids, studies show. http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/facebook-may-cause-serious-mental-health-problems-in-kids/. Last accessed: Tuesday December 4, 2012.Diaz, Y & Evans, L & Gllagher, R. (N.D.) Anti-Social Networking: How do texting and social media affect our children? A panel discussion by CSC clinicians at the Nightingale-BamfordSchool.http://www.aboutourkids.org/articles/antisocial_networking_how_do_texting_social_media_affect_our_children_panel_discussion_csc_. Last accessed: Tuesday December 4, 2012.

Ferno, K. (2010). Has electronic communication destroyed our social skills. http://www.famousbloggers.net/social-being-internet-junkie.html. Last accessed: Tuesday December 4, 2012.Hausler, R. (N.D.). The Disadvantages Texting Has Brought Upon Society. http://elitedaily.com/elite/2012/disadvantages-texting/. Last accessed: Tuesday December 4, 2012.Heuberger, B. (N.D.) Sociological Effects of the Cell Phone. http://www.ehow.com/list_7773084_sociological-effects-cell-phone.html. Last accessed: Tuesday December 4, 2012.Klooper, N. (N.D). The Negative Effects Of the Internet On social skills. Retrieved from:http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/the-negative-effects-of-the-internet-on-social-skills. Last accessed: Tuesday December 4, 2012.Ludden, J. (2010). Teen Texting Soars; Will Social Skills Suffer? http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126117811. Last accessed: Tuesday December 4, 2012.References Cont.