Technology and Communication, In Response to Hector Carral

The excerpt of Hector Carral’s argument about his views on social interaction through media outlets versus person to person communication directly contrasts the views that you exemplified in class. You have brought up in class how we should be encouraged to put our phones away and instead of using them to wait for your lecture to begin, attempt to have a conversation with someone sitting next to us. Hector argues that this is unnecessary and that people should communicate with who they want to, even if that is through the use of a cellphone, rather than talking with someone they are uninterested in that just happens to be close by. My personal beliefs support your idea that in person communication is a very important skill that people need to make more of an effort to incorporate in their day to day lives.

             The use of technology, mainly cellphones, is so prevalent in today’s society that I believe our communication abilities have worsened. If people didn’t have their phones to turn to in “awkward” situations such as being in a class without knowing a single person, maybe these situations wouldn’t feel so awkward to people. You never know who you may talk to or meet when you have to strike up a random conversation with someone you don’t know. You could meet the most amazing person but may miss out on creating that friendship because your eyes are glued to your phone. As beneficial as technology is to stay in contact with one another, having the skills and abilities to have a conversation with someone who is not familiar to you is a very important tool to have. In an interesting article on mediashift.org, author Mark Glaser argues that “We devalue our current situation, the friends and family around us, our surroundings and setting, for something going on somewhere else.” He describes the problem associated with such persistent cell phone usage and how it is becoming more difficult for people to make conversation with people they are with, because they are too busy conversing with people that they are not with.

I feel that every person could reduce the time they spend on their phone and spend more time communicating with people they come in contact with, even if it may not be the easiest thing to do.

Article URL: http://mediashift.org/2007/10/how-cell-phones-are-killing-face-to-face-interactions295/