Wednesday, June 26, 2013
COM 325 / Week One Discussion: Are New Communication Technology Making Our World More Polarized?
New communication technologies are helping people reaffirm and extend their cultural awareness, identity, and practice. Yet, the irony lies in the fact that the more communication equipment and modern conveniences we have, the more we are likely to congregate with the like-minded; henceforward, we are becoming more isolated and more likely to stay within our lifestyle enclaves. Today, we have the Internet to help us build a great global community, yet we end up with severe global schism. So, what's wrong with new communication technology?
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What I feel is wrong with this new communication technology is exactly what was said, that we are more likely to congregate with the like-minded and therefore are isolating ourselves to be only around those people or things that think the same way we do. For example, on Facebook you can “like” and “friend” those people who think like you do, who may have the same political opinions as you do and you can ignore or un-friend those people who don’t think like you do, so you don’t have to have their opinions on your page. That right there is an example of isolating ourselves into our own little worlds and only staying within the lifestyles that we choose to live in. This is wrong because it will never get us out to learn new things, or be able to respect others’ opinions that are different than ours because we isolated ourselves from hearing and reading other peoples opinions.
ReplyDeleteSomething I have heard is that we really don't use technology the way that it was intended for us. Devices such as the iPad and Smartphones were created to make things like research, travel (GPS), and overall communication quicker and more effective. While we do also use these devices for these tasks, we're more likely to use them to look up funny videos or look at cat pictures. (We all do it.) The biggest issue I think though, lies in the way we tend to treat each other. The YouTube comments section is a shining example of this. People from all over the globe post videos daily on millions of different subjects. The comments section was pretty much intended for constructive criticism and just general comments really. What is found most of the time however, are hateful, racist, homophobic, and overall mean-spirited and distasteful comments submitted with the intent to cause an uproar. The same people are found all over social-networking sites. It seems that a lot of online spots are mostly outlets and hot spots for people to stir things up and cause offense. So really, I think the overall problem is misuse.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kylee, for joining "Intercultural Communication" class discussion.
DeleteAbsolutely! Our world is more polarized than ever before. It's never been easier to immerse yourself in what you want to see and hear. Gone are the days when you were limited to a few news papers, news radio stations and TV newscasts. Now many media outlets have strong bias and there are plenty of news organizations to chose from. Even non bias media outlets sometimes tailored to your viewing preferences because you will likely respond favorably towards stories (and adds) that are similar previous page views.
ReplyDeleteI like to think of the myself as open minded and accepting of other's views, buy I'll be the first to admit that I don't like reading about things I don't agree with. I've deleted "Friends" on Facebook because I don't want to hear about their strong views that are opposite of mine. I follow individual and organizations that I agree with. I don't watch or read Fox News because I don't like how they present stories that have polar political views.