The Impact of Cellular Phones on People and Society - Term Paper Example

?Client’s xx June The Impact of Cellular Phones on People and Society The increasing popularity of cell phoneuse communicates the many benefits that it provides to individuals, and that is why people just cannot stop themselves from using cellular phones in most of their activities in businesses, schools, workplaces, homes, and many others. Cell phones have been the most loyal and reliable medium of communication for individuals of all ages because they can reach people from different parts of the globe in a fast and efficient manner. Messages delivered through a mobile phone, may it be through a phone call or text message, have been preferred by most people because of the convenience and ease this type of mediated communication brings. However, I believe that the convenience and ease that mobile phone communication brings have a drawback and that is making the quality of communication superficial. In my opinion, the impersonality of communication that mobile phones have brought into people’s lives actually moves people apart and allows them to go their own way and refuse socialization which then creates a disconnected society. Upon reading Louis Menand’s article entitled “Thumbspeak. Is Texting Here to Stay?” it made me think about the underlying effect of the kind of communication that mobile phones bring into our society. True indeed that mobile texting has become a worldwide phenomenon because it delivers the message to the recipient in a fast, convenient and, most importantly, affordable manner (Menand). It does not matter anymore where the receiver of the message is located because a mobile text message can reach anybody from any part of the globe. I will not deny the fact that the use of mobile phones brings many benefits to its users. The most apparent advantage of texting is that it accelerates communication (Menand). For instance in the road, the speedy form of communication brought by mobile phones can actually save lives when there is a pressing need to call the emergency hotline. With the use of cell phone, people can immediately call for help that often minimizes the emergency response time and saves more lives on the road. In terms of business, the advantages of using cell phone for businessmen and women are endless, and this encompasses cell phone use even while driving. Business people are supposed to be always reachable especially by their clients because it is going to be huge loss if they miss just one transaction. For business people, work-related issues are on the top of their list and this means being available to address and resolve these issues at any time, regardless of the locations. In terms of relationships, it is not new anymore that there are times when men and women rather communicate their thoughts or emotions towards another person through texting or calling via their mobile phone. “A less obvious attraction of texting is that it uses a telephone to avoid what many people dread about face-to-face exchanges, and even about telephones—having to have a real, unscripted conversation” (Menand). The use of cellular phones on a daily basis is an indication of the construct of efficiency and multi-tasking. It has emphatically made people’s lives easier, particularly communication. Imagine the convenience of talking to a family member or a colleague while we are at the mall and doing shopping. Imagine the ease of having a three-way business conference while we are at home doing household chores or, perhaps, caring for our children. Cellular phones have indeed allow people to do various tasks all at the same time. But while allowing people to efficiently multi-task and immediately reach and communicate with people, cellular phones have also marked a greater superficiality to the manner that people communicate today. However, communication is essential to keep any relationship stronger and to develop deeper connection with other people. Accordingly, it is better to have a close interaction or personal contact rather than a telephone call if a person wants to talk about his feelings towards another person. The importance of communication in this sense also suggests that it is better to have a family dinner together and actively participate in the conversation instead of talking to someone else through phone. However, the birth of cellular phones has revolutionized the way people interact and communicate with each other. With the recent upsurge of cellular phones, people no longer personally communicate with their family or friends to talk about their thoughts and feelings. Instead, people just press numbers on their cellular phones and talk to their loved ones. The quality of conversation during family dinner is becoming poor because some family members choose to send text messages to their friends while having dinner. The use of cellular phones has changed the meaning of regular conversation. It does not only encourage trivial conversations, but using cellular phones has also caused frivolity and this is being transferred to our face-to-face conversations. Such kind of superficiality or frivolity that the use of cellular phone encourages impacts the kind of interaction that people today undertake, and hence negatively affecting our connection with other people. Mediated communication using mobile phones essentially takes out the “personal” touch that is present in unmediated communication. This implies that people can take on different persona when they use mobile phones to communication because, essentially, the other side of the communication line does not see the person. Nevertheless, communicating using cell phones is a very efficient and inexpensive process (i.e., sending text messages to a person or even to a group of friends). Furthermore, with the speed of communication through cell phones these days, mediated communication is better preferred for their speed of delivery. In addition to superficiality, the impersonality of cellular phones has also contributed to the changing social interactions of people. There are countless possibilities why people interact in social space. One of the major possibilities is the idea that in social circumstances where two or more unfamiliar individuals must interact, the person is compelled to come into play upon coming into the situation and to stay in play while in the circumstance. It is a sign of hostility or disrespect for the social affair if such presence is not demonstrated in any kind of interaction, and hence turns people into “non-persons.” An individual who isolates himself or herself from the social affair is basically conveying an apparent message to those people that surround him that he does not need them. Respectful engagement is certainly easier to do in face-to-face encounters than it is in virtual connections such as mobile phone messaging. Respectful engagement relies on subtle cues of body, gesture, and voice that are difficult to convey electronically (despite the use of avatars known as “emoticons,” which convey typical moods and feelings). Face-to-face communication remains the best form of communication to convey emotions and for persuading listeners. Non-verbal gestures aid in communication and can provide immediate feedback to the sender. If a person wants to make a first impression, then face-to-face communication is the most efficient way of realizing it because it is able to convey more information about one’s personality, attitude, or current emotional state than the actual message relayed to other people. For instance, when a manager meets face-to-face with an employee to discuss an issue, he/she is also using non-verbal body language. Both the manager and the employee can interpret the body language. Non-verbal communication can convey the expression of each individual. The individual can convey if he/she is happy, sad, mad, or not interested. When an employee conveys to his/her manager that he/she is not interested by non-verbal gestures the manager can change his/her way the message is being conveyed. Put differently, face-to-face communication is a total package—an integrated form of communication compared to technology-mediated communication in virtual environments such as mobile phone messaging, which takes away the non-verbal cues. Indeed, respectful engagement is the most important communication skill needed in communicating effectively in a virtual environment. One may face several challenges in putting respectful engagement into practice in virtual environments, including limited resources, power differences, and more virtual than real communication opportunities. Overcoming these challenges involves reinforcing one’s belief from self-experience, making active attempts to minimize power differences, and augmenting virtual communication with real face-to-face chances to connect. The skill may be practiced by taking measures to communicate in person on a regular basis. One should treat seriously the need to make extra efforts to create and maintain respect in person to offset the challenge of creating this form of connection in virtual connections. The use of cellular phones has become a kind of subordinate activity that allows people to pass time, but should be set aside when the main activity restarts. In a social space, people are permitted to do any kinds of subordinate activities, such as using cellular phones, but these activities must not intrude or invade the entire social group or call for so much attention that they isolate people from the social affair altogether. However, the situation today with the continuous development of various technological tools, cellular phones in particular, has provided people a kind of individual right to isolate himself or herself from social space by any means he or she prefers. Using cellular phones, for instance, is actually a way of refusing to be “in play” or in the social space. Somehow, the supposedly subordinate activity (using of cellular phones) has now become the dominant activity for most people. Our home, for instance, a social place where sharing of meaningful conversations used to be a dominant activity of family members has now changed and become more impersonal or distant towards each member of this social group. Family members traditionally value the importance of a deep and meaningful conversation because it is through this social situation where they can establish rapport and build stronger relationships. The dining table that used to be a social space where family members intimately and meaningfully communicate after a long a day at work or difficult day at school has now become a place to send text messages that takes the significance away from sharing quality time with family members. Text messaging, the preferred communication method of most individuals of today’s generation, remarkably aggravates the impersonality of contemporary human interaction. It takes away the art of sharing emotions whenever we converse and limits the amount of time and attention we spend on a certain conversation. Consequently, the superficial and impersonal kind of interaction that surfaces due to cellular phones significantly wastes our time and opportunity to engage in real physical, intimate and meaningful conversations. This, then, results to merely depriving the society as a whole to interact effectively and evocatively with other members of the society. People’s increasing dependence on cellular phones and other wireless devices to communicate keeps people from lasting relationships established through the traditional face-to-face communication. It hampers personal communication, which, in turn, disconnects people as opposed to what people normally think about using cellular phone – that it connects people. Today’s world has changed the very meaning of being accessible – to be available in a certain social situation and to act suitably. With the continuous innovations on cellular phones, being accessible now suggests responding to our mobile phones that brings an individual in contact with the person on the other line, but “out of contact” in the physical social circumstance. Given this situation, the use of cellular phones has become a force of individualization that moves people apart, instead of bringing them together, and allows people to go their own way, refuse socialization, and disregard family and community values. This, however, does not take away the benefits people can get from using cellular phones, but it is crucial that they set proper boundaries of cellular phone use. Works Cited Menand, Louis. “Thumbspeak. Is Texting Here to Stay?” 20 Oct. 2008. Web. 6 Jun. 2011. Read More