Effect of Internet hon Social Skills and Communication - Essay Example

Electronic communication is very popular because it helps to transmit information to the recipient and receive reply faster and easier in comparison with other types of human interaction at work. Also, the addressing of a message enables normal mail to be processed and delivered without need for the sender to inform the recipient that the message is to be dispatched. On the other hand, electronic mail systems store and then deliver to electronic 'mail boxes' which enable the recipient to retrieve the message when convenient.

Following Dimaggio et al (2001): "Enthusiasts predicted that the Internet would reduce inequality by lowering the cost of information and thus enhancing the ability of low-income men and women to gain human capital, find and compete for good jobs, and otherwise enhance their life chances" (p. 38). The great layer of information and varieties of technology become available now for wide target audience. Internet has changed social interaction and patterns of communication between people "forcing" them to spend more time before their screens.

Recent years, Internet chat rooms become the most popular channels of social interaction between computer users all over the world. Internet chat rooms have a great impact on personal identity and inner "self" of visitors. In recent years the understanding of "self" has been changed, because as a collective sentiment, it needs to be upheld and reaffirmed (Papacharissi and Rubin 2000). Cyberspace makes it possible for every person to create a unique identity according to personal expectations and desires, but it hides negative and even dangerous consequences for people he/she communicates with.

"Cyberspace opens the possibility for identity play, but it is very serious play" (Turkle, 2004, p. 275). In this situation, stipulated gender identities exist only in cyberspace, which defines and organizes them. The search for identity includes the question of what is the proper relationship of the individual to society as a whole.Internet and chat rooms open new opportunities for people to change their identity and a social "self". It means that a man can communicates as a woman, or a child can identifies himself as an expert in particular field.

For instance, the case of Marcus vividly portrays that a teenager can easily become a "legal expert" in a chat room. He deceived hundreds of people who needed professional help and advice. This case depicts that "in a few weeks Marcus had created a new identity for himself: legal wizard" (Lewis 2004, p. 289). The Internet communication facilitates dialogue, empowers people to make things happen rather than have things happen to them, and as a tool for creating new forms of solidarity and cooperation, yet internet technology does not do all these things in and of itself.

Mobilizing the opportunities offered by the Internet will therefore always involve unacknowledged conditions, unintended consequences, and a dazzling array of interests which are not only contradictory, but may also be contested by others. The Internet creates a new form of social interaction which affects and changes