The paradox of communication technology

Communication technology has definitely changed our way of life. With the prevalence of cellphones, internet and laptops, one can certainly take down geographical barriers in communication. Before, one had to write a letter to relate information from one locality to another. Now, technology has provided us with cell phones and its roaming feature that allows us to communicate across the sea. With this feature, people can text from the phils to wherever the person is (provided that the telecom company has a connection there). The internet has provided us with programs like chikka, yahoo messenger & skype that allows people to send messages free of charge or at a minimum charge. I was actually amazed how skype works, one can actually call from the internet to a land line. I was used to having the net-to-net calls but I was amazed with the net-to-phone technology.

Imagine three people in a hotel room all with laptops and with internet connection. Everyone was eager to contact people back home. I was going on the internet for an hour when I looked at my roommates who were busy corresponding online. Then I laughed to myself, we were all busy communicating to the outside world that we failed to talk to each other. By the end of the night, we were all too tired to chat. I thought that this was just ok as we would be spending the day together anyway, so we could just reserve the topics for the next day.

We transferred hotels the next day. We ended up in a room without net connection, so we were kinda freaked out as we had to message people that night. My roommate was saying that she was having withdrawal syndrome and we even went to starbucks just for the wifi. But since we couldn’t do anything about it, we just packed away our laptops and decided to watch TV instead. Eventually, we ended up talking up late and bonding that night. That’s when I realized the paradox of communication technology. Sure, it bridges the gap between long distances and facilitates communication. However, at the same time, it also alienates people within the proximity. With the advent of chikka messaging, ym’s, skype and the likes, we become too dependent on the internet for communication that we forget about the conventional way to interact. Sad but true...

(Sorry benj, i just had to post it this week... :) )